Tài liệu Understanding Controversial Therapies for Children with Autism, Attention Deficit Disorder,

Understanding Controversial Therapies

for Children with Autism,

Attention Deficit Disorder,

and Other Learning Disabilities

JKP Essentials

Understanding Motor Skills in Children with Dyspraxia, ADHD, Autism,

and Other Learning Disabilities

A Guide to Improving Coordination

Lisa A. Kurtz

ISBN 978 1 84310 865 8

Visual Perception Problems in Children with AD/HD, Autism, and Other

Learning Disabilities

A Guide for Parents and Professionals

Lisa A. Kurtz

ISBN 978 1 84310 826 9

Dyslexia and Alternative Therapies

Maria Chivers

ISBN 978 1 84310 378 3

Understanding Regulation Disorders of Sensory Processing in Children

Management Strategies for Parents and Professionals

Pratibha Reebye and Aileen Stalker

ISBN 978 1 84310 521 3

Understanding Nonverbal Learning Disabilities

Maggie Mamen

ISBN 978 1 84310 593 0

Understanding Controversial

Therapies for Children with Autism,

Attention Deficit Disorder,

and Other Learning Disabilities

A Guide to Complementary

and Alternative Medicine

Lisa A. Kurtz

Jessica Kingsley Publishers

London and Philadelphia

First published in 2008

by Jessica Kingsley Publishers

116 Pentonville Road

London N1 9JB, UK

and

400 Market Street, Suite 400

Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA

www.jkp.com

Copyright
Lisa A. Kurtz 2008

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form

(including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not

transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission

of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and

Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd,

Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Applications for the copyright owner’s

written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the

publisher.

Warning: The doing of an unauthorized act in relation to a copyright work may result in both a

civil claim for damages and criminal prosecution.

Library of congress cataloging in Publication Data

Kurtz, Lisa A.

Understanding controversial therapies for children with autism, attention deficit disorder, and

other learning disabilities : a guide to complementary and alternative medicine / Lisa A. Kurtz.

p. cm. -- (JKP essentials series)

ISBN 978-1-84310-864-1 (pb : alk. paper) 1. Learning disabilities--Alternative treatment. 2.

Autism in children--Alternative treatment. 3. Attention-deficit hyperactivity

disorder--Alternative treatment. I. Title.

RJ496.L4K87 2008

618.92'85889--dc22

2007035919

British Library cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 84310 864 1

ISBN pdf eBook 978 1 84642 761 9

Printed and bound in Great Britain by

Athenaeum Press, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear

CONTENTS

Part 1: Introduction

1. Introduction 11

2. Thinking Out of the Box: An Overview of

Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Approaches 15

Part 2: Selected Interventions

3. Alternative Medical Systems 25

Acupuncture/Acupressure 25

Ayurveda 27

Homeopathy 30

Naturopathy 32

Osteopathy 35

4. Mind-body Interventions 38

Alert Program 38

Animal Assisted Therapy 39

Applied Behavioral Analysis 41

Aromatherapy 47

Art Therapy 49

Assistive Technology for Literacy Skills 51

Auditory Training 54

Colored Lenses and Overlays 58

Dance Movement Therapy 60

Davis Dyslexia Correction® Method 61

DIR®/Floortime model 63

Dolphin Assisted Therapy 65

DORE Programme 68

Drama Therapy/Psychodrama 70

Earobics® 72

Facilitated Communication 73

Fast ForWord® 75

Holding Therapy 77

Hypnotherapy 78

Intensive Interaction 80

Learning Breakthrough ProgramTM 84

Lindamood-Bell® 86

Miller Method 87

Multisensory Reading Instruction 90

Music Therapy 93

Neurofeedback 95

Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) 98

Play Attention® 100

Primary Movement Program® 101

Rhythmic Entrainment Intervention (REI Therapy) 103

Sensory Integration Therapy 104

Sign Language 107

Social StoriesTM 110

Son-Rise Program® 112

TEACCH 114

Transcendental Meditation 115

Video Modeling 117

5. Biologically-based interventions 120

Bach Flower Remedies 120

Chelation Therapy 122

Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation (CES) 124

DAN! Protocol 126

Dietary Supplements 128

Elimination Diets 132

Feingold Diet 134

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy 137

Immune System Therapy (IGG, IVIG) 139

6. Manipulative and Body-based Methods 142

Alexander Technique 142

Brain Gym® 144

Chiropractic 145

Conductive Education 148

Craniosacral Therapy 150

Developmental/Behavioral Optometry 152

Feldenkrais 155

Higashi (daily life therapy) 158

Hippotherapy 160

Interactive Metronome® 162

Massage Therapy 164

Patterning (Doman-Delacato method) 167

Reflexology 169

Wilbarger Protocol (Therapeutic brushing) 171

Yoga 173

7. Energy Therapies 177

Chromotherapy 177

Magnetic Field Therapy 178

Polarity Therapy 180

Qi Gong 181

Reiki 184

Therapeutic Touch 187

Zero Balancing 188

Part 3. Resources for Children with Autism,

Attention Deficit Disorders, and Other

Learning Disabilities

8. Recommended Reading about

Complementary and Alternative Medicine 193

Books 193

Journal articles 194

9. Agencies, Organizations, and Websites 197

Complementary and Alternative Medicine 197

Children, including Children with Developmental

Disabilities 199

SUBJECT INDEX 205

AUTHOR INDEX

PART 1

INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

Children with disabilities are at risk for experiencing problems in many aspects

of their lives, including becoming independent in daily living skills, meeting

academic expectations, learning to communicate, maintaining emotional and

behavioral regulation, adapting to the social demands of society, and developing

motor proficiency. Among children with disabilities, those with autism

spectrum disorders, attention deficit disorders (ADD), and specific learning dis￾abilities have received particular attention in the literature, and pose significant

challenges to parents, teachers, and other professionals who hope to provide

them with interventions that best ameliorate their difficulties.

Professionals who diagnose these disorders understand that certain defining

traits or characteristics are used to determine if a child “fits” the criteria for a

particular diagnosis, and have developed protocols for testing and clinical

assessment that can strongly suggest or confirm a diagnosis. For example, all

children with autism spectrum disorders demonstrate problems impacting

social reciprocity, communication, and behavior. Children with ADD display

developmentally inappropriate levels of inattention or hyperactivity that are not

related to medical or social-emotional factors, and that cause impaired adaptive

performance at home, in school, or in situations requiring social interaction.

Children with specific learning disabilities demonstrate a significant discrepancy

between their ability to learn (based upon measures of intelligence) and their

actual learning, and this discrepancy cannot be attributed to medical, economic,

cultural, or social disadvantages that might account for the discrepancy.

However, within each of these diagnostic groups, an enormous number of indi￾vidual differences exist. Some children with autism learn to talk, while others

must be trained to use non-verbal forms of communication. Many children with

ADD are hyperactive, but others have under-responsive attention systems, and

are lethargic and slow to respond to learning challenges. Children with specific

1 1

learning disabilities exhibit wide variability as to their cognitive strengths and

weaknesses, learning styles, and response to various curricula and instructional

methods. Some children struggle with motor coordination or speech articula￾tion, while others do not. Furthermore, some children with developmental dis￾abilities may have related or concomitant disorders that complicate their

individual profile. The presence of hearing or vision impairments, emotional

disturbances, or other medical conditions greatly influences the impact of the

disability on the child’s ability to cope and to learn. Finally, factors such as the

child’s personality and temperament, emotional resilience, the strength and

commitment of family support, and the availability and affordability of appro￾priate services can also greatly influence the unique prognosis for each individ￾ual child.

With such wide variety in the learning styles and differences among these

children, it is no surprise that professionals have yet to agree upon the best prac￾tices for intervention. Certainly, guidelines do exist. There is significant pressure

within medical and educational communities to provide treatment that is based

upon scientific evidence of success and that focuses on relevant outcomes

(sometimes called evidence-based practice). This typically requires that the specific

intervention is isolated from other interventions, and is then subjected to a con￾trolled study in which researchers look at the outcome of children who are

randomly selected to receive the targeted intervention as compared with

children who receive an alternative or no intervention. Because the researchers

are not told which children are receiving the targeted intervention, this is known

as a blind study. Treatments that have been subjected to multiple blind studies that

successfully document effectiveness, and that are then put through rigorous

review and critique by professional peers so that the results can be published in

reputable journals are often then accepted into conventional or mainstream

medical or educational practices. However, many types of intervention for

children with developmental disabilities do not lend themselves easily to this

type of study. Because of the variability of individual characteristics in children

with disabilities, it is often hard to put together a group of children who are

similar enough to be considered a “unique” group. If there is too much variabil￾ity in the study group, and some subjects improve while others do not, it is hard

to know whether the changes that are observed relate to the intervention or to

individual differences among members of the study group. Also, many studies

take place over a period of weeks, months, or longer. If improvement occurs, it

is difficult to demonstrate whether improvement is attributable to normal matu￾ration as opposed to the effects of the intervention. Furthermore, many inter￾ventions for developmental disabilities are dynamic in nature, requiring the

12 UNDERSTANDING CONTROVERSIAL THERAPIES

development of a therapeutic rapport with the child, along with active participa￾tion on the part of the child, family, and others involved with the child. These

personal variables are difficult to control in a scientific study. This makes scien￾tific study of developmental interventions potentially more complicated than

the study of effectiveness of a specific drug, exercise, surgery, or other more

concrete type of intervention.

The interventions that are commonly recommended by professionals may

be governed by a variety of regulatory practices that have been developed in

consideration of scientific evidence. In the United States, federal and state regu￾lations offer standards and guidelines for providing services within early inter￾vention and educational settings (see Individuals with Disabilities Education

Improvement Act (IDEIA) 2004). In the United Kingdom, a government code

of practice, the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001, offers

guidance to local education authorities and state schools on how to identify,

assess, and monitor students with special learning needs. Professionals who are

licensed or otherwise regulated in their practice must operate within the scope

of practice as defined by their profession or by local regulatory agencies. Also,

the specific interventions recommended by professionals may or may not be

covered under various insurance or other reimbursement agencies. All of these

regulatory practices are designed to help to assure that children have access to

treatments that meet approved standards of care and are likely to be effective.

This book is intended to offer parents and professionals a brief overview of

certain non-conventional, controversial interventions that may be considered

for children with developmental disabilities including autism spectrum disor￾ders, attention deficit disorders, and specific learning disabilities. Its purpose is

to help readers to understand the basic theory behind each intervention, the

typical procedures involved, and where to go for more information about the

intervention or about the qualifications of professionals using the intervention.

It is in no way meant to endorse or condemn any of the interventions described,

nor to offer medical or educational advice, but simply to help readers to expand

their knowledge of available interventions. The interventions discussed offer a

representative, but not comprehensive, overview of available therapies at the

time this book was written. Resources listed in the appendix can offer readers a

mechanism for staying informed about controversial therapies as scientific

evidence is gathered about those interventions included in this book, or as other

interventions become available.

INTRODUCTION 13