New Autism Cure - breakthrough treatments and cures for autism

Adam and Dean Aviram are best friends - more than that, they’re brothers. At 9 and 10 years old respectively, Adam and Dean brag that they’re building a time machine together. Though he’s the younger of the two, Adam looks out for Dean and enjoys spending as much time playing with him as possible. They work as a team many times, especially because Dean has a wonderful memory so Adam loves that he doesn’t have to remember things.

Though alike in the traditional last name and DNA departments, Adam and Dean’s differences are many. Adam prefers to play soccer and Wii. Dean has a fascination with history and loves to have intelligent conversations about world leaders with anyone who is interested. Though you might not be able to tell by simply looking at them, Adam and Dean’s biggest difference is that Dean has Asperger’s Syndrome and Adam does not.

If I were to pose the question “What is Austism?”, I can only assume that you would head right to Google or WebMD and find the most technical and informative definition. Though it would be certainly accurate, your definition may differ from that of an Autistic child’s parent or even more, an autistic child’s brother or sister. The siblings of autistic children are undoubtedly intelligent and some of the best people to ask about the disease to get an honest, accurate description of what Autism looks like and means to them.

When Adam was asked what Asperger’s was, he answered, “Asperger’s is a type of autism and it’s hard for people to have a good conversation with other people.” His answer was not filled with technical words, however it was very accurate. He was also asked if his friends could notice that something was different about his brother, Dean. Adam answers an honest “Yes.” but says that they are not disrespectful towards his brother. He does go on to say that his friends wonder why he sits with other Autistic children at lunch time. Adam says that he tell his friends that he’s helping people and he’s interested in other people with Autism because of his brother’s Asperger’s.

Not only does Adam go above and beyond for his own brother, but he is a true advocate for the Autistic community by reaching out to others.

Some researchers are concerned with the effect of Asperger’s and Autism on the other children in the household. Do they grow up craving attention? Do they form a resentment for the illness and for their sibling for their mental disorder? Do they develop anger issues and are they more likely to have anxiety disorders as young adults? All of these scenarios and more are being studied, and we’ll surely see reports and statistics released at some point. However, in the case of Adam and Dean and surely in many other cases out there we have a chance to see that when subjected to Asperger’s in their home, children learn the lessons of respect, compromise, tolerance and patience at a much younger age than many other children. These are lessons and skills that many of us live our entire lives trying to learn and perfect.

Melissa hardly ever got sick. Even when she did, she’d take some over-the-counter medication, head into work and tough through it. When you’re a mom, you learn to deal with minor aches, pains and colds because there’s no such thing as  a”sick day”. Minor bumps and bruises are something you also expect to get when you’re taking care of children.  When Melissa accidentally slammed her hand in a door,  she simply went to the emergency room to be safe. Little did she know one precautionary visit to the emergency room would change her life forever.

When she arrived, the doctor asked her if she had gotten a Tetanus shot. It had been years since she had gotten one, so the doctor ordered one right away. In addition, she had not had her flu shot either, so this was also administered. Melissa went home assuming she had been guarded against any further complications.

A week later, Melissa developed a sore throat and a cough, which are typical flu shot symptoms. She took some Tylenol, and proceeded to carry on her life as usual. About three weeks after she first noticed the flu-like symptoms, they progressed to nausea which sent her back to the emergency room. There, she was given a shot for nausea and sent home. 2 days later, Melissa had gotten progressively worse and went to another hospital’s emergency room where she described her hands, arms, feet and toes were numb. The hospital admitted her into the hospital to try and diagnose what was wrong.

Later in her room, she got even worse. She was dizzy, had blurred vision, couldn’t swallow and was losing her ability to speak. The hospital ordered an MRI and a CT scan. The CT scan showed lesions on her brain in the area that controls basic motor skills - seeing, speech and walking. The MRI was just as bad - the protective covering had been stripped from her spinal cord. Based on their findings, doctors gave Melissa’s family little to no hope of her survival.  They were certain that she was not going to make it through this as the odds were stacked against her.

The day after she arrived at the hospital for the third time since her Flu and Tetanus shots, Melissa was transferred to the ICU unit of Barrow Neurological Institute.  For 1 1/2 weeks, Melissa remained in the ICU while her family stood by waiting for her to meet her expected death.  The doctors diagnosed her with post-viral rhombencephalitis - an infection of the brain affecting motor skills. It was explained that Melissa’s body had began to attack and destroy her brain stem.

For the next 12 days, Melissa was given a 7 day treatment of immunoglobulin to restore her anti-bodies as “the plasma was too dirty to fight off whatever was attacking her body. She spent 2 more weeks in the ICU and was given Steroids.

Thankfully, Melissa has not met the immediate demise that doctors had expected her to. She has been out of the hospital for about 3 weeks now but has a long road of rehabilitation ahead of her due to her during her lengthy stay in the hospital and the various medical procedures she endured that caused her to lose much of her balance and strength.  She is still very swollen from the steroids which she will have to continue taking for the next 2 1/2 months. She also reports problems sleeping and a problem with acne, which she had never experienced before.

Melissa’s story and many others remind us to take extra care when getting any kind of vaccine or medical treatment no matter how routine it is. It is the talk of many medical experts that the H1N1 -Swine Flu Vaccine can cause birth defects including autism when administered to women who are pregnant. It is very important to do your homework  and know the side effects of any and all medications and vaccines that you or your children receive. It is true that medicine is advancing everyday, but if we are not educated in side effects, etc, then it advances at our expense and that of our loved ones.

It is worth mentioning that it is not yet known what exactly caused Melissa’s illness - however they are very certain it was the flu shot that she received - particularly because of the rapid progression of her condition within 1 week of receiving the vaccine, which was not notated on her chart. This is also being investigated.

Bottom line:   Know your facts - do your research - ask questions.

Drama Therapy is generally defined as the use of drama and theater processes toachieve therapeutic goals. The technique is often used in schools, hospitals, correctional facilities and the mental health field to achieve behavior change, personal growth and improved emotional stability. Though this not a new method of therapy, it has more recently been used to help those with Autism.

Many people with Autism are in fact verbal, however they are unable to successfully communicate socially. Incorporating theater processes enables the participants practice social skills, learn improvisation and memorize lines to recite with increased emotional awareness. In addition and even more importantly, it gives the participators the opportunity to become an actor, preform a show and get applause for their efforts and in turn get a feeling of social acceptance and achievement.

Cindy Schneider is the author of the book Acting Antics: A Theatrical Approach to Teaching Social Understanding to Kids and Teens with Asperger Syndrome. In the book, Schneider discusses in depth the benefits of using Drama Therapy for those with Autism. She offers classes to both adults and children with a variety of diagnoses including Asperger’s Syndrome, high-functioning Autism and non-verbal Autism. According to her findings,  participants may gain:

• self-confidence not only in performing, but in interactions
• improved self-esteem; pride in their accomplishments
• improved recognition of emotions in others
• improved identification and labeling of own emotions
• new leisure time activity in a group where they can be successful
• new awareness of volume levels and beginning modulation of level
• new skills for functioning as part of a group
• new skills for following directions
• improved ability to interact with peers
• increased self-confidence through success

The organizers of a Drama Therapy Company are usually educated in the Psychology field as well as in Theater fields which gives them more experience and the specialized skills necessary in working with the selected group of participants. It is a bit difficult to locate a Drama Therapy Coach who specializes in Autism,  given the treatment’s relatively new status in the Autism community. The good news is that most Drama Therapy coaches do have the skills necessary to successfully and adequately work with those who are Autistic and can modify their teaching technique to be conducive to the needs of participants with Autism.

A few weeks ago, we took a look at Carly, a young girl who has Autism. She is non-verbal however she independently communicates via keyboard to her family, friends, Twitter Followers and Facebook Friends. She often fields questions from followers and she answers them herself. Once in a while her father has been known to send out a message just making a general request. Recently, for example, Carly’s father sent a message out kindly asking that people use Twitter to communicate with Carly as opposed ro Facebook. This was simply because Carly prefers Twitter over Facebook. Other than these once-in-a-while instances, Carly communicates everything herself with near no assistance.

As common as  individual communication methods have become, there are still some non-verbal people who are unable to successfully use a keyboard.  Hand-eye coordination is required to be able to utilize the keyboard method and many people lack this skill, especially if they have Autism. There are alternative methods of communication that have opened the doors of possibility for those who are non-verbal and lack the hand-eye coordination to successfully use a keyboard. One method in particular is known as Facilitated Communication or FC. In this method, specifically targeted to those who cannot type, there are two people involved; the communicator, (whom is often autistic, deaf, mute, etc) and the Facilitator. The facilitator is responsible for conveying the message of the communicator by assisting them in finding the right key, easing their hand to the desired letter, or pressing they key down that the communicator indicates.

Despite the numerous success stories that have come from this method, it is still under much controversy and has been for years.  In 1977, Rosemary Crossley claimed to have successfully used facilitated communication with a group of non verbal children. In 1989, the Facilitated Communication Institute was founded by Douglas Bilkin at Syracuse University in New York. The school was designed to educate families who were exploring such a method.

Facilitated Communication has had its advances over the years, but both medical and psychology experts claim that there is not enough hard evidence to prove the success of FC. In the 1990’s the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association issued statements that opposed the use and validity of FC. Their main criticism being that the facilitator had influence over what the communicator was attempting to say.

In 1997, Diane Twatchman-Cullen, the editor-in-chief of the Autism Spectrum Quarterly journal published “A Passion to Believe: Autism and the Facilitated Communication Phenomenon. ” In the book, Twatchman-Cullen takes a look at the conditions that led parents, teachers and others to depend on FC.

Also featured in the book is an examination of the study that Twatchman-Cullen conducted in 1990 of three adults with non-verbal, non functioning Autism.  All three people spent their educational and informative years in institutions so they had no real external exposure. With a facilitator, however, all three were able to communicate ideas about the outside world.

“I don’t think that the vast majority of people were deliberately typing their own messages,” she said. “I really don’t believe that, but I do believe there was unconscious facilitation.”

Though rare, there have also been a few cases in which individuals have graduated from using FC to independent communication.

It is estimated that there are about 700 - 1,000 people worldwide who communicate using FC.