New Autism Cure - breakthrough treatments and cures for autism

Although Horse Therapy, or Equine Facilitated Learning (EFL), is not a DAN! protocol biomedical treatment, it’s something that I feel can be of real benefit to autistic children.

Just this week, I saw a post on an autism forum from one parent whose son was really benefiting from this type of therapy, so I asked her more about it and what it involved. She explained to me about how everything was done in small steps:-

1. Child introduced to the trainer and taken around the stables to see the horses and other animals, like chickens.
2. Child offered the chance to touch the animals or touch the straw bedding if touching the animals was too much for him. The child even got to look at the horse poo and to sniff it! The parent remarked how good this was for desensitizing the child.
3. Sitting on the horse - The final step was the parent lifting her son onto the horse. The trainer sat behind the child and the horse was surrounded by the child’s mother and three helpers, so the child felt completely secure.

In just 5 months, this sensory sensitive child is now able to ride the horse alone, with the help of a special harness and the trainer and a helper walking alongside. Wow!

The parent felt that this therapy was extremely beneficial to her son because the horse had a calming effect on him and he would often come out of himself during these sessions. She is combining the EFL therapy with biomedical treatment.

The Theory Behind EFL

Franklin Levinson, who has taken EFL and the work of the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association over to the UK, says:-

“It’s been clinically proven that just being in the vicinity of horses changes our brainwave patterns…They have a calming effect…giving them [the rider] a really positive experience.”

and the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association say that EFL:-

“encourages personal explorations of feelings and behaviors to help promote human growth and development.”

The idea behind EFL is that the child builds a partnership with the horse. A horse is always on the lookout for a leader and, by being calm and peaceful, a child can become the horse’s leader and so manage and command the horse. This type of therapy has been shown to be beneficial for children with autism, bipolar disorders and ADD, helping to calm them and making them more communicative. Being able to control a horse, and seeing it obey commands, also gives the child’s self-esteem a real boost.

It sounds to me that this type of therapy could be a great addition to a program of biomedical treatments. You can find out more at http://www.narha.org/ and read an article on it at http://www.wayofthehorse.org/Articles/horse-therapy.html.