'Agricultural specialisterne': rural employment revolution for those with Autism

[Visionary7903]

Here is one anecdote of success with the Samonas method from a parent of a child with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. Perseverance, in the face of difficulties in complying with the therapy, led to good results…

…One program that we did use was the Samonas Sound Therapy’.

…We must admit that we did notice a difference over time. Isy was calmer and she started copy sounds, we believe that this was a major step toward her speech and language development.

It was difficult to start off with, as she did not leave the headphones on for very long, the therapist we were seeing suggested we put them on after she fell asleep. This worked and a she got used to the headphones she would wear them in the car, so she was getting the therapy on trips to school and back, as well as other outings.

(source: Traditional Interventions)

[Visionary7903]

One key aspect of success with any therapy for a special needs child, as I have already mentioned in another post, including the SAMONAS method, is the involvement and support of parents…

…Listening and SAMONAS programs, [Mili, an occupational therapist who offers SAMONAS] requests parents attend a training session.
“The intent of this training is to have the parents assist the therapist in determining the effectiveness of the intervention, given that they will be the ones using it with their children on a daily basis,” [Mili] says. “Because of our commitment to empower parents, the decision of which method will be followed will be arrived at after discussing this with them.”

…[Mili] administers SAMONAS in her practice. Her protocol requires an occupational therapy evaluation and a parent training session before the program begins. [Mili] requires the first day of listening to be completed under the occupational therapist’s supervision. Following the first session, participants will listen at home while staying in close contact with the prescribing therapist so that adjustments can be made to the program if necessary. The SAMONAS participant listens twice a day, every day for as long as the program is needed…

(source: The Power of Sound: A Therapy Worth Listening To? | Kids Enabled)

[Visionary7903]

One thing that is lacking for the SAMONAS method, despite some data, are additional conclusive studies backing the success of the method for the Autistic population. To that end, a randomised double-blind study by a Phd student is being conducted at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia; to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Samonas method in improving engagement, interaction and listening skills of preschool children with Autism Spectrum Disorders…

…How does it work?
The best research design, recognized by medical journals and the larger international community is called the randomized controlled trial, RCT. Our study will follow this design. Children are randomly allocated into 2 treatment groups: A clinic-based music group, receiving immediate treatment at the Samonas Auditory Performance Centre, or a home-based music group, receiving music treatment with Samonas equipment at the child’s home. Children in the home music group will be provided with the clinic intervention once the 3-month study period is over.

What is the treatment like?
Children in both groups will be listening to music over high quality headphones and other specialist equipment that makes the listening more effective. They will be engaged in play with a parent while listening. The listening session will take 1 hour during the first 2 weeks for both groups, and 5-10 minutes twice a day for 9 weeks for the clinic group…

(source: http://www.samonas.com/pdfpermanent/rp-ad-info.pdf)

[Visionary7903]

Here is another anecdotal story of success with the SAMONAS method. Note that improvements in bone conduction, a concept I mentioned in a previous post, seem to have been a key to success in this example…

…Biggest Success Story:
From Samonas on the Web
“T. is a 10-year-old boy. My first image of him was that he was very frail and frightened. He had little apparent energy and was like an empty shell. He was so tense that he appeared to be breakable. T. listened to the CDs for the past six weeks (and went off dairy). His learning is changing rapidly. He made the honor roll on his first report card - first time ever. His reading for word recognition went from third to fifth grade and spelling from second to fifth! He was spelling words at fifth and sixth that were just having one letter off! His mom says he is doing his own work, takes responsibility for his listening program independently, and is changing in many ways. I was thrilled. I redid the Listening Test and now his air conduction profile is starting to rise and his bone conduction lowering! This change is very important because he was almost totally into his bone conduction as superior before. He seems to be pleased with himself in a quiet way and appears to be substantial.”
Dr. … Education Specialist, Seaside, CA

(source: Autism Community, Resources and Treatments - Kyle’ s Treehouse)

[Visionary7903]

Further to my post on studies for the SAMONAS method, a recent review of studies by Sinha et al on ‘Auditory integration training and other sound therapies for autism spectrum disorders’ provided quite negative results.

The full text of the article can be viewed here: Auditory integration training and other sound therapies for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) - The Cochrane Library - Sinha - Wiley Online Library

Here is the plain language summary:

People with autism spectrum disorders have difficulties with communication, behaviour and social interaction, and many also experience abnormal responses to sounds. The purpose of this review was to assess the evidence for the effectiveness of auditory integration therapy and therapies like it that have been developed to improve abnormal sound sensitivity and autistic behaviours in such individuals. Seven relatively small studies met the inclusion criteria for the review. These often measured different outcomes and reported mixed results. Benefits for participants receiving auditory integration therapy were only reported in two studies, involving 35 participants, for two outcomes. A study of Tomatis therapy did not measure behavioural outcomes and did not find any difference in language development between intervention and control groups. As such, there is no evidence to support the use of auditory integration therapy or other sound therapies at this time.

(source: Auditory integration training and other sound therapies for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) - The Cochrane Library - Sinha - Wiley Online Library)

[Visionary7903]

Here is another testimonial of an impressive success with the SAMONAS method. Note again the changes may look like they have nothing to do with auditory processing issues (I guess ‘weaknesses’ in the Autistic brain are being worked on via the auditory route, and so changes in various spheres of a child’s functioning are made):

…You make the impossible–possible.

I can admit that when I first received your e-mail (prior to diagnosis) about Samonas doing amazing things with autistic children, I didn’t know what to think because it sounded so easy! You always think of interventions as being time consuming/hard work, but if that’s what it takes, so be it. I thought I should keep an open mind.

…After a week or two, Mackenzie would come to me and hug me and want to be held. It meant so much to me because I was robbed of that for years. He started to understand use of language more, not taking things so literal as well as being able to communicate more of his thoughts/feelings without getting so frustrated/upset. He started skipping on the sidewalk on the way to the learning centre, but had never skipped before. His spelling tests went from a fail to 100% every week.

All I can say is that somehow, some way, part of my child’s soul was put back inside of him. I consider my son to be most fortunate for having the opportunity to participate in this program (as well as myself).

[mum of a child with an Autism Spectrum Disorder]…

(source: Upcoming events, research, and autism information)

[Visionary7903]

And a less exciting quote below, making the same point, from the same web page. Again the changes may look like they have nothing to do with auditory processing issues that are obviously targeted by the SAMONAS method…

…Samonas trains rhythm through listening to very specially recorded and engineered music. Here, too, we see surprising improvements in memory though the program doesn’t specifically target that…

(source: Upcoming events, research, and autism information)

[Visionary7903]

Here is a link to some SAMONAS method results from the Accomplished Learning Centre in suburban Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: Samonas Results

If you click on each individual ID, you can see the changes brought about by the method in Processing Speed, Working Memory, Visual Processing, Word Attack, Auditory Analysis, Logic and Reasoning, and Selective Attention.

Snapshot! These are all of Accomplished Learning Centre’s clients who completed the 12-week Samonas program between February 2006 and July 2006.

Each child’s program was custom designed although they were all tested on a broader range of abilities and all test results are shown.

Important note about auditory analysis results:
Many of these children scored below the range of the test. At first glance, it may look like there were not significant gains, however, most were AMAZING! Remember, this is after only three months and the improvements do not need to stop there.

For Auditory Analysis, the 5-year-old level requires a score of 58 points. The 18-year-old level is a score of 90 points. The difference between 5-year-old and 18-year-old is 32 points. Several children scored improvements of more than 32 points but only register at or slightly above the 5-year-old ability on the post-test. They continued to do Samonas after the program’s duration.

(source: Sanomas Results)

[Visionary7903]

The SAMONAS method uses electronically altered classical music as well as nature sounds. Could part of the positive results be due to the so-called ‘Mozart effect’?

…The Mozart effect is a term coined by Alfred A. Tomatis for the alleged increase in brain development that occurs in children under age 3 when they listen to the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The idea for the Mozart effect originated in 1993 at the University of California, Irvine, with physicist Gordon Shaw and Frances Rauscher, a former concert cellist and an expert on cognitive development. They studied the effects on a few dozen college students of listening to the first 10 minutes of the Mozart Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major (K.448). They found a temporary enhancement of spatial-temporal reasoning, as measured by the Stanford-Binet IQ test. There were many attempts to replicate their results but most were unsuccessful (Willingham 2006). One researcher commented that the “very best thing that could be said of their [Shaw’s and Rauscher’s] experiment–were it completely uncontested–would be that listening to bad Mozart enhances short-term IQ” (Linton). Rauscher has moved on to study the effects of Mozart on rats. Both Shaw and Rauscher have speculated that exposure to Mozart enhances spatial-reasoning and memory in humans…

(source: Mozart effect - The Skeptic’s Dictionary - Skepdic.com)

[Visionary7903]

I mentioned the importance, in another post, of high frequency sounds in SAMONAS Sound Therapy. This may also be the reason why Mozart’s music is especially useful in passively exercising brains by listening to it…

…DDR: Why does Mozart stimulate those muscles better than, say, Gershwin?

[Don Campbell, author of ‘The Mozart Effect for Children: Awakening Your Child’s Mind, Health, and Creativity with Music’]: Much of Mozart’s music is in the high-frequency range, which [Dr. Alfred Tomatis] found to be the most stimulating and charging aspects of sound. The higher frequencies - sort of sonic Vitamin C - help activate our brains and increase attentiveness. The Tomatis Method relies on filtered high-frequency recordings of Gregorian chant and the spoken voice, as well…

(source: How The Mozart Effect Affects Body, Mind, and Spirit. An Interview with Don Campbell)

[Visionary7903]

Awakening Ashley: Mozart Knocks Autism on Its Ear is an inspiring book about one mother’s struggle to help her Autistic daughter. After doing lots of research she hit upon the Tomatis Method - this is a treatment that retrains the ear muscles to listen better; Tomatis’ therapy, like the SAMONAS method mentioned in above posts, increases the brain’s comprehension of its surroundings by exposing the patient to high frequency music (including Mozart of course!)…

At eighteen months, Ashley … still didn’t talk. She wouldn’t respond when her name was called; she didn’t appear to hear either. She fixated on tiny pieces of dirt and ate only crunchy foods. She was enveloped in a thick fog-impenetrable by everyone except Barney the Dinosaur. She worked puzzles like a kindergartener and was computer-savvy before she was two years old. Her mother’s late-night searches on the Internet hinted at a reason for her lack of engagement with the outside world. And then a developmental specialist confirmed it: autism, a diagnosis that shook the foundation of a family and shattered a mother’s world.

Ashley could hear, but she couldn’t listen. In order to address that, a therapy retraining her ears to perceive sound better took her back to the time in the womb- where listening begins. With the help of specialized recordings of Mozart’s music, Ashley gradually awakened. Her brain’s desire to communicate was kindled, fostering a connection with her body, her family, and the world around her. Ashley had recovered, developing the ability to talk, to listen, to communicate- to become an engaging child.

But how could Sharon … a clinical researcher in her own right, convince the skeptics without clinical trial data to prove the effectiveness of this therapy? She didn’t need data. She had Ashley-all the proof she needed.

source: Amazon.com: Awakening Ashley: Mozart Knocks Autism on Its Ear (9781936236244): Sharon Ruben: Books

[Visionary7903]

An interesting aspect of the book Awakening Ashley: Mozart Knocks Autism on Its Ear is the great effort that Ashley’s mother put in to finding effective ways to help her child.

This is somewhat reminiscent of my post on A Mother’s Courage: Talking Back to Autism ( aka The Sunshine Boy); a documentary film where an Icelandic mother travels the world for treatments to help her child.

Indeed one could conceivably go through the myriad of treatments in Cutting-Edge Therapies for Autism 2011-2012 all the while using AutismTrack, a mobile journaling program for parents of kids with Autism. It will cost a lot of energy, time and money, but eventually there will be a solution…

…Instead, [Ashley’s mum, Sharon,] approached autism as a problem with a solution. She researched online and read hundreds of books on neurology, autism and other developmental disabilities. She had consultations with a variety of doctors and specialists and sought out alternate forms of treatments, like testing Ashley for food allergies and exploring a gluten and casein free diet…

(source: AwakeningAshley: Autism book reviews, recovering from autism, Inspiration for parents with autistic children)

[Visionary7903]

I have already mentioned in a number of posts, for example this one, that Temple Grandin is truly an inspirational figure for many people with Autism Spectrum Disorders and their loved ones. To have someone with High Functioning Autism accomplish so much is living proof of what might be achieved and hope for these people in their endeavours…

Indeed Sharon, author of the book Awakening Ashley: Mozart Knocks Autism on Its Ear, was inspired by Temple Grandin:

…[Sharon] attended a Grandin conference in 2002 to seek answers about her daughter’s disability. She writes, “Having been told by specialists that one day Ashley may be a “Temple Grandin” fueled me to learn all I could about what Ashley could become through this famous person–Ashley already had visual gifts… I read she [Grandin] thinks in terms of pictures, a video recorder constantly playing in her mind. She struggled with socializing and reading people’s emotions and lacked understanding of human relationships.”…

(source: AwakeningAshley: Autism book reviews, recovering from autism, Inspiration for parents with autistic children)

[Visionary7903]

The most satisfying part of the journey of healing a child with special needs, no doubt, is to see the end result. Today, the child depicted in the book Awakening Ashley: Mozart Knocks Autism on Its Ear is almost a different person to the one who had it so hard in her early years (Ashley was born in 1999)…

…Over a decade ago, Sharon took Ashley to an auditory training therapist in Bethesda, MD., every day for years. She noticed immediate improvement; Ashley began talking. She made remarkable process. By the age of 4, Ashley was no longer considered on the Autism spectrum. Fast forward to today, Ashley is a talented and intelligent teenager. She is a straight “A” student, in the “gifted” program, a champion swimmer and plays the violin, guitar, and the piano…

(source: It’s Time to Lick Autism - Washington DC Special Needs Kids | Examiner.com)

[Visionary7903]

Sharon Ruben, author of Awakening Ashley: Mozart Knocks Autism on Its Ear, has now founded her own listening program. Via Lollipop Listening Therapy, she can use her experience with her child’s improvement to help others wherever possible…

…[Sound Therapy Systems], her company devoted to re-training the ears and brain of children on the autism spectrum to listen better, now using Lollipop Listening Therapy, an auditory training program using Mozart that she personally developed to advance the treatment for autism. Lollipop exercises the middle ear muscles to make them stronger so they are better filters - so your ears can bring in the sounds you need and keep out the sounds you don’t need. This auditory training program takes the listener through all the frequencies of sound to lay down new neural connections and improve the brain and body functions associated with each frequency of sound. Sharon will never be able to pay Mozart back for recovering her daughter from autism–but she’s paying it forward and putting a new stigma on autism–that of hope and recovery.

…When your ears don’t perceive all the frequencies of sound, your voice won’t contain them. Lollipop Listening Therapy takes children back to the time in the womb, where listening begins, using modulated Mozart music and the mother’s filtered voice to re-connect them with their body, language and communication and the world around them…

(source: Sharon RubenMS, BS)

[Visionary7903]

I guess it is a double-edged sword when you push yourself and your child’s story forward to the media, as Sharon Ruben, author of Awakening Ashley: Mozart Knocks Autism on Its Ear, has done. On the one hand, it raises awareness of treatments and hope for people with Autism. On the other hand, you might get skeptics who will challenge your intentions; for example there is this quite nasty opinion piece on the story via this link: Lollipop Listening Therapy - Mad Art Lab

I guess the way to answer the critics is via results - consistently satisfied clients to your therapies, people inspired by the story getting their own results perhaps via the Tomatis method (that brought about Ashley’s recovery), and high quality studies attesting to the effectiveness of the treatment…

…Sharon and Ashley have been featured on the Today Show (NBC) with Katie Couric, Soap Talk with Lisa Rinna, in Woman’s world magazine, Spectrum magazine and Exceptional Parent magazine, newspapers and on radio. Sharon was awarded the Maxwell J. Schleifer Distinguished Service Award from Exceptional Parent Magazine in for her service to the autism community…

(source: Sharon RubenMS, BS)

[Visionary7903]

The girl depicted in the book, Awakening Ashley: Mozart Knocks Autism on Its Ear, met the criteria for pervasive developmental disorder (PDD). The autism spectrum includes three categories: autism, Asperger’s Syndrome and PDD-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS)…

…Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) is one of the autism spectrum disorders and is used to describe individuals who do not fully meet the criteria for autistic disorder or Asperger syndrome.

PDD-NOS may be thought of as ‘subthreshold autism,’ or a diagnosis one can give a person who has ‘atypical symptomatology.’ In other words, when someone has autistic characteristics but some of their symptoms are mild, or they have symptoms in one area (like social deficits), but none in another key area (like restricted, repetitive behaviors), they may be given the PDD-NOS label…

(sources: http://www2.insidenova.com/news/2008/feb/03/can_music_aid_an_autistic_child_02_03_08_wpn-ar-447378/; http://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/pdd-nos)

[Visionary7903]

Part of the Sharon’s success in treating her daughter, the subject of the book, Awakening Ashley: Mozart Knocks Autism on Its Ear, is probably related to intensively going after the issue at an early age. At just 21 months of age, Ashley was officially on the autism spectrum. However, after about two years of intensive speech and occupational therapy, a gluten-free diet, county service and auditory training, Ashley was taken off of the autism spectrum. So it seems to be very important to detect an Autism Spectrum Disorder as early as possible and intensively treating it, to maximise chances of success…

This study of very early brain development in autism has the potential to provide important clues relevant to early detection of autism and discovering the early changes in the brain for young children with autism.

(sources: Can music aid an autistic child- | InsideNova; Brain Development in Infants at risk for Autism)

[Visionary7903]

Auditory Integration Therapy (AIT) and its success with Autism was introduced to the world at large by the 1991 book Sound of a Miracle: A Childs Triumph over Autism by Annabel Stehli.

…Ms. Stehli knew immediately that something was wrong, It was …1965, when Georgiana entered the world, a month early, barely letting out a cry or grasping an outstretched finger. As the months wore onto years, Georgiana’s behavior remained oddly withdrawn and unresponsive. Though Ms Stehli had her suspicions, it wasn’t until she read a newspaper article on autism that her misgivings seem to be confirmed.

…In the book, Ms. Stehli recounts the downward spiral of events that unfold in her life - her first child, Dotsie, is diagnosed with leukemia and dies, her first husband abandons the family and she is urged to institutionalize Georgiana.

…Despite Georgiana’s dismal prognosis, and despite the girl being labeled “retarded” and “severely emotionally disturbed,” Ms. Stehli refused to give up. While living in Europe with her second husband, Peter Stehli, she learned of an avant-garde autism therapy called AIT, performed by a French otolaryngologist, Dr. Guy Berard…

(source: Annabel Stehli, Anabel Stehli, Georgiana Stehli, Auditory Integration Training, Berard AIT)

[Visionary7903]

In her 1991 book, Sound of a Miracle: A Childs Triumph over Autism, Annabel Stehli makes an interesting point (see quote below). There is still some stigma today - ignorant people may still think and act like its the mother’s fault with regards to them ‘producing’ a special needs individual. However, as a whole, society rejects this notion today. It must have been such a double burden for such mothers in the past - not only having to deal with the added difficulties of mothering someone with an Autism Spectrum Disorder but also having people blame you for something you had no control over…

…In an era when developmental disabilities were still misunderstood, Ms. Stehli faced endless condemnation over Georgiana’s disability. Doctors told her point blank it was her fault, that “the mother’s of such in fact fail to react appropriately to their baby’s needs.” Other mothers criticized her for “babying her too much,” and paradoxically, “not giving her enough attention.” Strangers in the grocery store made snide remarks, linking Ms. Stehli’s disorganized purse with bad parenting. At some points, even Ms. Stehli blamed herself.

Today, is is known that “children with autism are born with the disorder or potential to develop it,” according to the Autism Society of America. “Bad parenting does not cause it. It is not a mental illness. Children with autism are not unruly kids who choose not to behave.”…

(source: Annabel Stehli, Anabel Stehli, Georgiana Stehli, Auditory Integration Training, Berard AIT)