Specialisterne: leveraging the unique skills of Autistics at competitive market terms

[Visionary7903]

Following on from my post just above this one, Walker’s 2009 article talks about recent advances in QEEG-databases. These have enabled improvements in interpretation, which in turn have led to more effective neurofeedback interventions…

…The fourth type of abnormality commonly seen using QEEG is hyperconnection. This type of abnormality could not be recognized with the older imaging modalities, but they are usually recognized with QEEG, resulting in hypercoherence. Developmentally,these hyperconnections may arise from failure to prune connections or they may occur after brain injury of one kind or another, where the involved connections are spared, but there are disruptions (disconnections) from other brain areas. An example would be the combination of frontofrontal hyperconnectivity with frontal disconnection from other brain regions in autism (Courchesne and Pierce 2005). We believe one must address the hypofunctions, the hyperfunctions, the disconnections, and the hyperconnections to best approach a complicated disorder such as autism. We again have found 5-7 sessions adequate for addressing these types of abnormalities…

Indeed, Robert Coben and his colleagues have been studying Connectivity-guided Neurofeedback as a treatment for Autism Spectrum Disorders for a number of years…

…Coben & Padolsky (2007) assessed the efficacy of connectivity guided EEG biofeedback and found an 89% success rate with a 40% reduction in autistic symptoms with just 10 weeks of treatment.
More recently, Coben (2009) studied the largest series of cases yet of children with autism receiving neurofeedback. A total of 110 children were studied, 85 of whom received the active therapeutic intervention (connectivity-guided neurofeedback). The major finding of this study was that children with [Autism Spectrum Disorders] who received the active treatment improved significantly and experienced a reduction in autistic symptoms of close to 60% over an average treatment period of about 6-7 months…

A whopping 98% of the parents whose children were in the study rated their children as improved after the Connectivity-guided Neurofeedback therapy and 94% rated significant improvements.

Ann Rigby (formerly known as Ann Stout) is the director of The Neuroconnection, a neurofeedback practice in Naperville, Illinois. The practice has a special focus in treating Autism Spectrum Disorders utilising Connectivity-guided Neurofeedback…

…Connectivity guided neurofeedback also makes the changes in the brain that allow other therapies to be absorbed faster.
“When you have the neuroconnections that allow you to now perform the tasks, improvements are seen more quickly,” Ribgy says. Speech therapy can be enhanced, children are able to pay more attention and get more out of tutoring, become socially aware and engaged and often need to join a social skills group to catch up due to their new awareness and interest in peers.
“The new interest in others, improvement in eye contact and empathy can be an amazing thing to watch,” she says. “A child at the beginning of training, who had no interest in others, will suddenly come into the office engaging with others in the waiting room or carrying on reciprocal conversations with staff when they were not able to do this before. We see changes in receptive and expressive language, social and emotional awareness, attention and focus, improvements in cognitive functioning, lowered anxiety and general improvement in the children’s ability to transition and adjust to change”…

(sources: /usr/hosting_files9/main/previews/doc303090036/preview; www.thebrainlabs.com/eegassesstxforasd.pdf; http://www.theneuroconnection.com/pdfs/tnc_dailyherald.pdf)