Speech Therapy

This may be beneficial to many autistic children, but often only 1-2 hours/week is available. Speech Therapy has to integrated with form of therapies, such as ABA to be much more effective. ABA will help the children to focus as gain more attention in acquiring the subject matter delivered in speech therapy.

Sign language and PECS may also be very helpful in developing speech. Speech therapists should work on helping the child to hear hard consonant sounds such as the “c” in cup. It is often helpful if the therapist stretches out and enunciates the consonant sounds.

Sensory Integration

Many autistic children have sensory problems, which can range from mild to severe. These sensory problems involve either hypersensitivity or hyposensitivity to stimulation. Sensory integration can help those children by focusing primarily on three senses

1. Vestibular (i.e., motion, balance)
2. Tactile (i.e., touch)
3. Proprioception (e.g., joints, ligaments).

Many techniques are used to stimulate these senses in order to normalize them.

Behavioral Therapies

Behavioral Therapies are often effective in children with autism. The Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) usually being the most effective. This approach generally involves therapists who work intensely, one-on-one with a child for 20 to 40 hours/week. Children are taught skills in a simple step-by-step manner, The sessions usually begin with formal, structured drills, such as learning to point to a color when its name is given; and then, after some time, there is a shift towards generalizing skills to other situations and environments.

ABA programs are most effective when started early before age of 5, but they can also be helpful to older children. They are especially effective in teaching non-verbal children how to talk.

In the therapy sessions, prompting as much as necessary to achieve a high level of success, with a gradual fading of prompts. The ABA sessions should be fun for the children to maintain their interest and motivation

Therapists of ABA need proper training and ongoing supervision to maintain high credibility in handling children with autism. However, regular team meetings are needed to maintain consistency between therapists and check for problems.

Parents are encouraged to obtain training in ABA, so that they provide it themselves and possibly hire other people to assist. Qualified behavior consultants are often available, and there are often workshops on how to provide ABA therapy.

DAN Suggestion in Biomedical Treatment

The Defeat Autism Now! (DAN!) program has suggestions for several approach in the biomedical treatment which underlies the biomedical basis of autism.

• Consuming Nutritional Supplements, including certain vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and essential fatty acids

• The GFCF (Gluten Free Casein Free) Diet, A special diets totally free of gluten (from wheat, barley, rye, and possibly oats) and free of dairy (milk, ice-cream, yogurt, etc.)

• Perform laboratory testing for hidden food allergies, and avoidance of allergenic foods in daily diet

• Treatment of intestinal bacterial/yeast overgrowth

• Detoxification of heavy metals

Steps to treat Autism

There are many treatments for autism. Although we might get through trial and error, there are a few steps that are already commonly used to treat children with autism.
1. Biomedical treatment
Providing supplements or vitamins such as enzymes, calcium, magnesium, zinc, probiotics, fatty acid, vitamin C, vitamin B6 - B12. These supplements tends to help the lack of minerals and vitamins that support the body to perform its function.
2. Behavioral Therapy
Applied Behavior Analysis will help autistic children to develop eye contact and to do simple command in order to get involved with their environment.
3. Gluten Free Casein Free (GFCF) Diet.
We eliminate food that is made of the wheat family and also milk off the daily diet.
4. Chelation
Chelation can help to detoxify the body of the potentially toxic elements, such as Aluminum, Arsenic, Cadmium, Lead, Mercury, Tin, Silver and etc.
5. Sensory Integration
Sensory Integration is the process of organizing sensory inputs so that the brain produces useful body response, and also useful perceptions, emotions and thoughts. A large part of a child's capacity for learning is the ability to integrate sensory information. When providing intervention using sensory integration, we want the child to learn how to use his brain more effectively and easily. The child learns how to organize his brain so that it will work better.