The sheer volume of autism treatment options can be overwhelming to a parent with a new diagnosis. We have listed here some common treatment options with summaries and links to additional details on each treatment option. Websites listed here have been used and recommended by LifeLine families over the last 13 years. Not all options will be effective for every family. This list is not in any particular order and this list should not be considered exhaustive. Summaries of each option are pulled directly from their website linked.
Applied Behavior Analysis
“Behavior analysis focuses on the principles that explain how learning takes place. Positive reinforcement is one such principle. When a behavior is followed by some sort of reward, the behavior is more likely to be repeated. Through decades of research, the field of behavior analysis has developed many techniques for increasing useful behaviors and reducing those that may cause harm or interfere with learning.
Applied behavior analysis (ABA) is the use of these techniques and principles to bring about meaningful and positive change in behavior. As mentioned, behavior analysts began working with young children with autism and related disorders in the 1960s. Early techniques often involved adults directing most of the instruction. Some allowed the child to take the lead. Since that time, a wide variety of ABA techniques have been developed for building useful skills in learners with autism – from toddlers through adulthood.
These techniques can be used in structured situations such as a classroom lesson as well as in “everyday” situations such as family dinnertime or the neighborhood playground. Some ABA therapy sessions involve one-on-one interaction between the behavior analyst and the participant. Group instruction can likewise prove useful.”
Son-Rise Program
“The Son-Rise Program® was the first to suggest that children with these diagnoses had the potential for extraordinary healing and growth. The Son-Rise Program® innovated an educational treatment modality which included joining children instead of going against them. The program places parents as key teachers, therapists and directors of their own programs and utilizes the home as the most nurturing environment in which to help their children. The Son-Rise Program® dared to suggest that respect and deep caring would be the most important factor impacting a child’s motivation to learn, and from the beginning has made love and acceptance a meaningful part of every teaching process. Employing this attitude, we first seek to create bonding and a safe environment. We then apply sound, time-tested educational strategies pioneered by The Son-Rise Program®. These principles remain a cornerstone of our approach.
NeuroNet
NeuroNet is a research-based learning readiness program designed to help students develop fluency in essential reading, math, and handwriting skills. NeuroNet programs center around 4 Key Concepts:
1. LEARN INDEPENDENTLY – Watch and learn, then think and do. Engage in productive trial and error problem solving.
2. MAKE THE SPEED AND ACCURACY NETWORK – Develop fluency in early reading, handwriting, and math skills. Learn how to use what you know to enhance new learning.
3. GET YOUR BRAIN TO PRACTICE WHAT YOU WANT YOUR BRAIN TO LEARN – To develop fluency, you must practice fluency.
4. SELF-EVALUATION IS THE KEY TO MOTIVATION – Learn to self-evaluate and to equate effort and practice with improvements in performance.
NeuroNet began as a program to help struggling learners become independent learners. The program was developed by Nancy Rowe, an audiologist whose work centered around helping children improve their coordination of motor and cognitive skills in an educational environment that encourages self-evaluation and trial and error problem solving.
Relationship Development Intervention
“RDI® programs teach parents how to guide their child to seek out and succeed in truly reciprocal relationships, while addressing key core issues such as motivation, communication, emotional regulation, episodic memory, rapid attention-shifting, self awareness, appraisal, executive functioning, flexible thinking and creative problem solving.
Our model allows for neuro-cognitive changes to occur over time that provide the individual with the skills needed to navigate life’s challenges on their own. By developing this capacity for dynamic thinking, we open the door to the possibility of a greater quality of life that includes: reciprocal communication, genuine friendships, confident, independent living, prolonged relationships and meaningful employment.
RDI includes an intensive parent training component designed for both parents’ involvement from the beginning and real life coaching that takes place in the home setting with the whole family. The goal isn’t to turn family members into therapists, but rather to guide them to develop new ways of thinking, perceiving and acting to know how to best use their precious time in facilitating the child’s mental growth. The program embraces the premise that every family member is critical to success. A trained RDI Consultant works with each family to develop an individualized set of objectives that may include simplifying the home environment, slowing down the pace of life, balancing the entire family’s schedule and life outside of a special needs diagnosis. The RDI program believes that making lasting, meaningful and lifelong changes begins at home with the child’s parents first, and that the remediation process should take place amidst each family’s unique culture and relationships.”
Floortime
“The Greenspan Floortime Approach™ is the most comprehensive version of Floortime. Created by Dr. Stanley Greenspan, Floortime is both an intervention for children with special needs and a general support for healthy child development. By taking all of his experiences over decades of clinical practice, he systematized and simplified his approach into an organized set of principles and techniques. He also presented this final version in his last book,The Learning Tree.”
Floortime meets children where they are and builds upon their strengths and abilities through creating a warm relationship and interacting. It challenges them to go further and to develop who they are rather than what their diagnosis says. In Floortime, you use this time with your child to excite her interests, draw her to connect to you, and challenge her to be creative, curious, and spontaneous—all of which move her forward intellectually and emotionally.
TEACCH
TEACCH developed the intervention approach called “Structured TEACCHing”, which is based on understanding the learning characteristics of individuals with autism and the use of visual supports to promote meaning and independence. TEACCH services are supported by empirical research, enriched by extensive clinical expertise, and notable for its flexible and individualized support of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and their families.
- PRINCIPLES OF STRUCTURED TEACCHING:
- • Understanding the culture of autism
• Developing an individualized person- and family-centered plan for each client or student, rather than using a standard curriculum
• Structuring the physical environment
• Using visual supports to make the sequence of daily activities predictable and understandable
• Using visual supports to make individual tasks understandable
Pivotal Response Therapy
Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) is one of the best studied and validated behavioral treatments for autism. Derived from applied behavioral analysis (ABA), it is play based and child initiated. Its goals include the development of communication, language and positive social behaviors and relief from disruptive self-stimulatory behaviors.
Rather than target individual behaviors, the PRT therapist targets “pivotal” areas of a child’s development. These include motivation, response to multiple cues, self-management and the initiation of social interactions. The philosophy is that, by targeting these critical areas, PRT will produce broad improvements across other areas of sociability, communication, behavior and academic skill building.
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LifeLine may not support he views of any single website. They are listed here as a resource and families need to evaluate the accuracy and usefulness of the information found there. These sites are not to be construed as diagnosis or treatment of any disease or disorder. Many treatments and therapy options are considered experimental and controversial. Consult your physician before beginning any therapy or treatment option.