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Dillon on the cutting edge of autism therapy
By Maryanne Davis Silve for The Three Rivers Edition - 04/26/2006
Occupational Therapist from Dillon, Dorothy DeHart stands by as Patrick Schindler, a child with autism, paints on a mirror with finger paints and shaving cream. This project is done to help him to build his tolerance for different tactile, visual and olfactory sensations. Maryanne Silve photo
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What does a mother feel like when she is in the grocery store and her child is screaming at the top of his lungs and she doesn’t know why?
What do people think when they see this scene acted out? Of course they think the child is spoiled and they assume she is a bad mother.
Many caring, wonderful parents have been thrust into this frightening world, without a clue of what is going on. They blame themselves. They do everything they can to help their child. Without support and understanding, no matter how good a parent they are, or how much they love their children, they just wear out.
April is Autism Awareness Month. More people need to understand this condition, which is on the rise. Knowledge is the best way to combat fear and misconceptions that are widespread in the area of problematic sensory conditions.
Occupational therapist Dorothy DeHart and Catherine Griffin, a speech therapist in Dillon, coordinate their services to provide the best possible care for children with autism and other sensory disorders. This team of professionals, together with the parents and child, can give a life worth living to the entire family.
DeHart has been in private practice in Dillon for seven years.
“People fear what they don’t understand,” DeHart said. “It is difficult to say autism to someone. It scares them.” DeHart shares the standard warning signs to watch for in your child’s development: From nine to 12 months, she said to look for:
Poor visual orientation/attention to normal, non-social visual stimuli
Prompted/delayed responses to name
Excessive mouthing of objects
Aversion to unexpected touch
No babbling by 12 months
Arching back away from caretakers
Rocking and banging head against crib From 1-2 years
Poor joint attention to more than one stimulus
Lack of shared interest
Little social initiation
No back and forth gestures such as pointing and waving
No words by 16 months
No two words, meaning full phrases, by 24 months
Any loss of speech, babbling or loss of social skills
No pretend play
Poor or no imitation According to the web site on autism, early intervention is important. The prognosis is greatly improved if a child is placed into an intense, highly structured therapeutic program by age two or three.
“Parents usually know something is wrong,” DeHart said. “But too often they blame themselves thinking the child would not be experiencing the problems if they were a better parent. The person with autism can see the world very differently than the way you and I see it. It makes their reactions very different and unpredictable to us.” The big part of any kind of therapeutic intervention is understanding how that particular person may perceive his environment.
“We have to get inside their head and figure out what they think,” Griffin explained. “Many situations that seem pretty normal for us are very difficult for the child with autism. Referring back See AUTISM, Page 3 to the child screaming in the grocery store- The child my be so stimulated by all the sights, sounds, movement and smells that he or she is unable to be calmed in that setting. Nothing the parent may offer or attempt may help as long as their sensory system is on overload.” “It is a tough life,” DeHart added. “There is no doubt about it. Imagine being a parent and not knowing. How do I deal with this? What is the matter with my child?” With autism, many children have problems with sensory processing- which is the way the information comes in. A good example would be a restaurant setting.
The waitress is talking to people at the next table. The dishes are clanging in the background. There is overhead music playing. People are talking at tables all around you. Every one of those sounds would have equal value to someone with auditory processing difficulties.
“They can’t figure out what is the important thing to listen to,” Griffin explained. “They get overwhelmed. So of course they don’t listen when their mother calls their name and tells them not to step out in the street. They can also hear the car and that is interesting.” People who have grown up with sensory processing disorders later explain to others how it felt. It is not that they are overly sensitive. Sensations can truly cause discomfort and pain. Young children can’t explain what is happening to them because they don’t understand.
As an occupational therapist, DeHart recognizes that we have not just five senses, but seven. The two hidden senses are vestibular or balance and proprioceptive senses.
Your vestibular sense provides you with your sense of movement and balance. It allows you to remain upright and to know when you are moving through space.
Proprioception is your body’s feedback from joints, muscles and ligaments to tell you what your muscles and joints are doing. These two sensory systems along with touch sensation are an individual’s foundational skills for understanding the world. According to a study done they know the inter-relationship among these senses is complex and critical to our basic survival. They allow us to experience, interpret, and respond to different stimuli in our environment.
Individuals with autism often over or under register these sensations. Because this can be overwhelming and frightening, they can either withdraw into their own world or react with behaviors that cause problems such as screaming, hitting or trying to run away. These are the body’s natural responses to overwhelming stimuli but the individual with autism may be over stimulated at a much lower level than their peers.
“There are things we can do through therapy that change the brain’s chemistry- that decreases the hypersensitivity or the under sensitivity,” DeHart said. “The focus of sensory processing therapy is to provide the child get enough information in an organized manner so they are able to begin to make sense of the information they receive and act on that in a way that allows them to develop. This may be in the form of deep pressure or other organizing touch. Their brain starts organizing it and they become less over or under responsive to touch and begin to understand the meaning of different types of touch.” DeHart uses a variety of equipment during her therapy sessions.
“I have a swing that stimulates the vestibular system so that the system can be satiated,” she explained. “Without information coming in adequately to the touch, vestibular and proprioceptive systems, the brain is not in a mode where it can learn anything. So if you are trying to teach a child how to learn to do sign language or hold a pencil, or listen to a story, he is working so hard just trying to sit still- he has no extra ability to pick up that information.” But DeHart said an autistic child can be helped with careful therapy.
“We increase the vestibular input which changes his brain chemistry, allowing him to be more alert and able to learn from his environment,” she said. “Through various therapeutic activities, we can improve his brain chemistry- increasing his level of serotonin which is our brain chemical that calms and improves mental alertness.” Griffin compared it to teaching the child’s brain to work in an entirely different way.
“It is like re-training the brain to be able to receive the information,” she said. “We don’t deal as much with re-organizing the brain as we do with teaching strategies for communication- physical or vestibular.” DeHart uses a variety of techniques during therapy sessions.
“We paint on mirrors with finger paint and shaving cream mixed together,” she said. “Some children listen to programs with special music and earphones. It is a therapeutic listening program- music that has been modulated so that it goes higher and lower ranges than we are used to. It actually exercises the little muscles in the inner ear and works with the vestibular system to increase brain organization.” Next week Harmony Schindler, mother of Patrick, a four year old child with autism, shares her story of what she and her son have experienced. Their successful milestones can give hope to other parents of children with sensory problems.
Speech Therapist, Catherine Griffin, will also share her role in the world of autistic therapy at the beginning of May, which is National Speech and Hearing Month.
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