Sir Ken Robinson: Bring on the learning revolution! | Video on TED.com
I often advise parents that it's critical to first and foremost to take care of themselves. And that means knowing who you are, and having a happy and meaningful life. When you do, you can help your child do it too. This is a nice video, short, but great. I advise it to everyone.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Autism Gluten-free Diet, Casein-free Diet Did Not Improve Behavior
Autism Gluten-free Diet, Casein-free Diet Did Not Improve Behavior
Posted using ShareThis
Again scientific research has dealt another blow to the idea that diets can curb the effects of autism.
Doing a web search for autism treatment here in British Columbia you will often find that the first, second and third search results on Google or Bing include treatments that have little scientific research to back them. These include chiropractics (even suggested for infants), homeopathy (one local homeopathic doctor provides homeopathic "inoculations" for childhood diseases!), and diets. Often the web pages you are directed to include testimonials of miracle cures. But successfully treating autism calls for hard work, time, and not so much for miracles. And one thing anyone in science knows, testimonials are notoriously misleading.
After viewing these pages patients often come to my office asking about gluten-free and casein-free diets. They tell me they have heard about "dramatic improvements" after the implementation of these diets plans. Research, I tell them, is pretty conclusive: diets have little impact, including on gastrointestinal problems!
Often times parents report changes when a diet is implemented, but fail to understand that along with the change in diet came changes in their expectations, changes in their behaviour, changes in their attitudes such as a reduction of anxiety and stress. And most importantly, a sudden easy to implement structured way to address and now explain the symptoms. Often they fail to see that the behaviour programming, language training and structured classrooms their children are often in may have had a far greater impact. Relying upon individual testimonials, rather than research designed to isolate the cause and effect of an intervention, is never a good way to make clinical choices.
In this study, which you can read more about through the above links, we have a randomized, double-blinded (meaning neither the participants nor the researches knew which treatment was being received), placebo controlled study, and we again find that the effects of these diets is null. (Numerous large scale studies show there is no support for these diets.)
In this study children were given snack foods with and without gluten and casein, both or neither. The researches evaluated the effects on attention, sleep, stool patterns and other characteristics of autistic behaviour. The study did not show any significant changes in any of these symptoms for any of the groups.
20 percent of parents in the Autism Treatment Network report using "alternative" treatments such as diet. 50% of these were diets. These diets has been promoted by celebrities such as Jenny McCarthy who details the diet she used with her son. However, what is not reported is that many parents report no success with these diets, or that it is far more likely that other treatments being administered at the same time have been the cause of behavioural changes. The above article reviews some of these cases.
What is important from this study is to note that, "There has not been any research to substantiate the GFCF diet for children with autism who do not (already) have celiac disease or wheat/milk allergies." In other words, yes, sometimes children have improved because they had allergies to milk, gluten, heat etc. Just as any child might. And that fact is unrelated to autism.
There are treatments that work, that have been scientifically proven to improve behaviour, communication and social interaction. Regretfully these are intensive, slow and prolonged. But they are your best bet. Here in British Columbia there are many services available to help you with behavioural issues, including trained behaviour specialists paid for through your autism funding, speech pathologists, paid for through your autism funding and in our school districts training for teachers, teacher aides and others through the Provincial Outreach Program for Autism and Related Disorders. There is hope, there are treatment, but there are few miracles. Another valuable source for behavioural experts is ACT. Whatever you do, look to treatments that have been rigorously tested, that make sense, and don't imply a simple answer you could only call "miraculous".
If you would like further information about assessment or treatment for autism, Aspergers, ADHD and other childhood disorders you can find further information on my professional web page at www.socialcognitivetherapy.com or www.relatedminds.com
I can also be contacted at drjimroche@gmail.com
Dr. Jim Roche
Registered Psychologist
778.998-7975
Posted using ShareThis
Again scientific research has dealt another blow to the idea that diets can curb the effects of autism.
Doing a web search for autism treatment here in British Columbia you will often find that the first, second and third search results on Google or Bing include treatments that have little scientific research to back them. These include chiropractics (even suggested for infants), homeopathy (one local homeopathic doctor provides homeopathic "inoculations" for childhood diseases!), and diets. Often the web pages you are directed to include testimonials of miracle cures. But successfully treating autism calls for hard work, time, and not so much for miracles. And one thing anyone in science knows, testimonials are notoriously misleading.
After viewing these pages patients often come to my office asking about gluten-free and casein-free diets. They tell me they have heard about "dramatic improvements" after the implementation of these diets plans. Research, I tell them, is pretty conclusive: diets have little impact, including on gastrointestinal problems!
Often times parents report changes when a diet is implemented, but fail to understand that along with the change in diet came changes in their expectations, changes in their behaviour, changes in their attitudes such as a reduction of anxiety and stress. And most importantly, a sudden easy to implement structured way to address and now explain the symptoms. Often they fail to see that the behaviour programming, language training and structured classrooms their children are often in may have had a far greater impact. Relying upon individual testimonials, rather than research designed to isolate the cause and effect of an intervention, is never a good way to make clinical choices.
In this study, which you can read more about through the above links, we have a randomized, double-blinded (meaning neither the participants nor the researches knew which treatment was being received), placebo controlled study, and we again find that the effects of these diets is null. (Numerous large scale studies show there is no support for these diets.)
In this study children were given snack foods with and without gluten and casein, both or neither. The researches evaluated the effects on attention, sleep, stool patterns and other characteristics of autistic behaviour. The study did not show any significant changes in any of these symptoms for any of the groups.
20 percent of parents in the Autism Treatment Network report using "alternative" treatments such as diet. 50% of these were diets. These diets has been promoted by celebrities such as Jenny McCarthy who details the diet she used with her son. However, what is not reported is that many parents report no success with these diets, or that it is far more likely that other treatments being administered at the same time have been the cause of behavioural changes. The above article reviews some of these cases.
What is important from this study is to note that, "There has not been any research to substantiate the GFCF diet for children with autism who do not (already) have celiac disease or wheat/milk allergies." In other words, yes, sometimes children have improved because they had allergies to milk, gluten, heat etc. Just as any child might. And that fact is unrelated to autism.
There are treatments that work, that have been scientifically proven to improve behaviour, communication and social interaction. Regretfully these are intensive, slow and prolonged. But they are your best bet. Here in British Columbia there are many services available to help you with behavioural issues, including trained behaviour specialists paid for through your autism funding, speech pathologists, paid for through your autism funding and in our school districts training for teachers, teacher aides and others through the Provincial Outreach Program for Autism and Related Disorders. There is hope, there are treatment, but there are few miracles. Another valuable source for behavioural experts is ACT. Whatever you do, look to treatments that have been rigorously tested, that make sense, and don't imply a simple answer you could only call "miraculous".
If you would like further information about assessment or treatment for autism, Aspergers, ADHD and other childhood disorders you can find further information on my professional web page at www.socialcognitivetherapy.com or www.relatedminds.com
I can also be contacted at drjimroche@gmail.com
Dr. Jim Roche
Registered Psychologist
778.998-7975
Monday, May 10, 2010
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Floor Time
Stanley Greenspan, the developer of the autism intervention "Floor Time" died this week at 68.
Dr. Greenspan was a psychiatrist who developed this influential approach to teaching children with autism and other developmental disabilities. He died of a stroke. He leaves his wife and co-author Nancy Thorndike Greenspan, who helped author several of his more than 30 books on education and children.
"Floor Time," as it is called, is used in many special education classrooms and therapeutic settings. It is one of the major early interventions for autism. Often times "Floor Time" is seen as an approach that is in opposition to other interventions such as behavioural interventions like ABA (Applied Behavioural Analysis) and clients are often surprised when I recommend both more traditional behavioural interventions as well as this more child centred intervention.
Dr. Greenspan encouraged parents, teachers and behavioural interventionists to get down on the floor with their child, even very young children, and engage with them with words, gestures and modelling in order to encourage the development of one-to-one interpersonal relationships and to expand their world of ideas, concepts, words and communications skills.
In 2000 Dr. Greenspan and Dr. Barry Brazelton co-authored an important book, "The Irreducible Needs of Children." In it he differentiates behavioural approaches from "Floor Time" in which the child leads. Dr. Greenspan found that babies who failed to connect with parents, for whatever reason, are deprived of emotional tools that he feels are necessary for learning and growth. These cannot happen without these ability to use these basic emotional ties. He writes, "Our emotions serve as the orchestra leader for getting the whole mind and brain working together."
While for a child with little communication ABA and behavioural training is a necessary component to teaching basic associations and skills, the emotional component of communication also needs to be focused on. In the best programs I have observed teachers work on ABA goals during several structured periods of the day and then spend several other periods engaged in "Floor Time" skills with children, letting the child lead.
Often schools and agencies want to limit the number of different interventions they use. But emotional contact, and teaching the child to lead, are critical to teaching the child to communicate in a human way. "Floor Time" may really be more about teaching the parent, teacher or interventionist how to follow than it is about direct intervention with the child. ( Another book I often recommend for parents of high functioning children is by Dr. John Gottman, Raising an Emotionally Healthy Child.)
Floor Time is hard to describe, but there is a wonderful video on Dr. Greenspan's web page showing him engaging in play with a child and his mother. Click here to get to the web page. you can also see him working on various videos on YouTube.
Our thoughts go out to Dr. Greenspan's family and co-workers.
Again, for more information on assessments for autism, Aspergers and learning disabilities you can visit my website at www.socialcognitivetherapy.com or www.drjimroche.com
I have offices located in Burnaby and Vancouver which are convenient to the entire lower mainland.
Dr. Greenspan was a psychiatrist who developed this influential approach to teaching children with autism and other developmental disabilities. He died of a stroke. He leaves his wife and co-author Nancy Thorndike Greenspan, who helped author several of his more than 30 books on education and children.
"Floor Time," as it is called, is used in many special education classrooms and therapeutic settings. It is one of the major early interventions for autism. Often times "Floor Time" is seen as an approach that is in opposition to other interventions such as behavioural interventions like ABA (Applied Behavioural Analysis) and clients are often surprised when I recommend both more traditional behavioural interventions as well as this more child centred intervention.
Dr. Greenspan encouraged parents, teachers and behavioural interventionists to get down on the floor with their child, even very young children, and engage with them with words, gestures and modelling in order to encourage the development of one-to-one interpersonal relationships and to expand their world of ideas, concepts, words and communications skills.
In 2000 Dr. Greenspan and Dr. Barry Brazelton co-authored an important book, "The Irreducible Needs of Children." In it he differentiates behavioural approaches from "Floor Time" in which the child leads. Dr. Greenspan found that babies who failed to connect with parents, for whatever reason, are deprived of emotional tools that he feels are necessary for learning and growth. These cannot happen without these ability to use these basic emotional ties. He writes, "Our emotions serve as the orchestra leader for getting the whole mind and brain working together."
While for a child with little communication ABA and behavioural training is a necessary component to teaching basic associations and skills, the emotional component of communication also needs to be focused on. In the best programs I have observed teachers work on ABA goals during several structured periods of the day and then spend several other periods engaged in "Floor Time" skills with children, letting the child lead.
Often schools and agencies want to limit the number of different interventions they use. But emotional contact, and teaching the child to lead, are critical to teaching the child to communicate in a human way. "Floor Time" may really be more about teaching the parent, teacher or interventionist how to follow than it is about direct intervention with the child. ( Another book I often recommend for parents of high functioning children is by Dr. John Gottman, Raising an Emotionally Healthy Child.)
Floor Time is hard to describe, but there is a wonderful video on Dr. Greenspan's web page showing him engaging in play with a child and his mother. Click here to get to the web page. you can also see him working on various videos on YouTube.
Our thoughts go out to Dr. Greenspan's family and co-workers.
Again, for more information on assessments for autism, Aspergers and learning disabilities you can visit my website at www.socialcognitivetherapy.com or www.drjimroche.com
I have offices located in Burnaby and Vancouver which are convenient to the entire lower mainland.
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