"Rapid Prompting" autism therapy

[theletch1]

Found this article while surfing. I know that we have the parents of autistic children on the board and wanted to get their thoughts on it.

 

[tellner]

There's been about a million therapies for autism. Promises of miraculous cures through revolutionary methods seldom pan out but reliably leave a trail of crushed hopes and empty wallets. It might work for some. It might be the start of something big. At the moment it has to go into the big bin labelled "Unestablished - Anecdotal".

It certainly has the interest of at least one person in the field who is skeptical about its wide applicability. That's an awfully thin "maybe" to pin your hopes on.

 

[shesulsa]

First off, my son is verbal and his sensory disturbances are mainly visual and auditory. His tactile senses are faulty in that they are slow and minimal. He has apraxia (though undiagnosed) and I think an underlying seizure disorder (also undiagnosed) as he can sit and zone out regardless of input and will require a strong input to 'reboot' from time to time.

His disorder manifests that he can absorb and comprehend, though demonstrating his comprehension must be done by communication through performing rather than communication via language. That means standardized testing can only measure his "IQ" at just below 70 labeling him retarded. But my son can cook, do laundry, make new friends (recent), perform many tasks which were deemed unthinkable upon his diagnosis.

Whatever helps people to become communicative and function markedly better than the alternative? Worth it. In this case the boy has proven to be educable, communicative, reachable. If rapid prompting can map synapses and give him purpose, great.

I wonder about the concreteness of the autistic brain and its expectation for constant stimuli and using this method to approach real life. What the reality may be is someone will have to be with the boy constantly and do nothing but prompt him all the time.

I suppose we'll see in the future if this proves to be a long-term, lifelong improvement or not.

 

[Ninjamom]

If you can, find the documentary, "Autism is a World". It follows through several routine days of an autistic twenty-something who was formerly-diagnosed as mentally retarded and institutionalized. In the documentary, she is shown attending mainstream college classes, with a health aid with her. She communicates through a keypad voice synthesizer, using it to speak in extremely well-structured, well-thought-out sentences. Via keyboard, she is articulate and engaging, although she still exhibits all the classic autistic patterns (flapping/rocking, echoic verbal outbursts, etc.).

My son has Aspergers, which is at the opposite end of the verbal scale among autistic disorders - he talks too much. All the time. Loudly. Continuously. Incessantly. Still, he has many of the same 'wiring problems' described in the article that affect the way he can interact with others.

From the article:

Many people with autism are able to take in information very well, but the wiring in the brain simply won't allow the information to be processed in the form of organized thought and language.

"Imagine what it would be like," he says, "to be able to understand everything that's said to you -- to think and to be unable to communicate your own thoughts and ideas."

How can I describe this? Imagine living your life in a box, and the only way for you to communicate to those around you outside the box is through a drinking straw. For some (not all) auties, a keyboard removes that straw and opens a wide channel of communication.