February 26, 2018 - Autism
It’s Dr. Sam and I’d like to talk to you today about how I work with autistic patients.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a wide range of conditions that can cause things like language, social, and emotional delays and psychological, biochemical, sensory-motor, and cognitive challenges. There’s a saying that when you’ve seen one type of autism you’ve seen one type of autism.
In the latest research scientists have found a very strong link between visual impairments and autistic behaviors. These behaviors include things like:
- avoiding eye contact
- looking down all the time
- focusing on one object for long periods of time
- skipping words
- losing your place
- closing, covering or widening one eye
- bumping into objects
- being disoriented when going into new situations.
One principle that is important to understand is that in the first trimester of fetal development, the eyes originate with from brain tissue. So when we work with the eyes, we’re working with an extension of the brain.
So what protocols do I use to treat autism?
- Primitive reflex therapy addresses very early infant motor patterns. If these reflexes are not fully integrated, sensory-motor development is negatively impacted.
- Link the vestibular system with the visual system. This is so important in helping develop better body orientation, bilateral integration, rhythm, and timing.
- Therapeutic prisms are special glasses that enhance and enliven a person’s spatial awareness.
- If a child has had birth trauma, I will apply craniosacral therapy. This is a wonderful manual therapy that helps release and reduce traumas that can affect sensory motor development.
- Check the diet for malabsorption, food sensitivities, irregularities in the endocrine and immune system, or other toxicities.
To sum it up, my approach helps link up the eyes with perceptual and body awareness so that we form and strengthen a unified eye-brain-body information processing system.