Posted by Racer on May 26, 2005, at 14:40:58
In reply to Check this---my autistic brothers med list..., posted by krybrahaha78 on May 21, 2005, at 23:24:59
After reading Temple Grandin's books, like "Emergence: Labelled Austistic," I do think there's definitely a place for some psychoactive drugs in the treatment of autism.
But I also know -- as in been there, seen that -- that many autistic children can benefit a great deal from Hippotherapy. "Benefit" as in "improve maybe more than you would expect." Here are a few links for you, if you're interested:
http://www.autisticsociety.org/autism-article176.html
This is an article about hippotherapy in autism.http://www.icanride.org/autism.html
Another article.http://www.strides.org/other.html
A lot of links about therapeutic riding, etc.http://www.narha.org/
THE place to go if you want to find a center near you -- although, if you don't see anything right near you, ask around at local barns. When I taught at one place, even though we didn't "do" therapeutic riding, I did take on kids with problems like CP if they asked. If a good teacher with some understanding of the problems involved has a horse available who can be part of a "treatment team", well, you might luck out with someone who can offer something good. Sometimes, despite lack of a formal program, just having the direct, individual attention can help a lot.I hope this helps, and if you do find your brother going that route, let me know through babblemail, OK?
(By the way, here's a story about hippotherapy and autism. This kid was just not getting it, with another teacher, not me. No matter how many times the teacher would tell him that he needed to sit up straight and tall, he still leaned way over to the side -- almost as though he was just testing her limits. One day, when he was leaning and she'd said it one time too many, she took one finger and poked at him. He went off to the side, and got up saying, "HORSEBACK RIDING!" With a huge lightbulb over his head, that you could almost see. When he got on, he never leaned again. Somehow, that experience helped him see the connection between sitting up and staying on, as well as the idea that the consequences were a natural function of what he was doing. Apparently, that improvement spread to other things, too, where the idea of "action -- consequences" played a role.)
Good luck.
poster:Racer
thread:501009
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050521/msgs/503220.html