Are There Treatments for Adolescents and Adults with Autism?
In my personal opinion, the "window of opportunity" concept creates unnecessary stress, pain, anxiety and spending. While research does show that children who start treatment early do well, there is very little to say that children who start treatment later do poorly. In addition, because no one really knows WHICH early intervention will work for which child, parents wind up involving their child in half a dozen different therapies at the same time.
Not only is this approach stressful and expensive for everyone involved, it also pushes families into the assumptions that (a) the goal for their child should be "typicalness;" and (b) they'd better be typical right away -- because if they're not mainstreamed by kindergarten, the rest of their life will be a disaster!
I'm pleased to let parents know that, based on recent interviews with therapeutic specialists, many treatments continue to be effective into adulthood. Dr. Stanley Greenspan, creator of Floortime, Dr. Steven Gutstein, creator of RDI, and even the behavioral specialists at the Lovaas Institute all agree that their therapies can be very effective for teens and adults!
Read what the Lovaas Institute says about ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis) for older individuals on the spectrum. Stay tuned for more information about developmental and other treatments for teens and adults. And -- please share your experiences with supporting and treating teens and adults on the autism spectrum.
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- Rich Shull says:
Autism has a living anthropology! An unstudied livng anthropology of people that do more than Temple Grandin does. We explain everything from Einstein to the village idiot. Our world wide anthropology has for the most part done a double -blind autism experience and simply admitting to us will unintentionally cripple modern autism. Our people typically bridge the gap between traditional thoughts and autism ones. Most of us hold traditional jobs and drive,most of us also for one reason or another missed the Autism diagnosis and absently did everything modern Autism Claims as taboo in our learning experience. Between the splinter skills and the whacks and the intense tutoring and pure good luck including parents and teachers that grew to know our lack of eye contact was normal for us, we came out pretty well. We could not have been any luckier! We missed Rain Man’s curse and might have discovered the building blocks of the human mind.
Rich Shull
http://prerainmanautism.blogspot.com - Rich Shull says:
With the deepest respect for those in the modern Autism Spectrum, the families the aspies and the LD teachers espcially ,many of you will choke on this next statement, Autism could be taught by 6th grade! Our Anthropology has done the long hand version of this experience by trial and error and if you considended our milestones and even knew of our invisable to you thought process you would know autism is not much more than a different language. How many people in the world speak several languages, in simple terms that is all we are doing. Only thing is our language has never been in a text book before.
Naturally, looking from inside out and for many of us completing our double blind -experience just as Rain Man’s magic filterd threw autism We steadly seen Autism grow and grow as the diagnosis standards were lowered. Now that autism is in epedmic proporations and it has attracted many well intentioned but off the mark researchers that honestly think and feel they are on the right track and on the surface it looks like they are. Sadly we are ‘no real help’ modern aspie today are lumped in a big pile and no one had the education and discpine we were able to have and literally we split hairs to achieive and it worked. An aspie like us that knows the picture thought ,keen senses ,has the preferance to alone , the pain tolerance and a splinter skill or obession to guide them threw life is buried and probably termed low functioning in modern autism. Ocassionally a few of us make it to the real world and make up for lost time.
Modern Autism just hates the idea we do ’so well’ in real life and do more than Temple does. They are working under the mis aphrension autisitc are retarted deep down -granted we appear that way at times and those of us that do so well have figured out a never in print before thought process and that makes our story all the more suspect. If we could get anyone in Autism or Psychology circles to listen to what we have figured out they to would see what we see and they would know just what it is we have done to overcome. The funny thing is with autism you either make it or you don’t and we all have the same thoughts weather were a savant or the villiage idiot, it is only how we are able to carry off those thoughts and translate them to “normal” speech that determines how well we do in real life.
Politically our Anthropology and its long term double-blind experience is not best thing that modern autism would ever want to know about, Our facts and the absance of lots of ‘modern facts of autism’ will live the autism empire of today scrambling for an answer to us. I just seen somplace on line where Autism funding reached 1 Billion dollars , that is a lot of reason to ignore the retarted people of autism.
Please note most of us that realte and connect and do some version of a real life are picture thinkers, we use the invisable to you thought process signaled by the lack of eye contact. NOT EVERYONE in autism is a picture thinker and it is for sure the people teaching us are not either so there fore we can’t be “right”, But our sucessfull anthropology indeed has figued out something different. Autism was easy compaired to the idea we now have to overcome the Autism empire and its power and clout just to be heard. The very oldest definations of autism before Rain Man are the ideals we tend to meet weather we are 20 something or 90 something. I know most people in autism cicrcles never dream there is old and new autism and we have bread so many generations of group home folks that autism now sports it own history and it is not pretty. I feel sure If Rain Man never cursed Autism and turined it into a buzzword thing, there would not be an autism epedmic and better yet the building blocks of the human mind would have been figured out by now. Perhaps we really can explain everything from Einstein to dyslexia but Modern Autism seemingly will never allow that to happen. How very sad. For the view of our Autism “report” please read the book The Enginma by Andrew Hodges it unknowingly is the best Autism book of all time as it describes the father of the computer ,autisitc Alan Turing 1912-1954.
Rich Shull , Author Autism Pre Rain Man autism, Inventor of The Turing Motor
On the web at http://prerainmanautism.blogspot.com
- Cynthia Whitfield says:
It’s not at all clear to me what Rich Shull is saying, so I can’t comment on that. What I will say is that the pressure for early treatment was a hit or miss thing for me. At first I tried the treatments I could afford — which meant I wasn’t able to do any signfiicant amount of ABA. My son finally got into an intensive services classroom when he was six that offered limited (about fifteen hours a week) of ABA for 1 1/2 years. I kind of didn’t do any further intervention except put him on the bus for the special needs classroom. He is not low-functioning, so there was little mainstreaming. Now he’s 12 and I’ve gotten worried about all the treatments I missed. I wish I’d tried chelation earlier — I’m just doing it now. I wish I’d insisted on more ABA — I wish…. It goes on. However, I haven’t given up and will continue to pursue more avenues in my quest to help my son.
Cynthia
- Caroline says:
Here is a layman’s point of view…
Do humans every stop learning? Not until they are dead.
Is there a “Window of Opportunity”? Yes, just like there is for any child, the window of opportunity gets smaller after the age of 10. However, that doesn’t mean that education stops after that age. Schools don’t close the doors after that age because we “can no longer learn”, including how to behave in social settings, specific situations etc. What ends up changing (and not necessarily for the best, but change it does) is the way that we are taught after that age. More life skills are taught typically, because they are more called for.
Is early intervention needed? YES! Like a house being built, it cannot stand without a proper foundation, and likewise people’s life skills. Without the basic skills being taught at an early age, the skills needing to be taught and learned later on cannot happen.
So, is the “Hype” for early intervention validated? In my opinion, yes.
Should the “Hype” end after the prime age of 10 or when childhood ends? NO! Like learning how to ride a bike, once you learn, you’ll never forget. But, if you don’t ride that bike for years, you sure are rusty at it when you try again. Same with life skills. They need to be used consistently, or fall out of practice using them.
I don’t have fancy degrees, but am a mom of 3 special needs children, am an Special Ed Assistant, and a Youth Worker with special needs and troubled youth. There are not enough services for adults out there, because they need the support as they are pushed out into the world. Services such as children get should not end just because one reaches a certain age.
Just my 2 cents worth. Off to work now.
Cheers
Caroline - Tamara says:
I have a 20-year-old daughter who has autism. She didn’t receive any specialized treatment for autism until she was 10 years old. After that she progressed a great deal. I used to work for our state Dept. of Mental Health as a parent advocate and, while I believe that early intervention is great, one’s child is not *lost*
if that is missed. I imagine it depends somewhat on the level of the child but mine was totally non-verbal and shut off from the world. Inside that shell she was very intelligent but the schools had no idea how to tap that intelligence. We home school and she is still learning more each day. She still has some mild language problems, but no speech problems. I do believe that good speech therapists are important, and she had those when she was in school.
My main message is don’t despair and never give up! But also, it is unrealistic to believe that your child will become completely *normal*. Temple Grandin, in spite of everything, is not. - Rich Shull says:
As I watched Autism be invented right under my nose so to speak I got to witness as those like me, more ‘temple grandin’s” in our group have, the unintentional curse of Rain Man Era policies make a wash autism. Our autism thoughts have never been in a text book before and when have our LACK of eye contact that is when If we have figured out autism wise when we think with a brain generated image we convert to traditional speech. Our OPTIC vision is OFF!
Our anthropology of very high functioing Autisitc people from all over the world all share the same autism thoughts and milestones and even a unique social twist to our autism experience but naturally with modern autism getting a hold of the wrong ideas they can’t see there are 25 more chapters to life beyond Temple’s Thinking in Pictures. They don’t realize and will not allow us to print our versions of autism as we build on Temple’s work. There are at least 200 more people in our high functioning autism Group that do well. We hold traditional jobs many of us drive, we have learned how to do life autisitcally and normally! Completed Autism thoughts DO mimic traditional thoughts but unfullfilled autism thoughts, like aspie end up with today make us the sterotypical underachieiver. No matter what country we are from or language we speak the Autism is the same, our Autism gave the world Rain Man Savants and the computer, (Alan Turing) SHOCKINGLY we can explain Savants and even Enstein.
Modern Autism DROPPED us like a hot potato when they discovered our online anthropology all figured out something they had never dreamed of. They cringe when our Anthropology ranges from 90 year olds to teenagers and they really can’t explain why it is we only meet the very oldest defination of Autism only. As they hear our very odd development stories and relaize we learned via splinter skills and people also learned that we didn’t have eye contact no one cared, we were LUCKY and by not being forced to the eye contact ideal of modern Autism we were absently able to figure out our invisable to you thought process called Autism.
Naturally, the Autism invented with out our understanding or the beneifit of our Double -blind expereince is lacking in the very core knowlege of Autism. I hope our old figured out autism proves to be the building blocks of the human mind. We can explain everything from Einstein to dyslexia and even the villiage idiot. None of this information is reachable in any current text book, it has never been in a psychology course before and still it is autism. People will be shocked to learn the Villiage idiot and the Savant share the same core thought and the invisable thought process that works so well for us is how we bridge the gap of the human mind and even expain the step -by-step process people really use to think with- trust me we DO use all of our brains!
Our Autism Anthropology has invented the computer, Connected HAm Radios and Computers together I have invented autisitcally a 70% efficint Green car motor, working Autism is great and we are hope Autism was once known for. We find our Autism Thoughts for the most parts Are TOO complicated and need watered down to be comunicated. We also find our Autism thoughts have never been in a text book before and they are our natural to us primary Thought process that we have to figure out on our own via trial and error. We absently had the chance to do that ,we grew up before Rain Man. Even Autisitc teens of today relate to us ocassionally!
Interestingly Socially lots of us in our group have also figured out our stuttering and connected our thoughts to social things. The only thing that might never be figured out is how to break the ice of Rain Man and the billion dollar “Expert empire” that can not afford to hear us today, we unintentionally explain the impossible, and perhaps even the keys to man’s mind. (humor) If we ever win the pools the lotto, we might be able to buy back a chunk of Autism.
Sincerely Rich Shull, Author Autism Pre Rain Man Autism ,builds on Thinking in Pictures and inventor of the Turing Motor a 70 efficient green autisitcally designed car motor.
- Rich Shull says:
I started school in 1966 in Carroll Ohio, I was oddest kid in school and my education experience was a filled with all kind of wild and strange things. I was even visited by “experts” of then new Nosinger Center from Columbus Ohio and thankfully no one could pin a label on me. I was via my splinter skills making A’s and via my traditional skills I was being taught making F’s. I was always considered borderline Special Education.
No one ever heard the word “autism” in my circle of help and I was in fact 35 before I heard Temple Grandin and said That is Me’ That is How ” I think”. I can think of at least 200 more people like me that have all done this double blind Autism experience. If our story is ever documented Modern Autism and mankind will be changed forever for the better. Our Parents Teacher Tutors and the simple discpline of the times all let us split the right hairs at the right time and polished our diamonds in the rough as we discovered autism, our autism. Sadly while we were completeing our experience Rain Man era politics was getting bigger and bigger and our simple keys to life, our mornfull success , our real life social skills our driving experience and real life splinter skills in action all let us present OK but no one professionally seems to care how well we do that trick,admitting to our anthropology is nothing but trouble for modern Autism we unintentionally bust their bubble.
Perhaps the scariest thing for the onlooker is our lives have turned out to be splinter skills and once we learn via our splinter skills that knowlege simply flows over in to life at large ,even socially our life was built on splinter skills and obessions. The Splinter skill business was the Very first and most obvious thing Modern Autism Took from us ignorantly not knowing it answered the very question of Autism. Our Parents and tutors all did the “wrong” things to trick us into learning and not one of us was on an autism diet. Our ABA type of things were done strangly and differently via real life. Older Autism researchers I met knew of the old autism we don’t know so well today and they were told to get with the new program or quit. If only Rain Man hadn’t derailed Autism research we might have just figured out the building blocks of the mind. I predict that even the aspie of today if simply taught the basics of Autism will GROW and BLOOM like we did even if they are in a group home!
PLEASE Note The Autism I talk about here is Picture based. We think with brain generated images that turn off our optic vision, We are the picture thinkers ,this is the autism that works so well in real life and the autism that explains the details of man’s mind. Not everyone in Modern Autism (espcially modern) is a picture thinker but if this Version of Autism is clearly the best working version of autism and it is even been figured out with an anthropology to back it up. Please keep in Mind Modern Autism is working VERY hard to keep us under wraps at the very least our knowlege shows lots of autism was invented out of mid air. We have too many hurt families and people in group homes to ever admit there was something that worked long ago.
Autism Still has hope only it is buried in Rain Man empire! We all build on the life of Temple and take her picture thoughts all the way to the bank. We do at least 5 more major types of picture thoughts than she mentioins in Thinking in Pictures. Our Picture in Picture thought allows us to be very social and keep eye contact and still think in pictures. Someone tell the “experts” of Autism please.
- Charlotte says:
I am the mother of a 20yr old aspergers & 15 yr old PDD - both termed ‘high functioning’ & went thru school w/a variety of home & public/RSP education. Services, knowledge of therapies & professionals who were able to identify autism were scare in our rural area. Did not truely address anything as “autism” until youngest was 8yrs old. So, previous to that, it was me teaching in whatever way they learned best & running ‘interference’ to make sure they received the social respect they deserved, even with their different perspectives & reactions.
I still wish we had started earlier & think it makes sense that it would be more effective, but we came a long, long way even starting later.
My problem now (beleving autism intervention/remediation & learning can & does still happen as they get older), is finding a ‘therapy…expert’ that has any amount of experience working with young men this age & functioning level. Their awareness level as young adults will not allow them to be treated like babies by a therapist & yet many of the practicioner do not have any other approach or experience.
They both appear “typical” for the most part & funtion w/in their respective High School & State U. schools. BUT, struggle through appearing to instructors as underacheiving(as Mr. Shull stated)or lazy. The 20yr old would love to try & explain his unique thought process & have profs who ‘care’… but they just don’t.There is an ‘aging’ world of autistics out there who need & deserve the continued oppertunity to learn, grow & open their functioning to ‘the ways’ of the rest of the social world. NOT, just books on coping, masking, mimicing, compensating, accomodating.
For the older autistic, we have been impressed with the recent development of RDI Relationship Development Instruction & believe they are on the right track of core deficit. But, again, we need books, references, examples & pictures of young adults going through autism “RDI social therapy” at yng adult/adult age & awareness.
We need’consultants’ ready to treat both parents & young adults where they are at & respect where they have been on the autism treatment historic timeline. And, recognize the embarrassment & discomfort experienced by both at having to ‘go’ so far back developmentally to fill in the ‘Voids’ of unexperienced, non-internalized emotional responses to others.
It is my belief treatment is still more than necessary for adults. My boys have response behaviors that may not be ‘productive’ & need to be diminished or relearned, but, know that they (or we) put them there simply as a way to protect & survive because no one was out there to help us do it differently.
Thanks for taking the time to care!
Charlotte
- Rich Shull says:
Autism is indeed setting on great hope! And the best part of it is ;it has been figured out and proven ,just not admitted to. If only the autism powers would let their guard down a listen to our anthropology we have lots of insight of real life working autism.
NO We do not have all the answers and would be fools to claim we did but, we do have the best functioning autism population on earth ,we have to have done something right. I feel sure even the most untrusting of expert will see the experence we did and the autism we learned really did spell our succes. Again ,what will tell them has never been in a book before so that makes it supect on that point alone.
I have the greatest of hope even those graduating from High shool reading at the first grade level will eventually do a real life. I have been able to distantly tutor 4 such people via online prompts and they all have improved and one even drives these days (no License). People show their kids my book or webpage and they in effect see their thoughts and like we did they cerate their own version of autism. Once they get a few of their basics down pat they amazingly start doing a better life. I tutor the best I can over the web and naturally it would work better face to face. Those I can tutor in person really only have to overcome the ideal modern Autism has that are “too something” too stupid to whatever to function. I’ll be the first to admit we don’t insipre confidence but you will be shocked just like our parents were how well we do get along after being forced into a few things. That to will be come obvious if Autism would care to listen and unite our anthropology. Rich Shull