Low Cost, Low Risk Treatments for Autism
Cost for an evaluation by an occupational therapist: $400 and up.
Cost for a private autism school: $40-60,000 per year.
Cost for treatments like... Auditory Integration Therapy, Chelation, Vision Therapy, Hyperbaric Oxygen and similar biomedical interventions: up to hundreds of dollars per treatment.
Feeling overwhelmed yet? Take a deep breath. While you CAN spend an enormous amount of money for autism treatments - and in some cases risk serious side effects - you can also choose low cost, low risk treatments that may be just as effective.
How low cost? In some cases, you can get by with the price of a single book, a visit to the library, and access to the Internet.
Of course, in most cases the lowered cost is offset by the need for intensive parent training and/or involvement - but it may well be worth your time and energy to give these treatments a whirl.
Find out more: Low Cost, Low Risk Treatments for Autism
Comments
looking at the dvd cd social skills resource but low cost not are they at our sterling eqiv 15-20 pounds each there being more than 6 in the series
schools can give this input but if they engage with them they invaribly want the resource at home too..we are also at teenage yrs almost adult and one of our autism thought they were aimed too young
We may just be very fortunate but OT is covered 100% under my husband’s insurance. I’m just curious if others are as fortunate with their insurance.
It is tremendously irresponsible of you to recommend these treatments that are not empirically validated and may not be able to be implemented effectively without more training than reading a book. Please stop giving advice and go to an ethics seminar!
So far as I can see, “empirical” studies seem to validate dozens of different treatments — and depending upon your perspective, you may or may not find those studies compelling. Floortime, RDI, sensory integration, special diets, even chelation have been studied and found useful — though you may feel that the study protocols were flawed, or that the researchers were biased, or that some other issue stands in the way of “absolute” validation.
If you’re suggesting that I should recommend only behavioral treatments and speech therapy because they’re the most fully researched options available, I can only say that I disagree with your perspective. For many, many people behavioral therapy is a nice idea — but completely out of the question financially. And I, at least, have found that other therapies are very useful — and relatively easy to implement at home.
Best,
Lisa (autism guide)