Many parents of kids with disabilities go through life, like we have, investigating, researching and discovering all the types of therapies available to help our children. There are many routes I haven’t gone down, and others I’ve felt offered extra hope. Why one thing over another? Maybe a trusted person recommended something. Sometimes I’ve read a book that has really resonated with me or I’ve connected with a therapist and trust them. Other times, I know something won’t work for our family- I have trouble keeping us all fed with relatively healthy meals as it is- any elaborate diets are just not a reasonable thing for our family.
What is hard about all of this is that it feels like I have to do it all myself. Autism is something that has a lot of unknowns about it. There is no “cure”, but cutting-edge research being done all the time to help kids with autism make better sense of their world, see things differently, and grow and change as people. Maybe there are professionals out there that can give a run down on all the possible therapies available and recommend what might be good for my son, but from the number of things I’ve investigated, and knowing there are many things I haven’t investigated, I can’t imagine that any one person, Doctor, or clinic could keep up with it all. Most clinics will either stay with the tried and true Speech Therapy, OT and PT therapy model or they will specialize in one area- like behavior or nutrition. There are SO many places touting that they have “the answer,” to help your child, but I know by now that there is not just one thing that will help all the issues my child has. And while I want to help my child in any way possible, there is a limit to our time and money. We simply can’t do every therapy, even if we wanted to.
Let’s look at it from the parents point of view- we are generally overwhelmed with dealing with problems our kids are having and so life is overwhelming. We have to work in order to afford the extra therapies, which even if covered by insurance, still require co-pays, deductibles or co-insurance. And many are not covered by insurance ever, while some are covered once you have a diagnosis. Getting a diagnosis itself is hard- when we wanted to get into a developmental pediatrician, there were only a handful available nearby and every one was booked 9 months out. I then can’t rely on a busy doctor to collaborate with and ask questions if I have to wait nearly a year between visits. I could investigate the top hospitals in the Chicago area, where I’m lucky to live, which has many experts. However, that would be an hour drive each way for any appointment, taking time from work or school. It’s a hard thing to commit to. These are the type of things I’ve struggled with over the years and what our time is spent on- therapies, reading, researching and investigating. In the end, the process I use to decide is a combination of expert’s advice (doctors, therapists, authors, research findings), polling other special needs parents and my own gut feelings.
In no particular order, here are some of the therapies we have investigated; this is not an exhaustive list, just some of the things that come to mind. In a future post, I’ll post about the ones we have felt have been most helpful.
- Early intervention- speech, OT, developmental therapy
- Brushing/sensory protocol
- DIRFloortime
- Neurofeedback
- Vision therapy
- Sound therapy
- Music/Art therapy
- Massage therapy
- Therapy dogs/Reading to therapy dogs
- ABA
- PECs/Visual communication systems
- Work systems
- LekoTek (toy lending library)
- Social Thinking (used in conjunction with speech therapy usually)
- Social Groups
- Son-Rise program
- Nurtured Heart Approach
- Collaborative & Problem Solving Approach by Ross Greene
- Anat Baniel method
- Feldenkrais method
- Nutritional supplements
- Many diets (gluten-free, casien-free, sugar-free, etc)
- Visual-auditory integration specialist
- Cold laser therapy
- Play therapy
- Therapeutic Horseback riding
