Recent News and Articles on the Keywords: asperger's treatment + aspergers treatment + aspergers  Related to the article below (Last Update: 8/7/2008)

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Could the new Asperger's treatment help my son?

Sammy, the little boy featured in the Daily Mail article you refer to, was diagnosed as having Asperger's syndrome at four years of age. Asperger's syndrome describes children with a mixture of behavioural symptoms that might be regarded as mild autism. However unlike classical autism early speech development is not delayed, the child is usually of normal intellect and the child is less likely to show the extreme aloofness so typical of autistic children. They often walk with a characteristic loping gait. It is much commoner in boys. Children with Asperger's syndrome tend to be referred to specialists later than the typical autistic child, probably because their symptoms are less severe and often only come to light when they start mixing more with other children.

Speech development is not delayed but, as with the description of Sammy, the problem lies at a higher level of language function, with abnormal content and use of language. Such a child might say things irrelevant to the situation and play with words without understanding their meaning. Parents say, 'You can't have a proper conversation with him', 'He gets hold of the wrong end of the stick', 'He keeps going off at a tangent'. He might talk endlessly about a favourite topic (the dinosaurs in Sammy's case) but have no interest in playing with toy dinosaurs with another child. Because it is difficult for the child to interact with other people it can be very hard to follow instructions. For example he might be able to spontaneously name many objects on picture cards but could not do so if asked as he would not be able to engage socially with the person asking him. This can cause great difficulties with schooling as the structures of interaction which the teacher and class rely on to function would be beyond the child's understanding. Also he would not make friends readily and be something of a loner, unable to enjoy games or group activities with his own age group.

You ask about Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA) as Sammy's parents found this helped him. ABA is a form of early intensive behaviour therapy developed by the Norwegian psychologist Dr Ivar Lovaas over the last 30 years in the USA. He has applied it to children with autism and related disorders including Asperger's syndrome and published his results in 1987. These showed positive benefit in that 47 per cent of those receiving ABA achieved 'normal functioning' by the time they successfully entered full time mainstream education at the age of seven. The home based programme consists of 40 hours a week of intensive therapy, on a one to one basis for six to eight hours a day for five to seven days a week for two or more years. Teaching sessions usually last two to three hours a day with breaks. As it is so intense there is usually a need for a 'programme team' consisting of at least three people, all of whom have undergone a full teaching programme.

Such a programme is obviously hugely labour intensive, intrusive on the home setting and family life as well as being extremely expensive - the parents in the Daily Mail article describe a cost of about £20,000 a year.

Your son has, from what you say, already been seen, I presume by a child psychologist or psychiatrist, who has told you that his autistic traits do not fall into the autistic spectrum. This is good news as it means he does not have classical autism and probably does not even have Asperger's syndrome. However I can see that his traits of referring to himself in the third person and using language inappropriate to the situation could put him at the very mild end of the autistic spectrum - the difficulty here is that there is considerable overlap with 'normal' behaviour for a child of this age and in the light of anxieties about autism it is easy to label his behaviour as more than it really is.

I would suggest that if you are concerned about your son's behaviour you request a further consultation with your specialist or a second opinion, both about his diagnosis and possible ways you can help him.

You can find out more about autistic spectrum disorders and ABA by contacting :

The National Autistic Society 393 City Road London EC1V 1NG Helpline: 08706008585 www.nas.org.uk email: nas@nas.org.uk