Hello all, I have a young child who was diagnosed with autism a few years ago.
I am writing to ask if anyone can point me to or suggest any alternative treatments or holistic options. I am trying everything I can and he is getting better but can't help but feel a more natural option may be the key.
Thank you in advance
Op, I made an account just to respond to your plea.
Please look into "The Listening Program" https://advancedbrain.com/
Although every child is different and the underlying specific causes of autism and other spectrum disorders can involve variances in the areas of the brain that are impacted. I can personally attest to this program (although expensive up front) to have actually improved the baseline for my child by quite a few points. We have also told many in our community about this and they've seen the improvements in my child even during the covid-19 crisis. --Basically most other therapies we were participating in were on hold and this was the only official therapy involved over the last year which produced the enormous improvements in communication, flexibility (change response), responsiveness to communication, and many other areas. Other children in our community with similar needs are now also in the program and experiencing positive results too.
You will need to find someone who can coach / monitor your child progress through the program is you were to go that route (for us this was just a phone call type follow up about how things were going and seeing that there was nothing happening that might warrant adjusting the schedule (I should mention the schedule for us was 5 days on 2 days off and the effectiveness is tired to being very diligent with keeping to it).
Unfortunately, we found this program was not really covered by our insurance (big surprise since it is actually permanently effective and consists mostly of a one time purchase for costs and is entirely reusable as a therapeutic system). After going through the entire program, we are currently in a 12 week off period where the Braun continues to reorganize itself cognitively and we will begin again afterward which should yield additional improvements from the first run through.
So the diagnosis,that this program generated amazing improvements for, include spectrum disorder, sensory disorder, a rare memory condition, and Cerebral Palsy (Drs say it's mild cp).
I'm not a doctor, but it's my layman's understanding that The Listening Program can be effective for any age (even helping adults improve areas of their life), but yields the most impact at improving baseline measures for children under 8 years old (something about how brain development works). Our therapists have stressed getting as much improvement as we can prior to 8 years because afterward therapy switches from trying to improve baseline to instead teaching coping mechanisms for where the baseline currently is.
Please do your own due diligence and research on this program. Confirm for yourself out is an investment that you believe would benefit your child. God bless, and I hope whatever you do that God brings the correct interventions into your life for your child to thrive.