I had the pleasure attending another event put on by “Surfers For Autism” this weekend at Daytona Beach, Florida.  This is just a great event and organization that anyone with a child anywhere on the spectrum should consider attending. I am sure that they are looking for volunteers not only for helping the children learn to surf but also with administrative issues. They do a great job with children of all levels of function and skill regarding to surfing. The event is totally free. They provide food and snacks. They negotiated an excellent rate on the event hotel. All in all, if you live anywhere near one of these events or perhaps can plan a weekend trip around one of these events I think that most children on the spectrum would benefit from this experience. As the founder of the Hitautism support group www.hitautism.net , I can tell you that I am behind this event and that our members truly enjoyed participating. Here is the link to their website. I would suggest that you check it out if not for the last event that they have this summer, then for the coming summer. Http://www.surfersforautism.org/index.html

I recieved this email from Autism Speaks and thought I would pass it along. 

  
You can read more about the ABLE Accounts Act of 2009 here. Thank you so much for your participation 

Tampa, Aug 23,2010

Improvements as much as 2 to 4 grade levels upon pre-and post-WIAT (Wechsler Individual Acheivement Test) with regard to reading, comprehension, written and oral expression and math reasoning were observed after a 12 week program of Hemispheric Integration Therapy. The program consisted of procedures such as aerobic and strength conditioning exercises, motor training including rhythm and timing exercises, sensory stimulation as well as academic training. A WIAT is a common test used by psychologist and the school systems to assess children with ADD and ADHD as well as other learning disorders. The WIAT includes subtest such as word reading, reading comprehension, math reasoning, spelling, written expression, listening comprehension and oral expression. The Brown Scale an ADHD assessment tool also showed improvements. The study was conducted by the F.R. Carrick Institute for Clinical Ergonomics, Rehabilitation and Applied Neuroscience, University of Haifa, DeMontfort University, and the Carrick Institute for Graduate Studies.

Tampa Dr. Nelson Mane D.C., is a pioneer in the use of functional neurology and Hemispheric Integration Therapy for the treatment of ADHD, learning disabilities and autism spectrum disorders said “ This is definitely a great day for functional neurologist applying the concepts of  hemispheric integration to neurobehavioral disorders!”  This type of treatment is growing in popularity due to the improvements that parents are seeing their children make. There is a great amount of research behind the concepts of Hemispheric Integration Therapy, last year the concept of functional disconnection syndrome was presented in the scientific literature and now the first outcome study was published in the “International Journal of Adolescent Medicine and Health.” I have personally seen many children go from worst to first in their class and have standardized testing scores improved. Parents are most impressed with how quickly their children can make gains. In the world of ADHD and learning disabilities to see such significant improvement in a 12 week period amazes many parents and teachers alike.  I am a clinician and am grateful to the researchers providing outcome studies which will  advance these procedures into the mainstream for the one in ten children with ADHD and the one in six children with a learning disability. As this is a drug-free approach, funding from the large pharmaceutical companies is not available and so it will probably take many years for Hemispheric Integration Therapy to become a standard practice. This is a great first step.

Dr Nelson Mane a Board Certified Chiropractic Neurologist has been interviewed by Spectrum Magazine, and the Tampa ABC, CBS, NBC affiliates as well as Bay News 9 for his work applying Hemispheric Integration Therapy and functional neurology for children and adults with ADHD, learning disabilities and autism spectrum disorders.  He was featured in the Autism documentary “Walking in the Dark: Finding the Light in Autism.”

This program was recommened to me by one of my patient’s ( the mom of course.) It apparently combines exercise and learning which as most of you know would fit very well into my approach. I have not seen the videos but I have a few parents that have ordered it and are going to give me feed back. This however might be a good fit for your child depending on their level of function. I think it’s worth checking out and it is relatively inexpensive compared to many of the programs out there. This is a pargraph I copied from their web site 

Neurological Benefits of Exercise

The second method takes advantage of the powerful growth factors for learning and memory created in the brain during exercise. These growth factors, BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) and IGF-1 (insulin growth factor 1) with others lead to the actual growth of new nerve cells and significant improvement in the connections between existing nerve cells in the brain

The end result of these “new and improved” nerve cells is faster and better learning.

The combination of multi-sense learning with neural growth factors produced during exercise allows the viewer of our educational program to learn the knowledge being presented faster and more completely than any other method in existence today.

He is the link         http://www.exploramania.com/ProductList.aspx?type=exploracise%20dvd%20collection

Diet related chronic diseases such as heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes represent a large portion of the morbidity (disease ) and mortality (death)  rates the United States and other westernized cultures.  The dictionary defines the Western diet as  one high in saturated fats, red meats, ‘empty’ carbohydrates–junk food, and low in fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, seafoods, poultry. Attention deficit hyperactive disorder has also been found to be associated with overeating, obesity and the Western diet. Many times as we evaluate both children and adults for conditions such as ADHD, the question as to whether diet and supplements can help with these conditions always seem to come up. Our experience has been that lifestyle changes such as reducing glycemic load, normalizing the acid/base balance, increasing fiber, evaluating vitamins and minerals as well as addressing fatty acids and supporting adrenal function can be beneficial  for these patients. This of course presupposes that the appropriate testing has been done to identify if any of the above factors are an issue for the ADHD patient. When I find information supporting these associations and these types of treatments, I feel compelled to get the word out. Therefore if you are eating a lot of  junk food, please make efforts to clean up your diet and that of your children. If the heart disease and diabetes didn’t motivate you I hope that the ADHD will.  Below please find to recent articles associating obesity and the Western diet with ADHD.

J Atten Disord.2010 Jul 14. [Epub ahead of print]

ADHD Is Associated With a ‘Western’ Dietary Pattern in Adolescents.

Howard AL, Robinson M, Smith GJ, Ambrosini GL, Piek JP, Oddy WH.

Telethon Institute for Child Health Research.

PMID: 20631199 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Curr Psychiatry Rep.2010 Jul 15. [Epub ahead of print]

Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Associations with Overeating and Obesity.

Davis C.

York University, 343 Bethune College, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario, M3J 1P3, Canada, cdavis@yorku.ca.

PMID: 20632134 [PubMed – as supplied by publisher

Financial matters is a very important subject in the world of autism spectrum disorders. In our case, although many parents do get  insurance reimbursement others do not. One of the many projects on the back burner  is to form a  nonprofit organization in order to allow those that are less financially able to have access to the type of treatment that we provide. Recently, I ran across some information regarding grants relating to treatment autism spectrum disorders. Our office provides functional neurology and hemispheric integration therapy as well as functional medicine and biomedical interventions. I’m not sure whether this will apply to services provided at our office however it may help cover services of a different nature.  I will have someone look into it. It is certainly something that may help someone with the burdensome costs associated with having a child on the autism spectrum. Here is a link to the information http://medicaidwaivernews.blogspot.com/2010/08/grants-available-for-families.html

I was speaking to a mother who has a child on the spectrum that has difficulty with language skills. The child speaks but does a lot of scripting. She also needs to be prompted to speak in full sentences. The mother came up with what I think is a great idea depending on how your child’s language is and where they are on the spectrum. She had not done it yet but was considering using this particular software as a tool. So once again I put the idea out there hoping that someone will benefit from it. I also hope that some of you will contact me and let me know what sort of results you have with this idea. Once again, this is how we all share and benefit. The idea is to use Rosetta Stone software in English to help her child learn to speak learn English. We are going to try this hear with this particular child. I hope that some of you out there tried also and give me some feedback.