by SWAT_RN

Hi all!! My DS was recently diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. The therapist he sees is very pro neurofeedback. My background is strictly acute care, so I really have little to base opinion on re: neurofeedback. Has anyone had experience with this, if so what are your opinions? Any other holistic treatments you may recommend for a child with Asperger's?
Thanks in advance!

Re: neurofeedback for Asperger's???

I don't know anything about it. Can you describe how it works? My son has AS, too. My best tx has been social skills training that I do at home and he also gets at school.

Re: neurofeedback for Asperger's???

Well so far, this is what I understand about neurofeedback...the setup is electrodes which are applied to the scalp, a computer and a monitor. The computer monitors the pt's brain waves and begins to play a video on the monitor. When the child (pt) is focused on the video, it plays smoothly...if the child is distracted or not focusing the video stops or is "jerky". This, according to the therapist will train the brain to focus. Supposedly after several sessions an improvement in behavior is seen. Between this and behavior modification we hope to get him more centered. What have you tried with your son, Judy?

Re: neurofeedback for Asperger's???

I don't know about that therapy. My son doesn't have attention problems, so I probably wouldn't be interested in that.

I use 'Social Skill Activities for Special Chidren' by Mannix. He gets more SS training at school with the speech pathologist (very good... some one-on-one for fine motor delay.

Re: neurofeedback for Asperger's???

Sorry- my keyboard jammed and I couldn't edit my last post..

He sees the SP for one-on-one and group speech therapy and gets PT/OT for fine motor issues. The pathologist works on pragmatic and practical language as opposed to articulation.

Along with the Mannix book, I use two books, both called "What Would You Do?" (they are by different authors and I expand on the themes as appropriate) and try to prep him for areas that I know will be problematic.

Most of our issues are language based, but his other weak area is understanding other people's motivations. He can't tell when someone is trying to trick him or get him into trouble. He also can't tell when he is being annoying to others with his one-topic interest, noisy-ness or movements (he hums constantly and waves his arms- not flapping exactly, but similar) .

I have not used any meds and have not seen any improvement with diet or vitamins.

Re: neurofeedback for Asperger's???

Great interview on NPR with Dr Fred Volkmar. It's 32 minutes and you can hear it here if you have a speaker.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=1872620

Re: neurofeedback for Asperger's???

Judy, Thanks for the link, it was very interesting and I'm passing it on to a coworker with an aspie son.