Did You Get Treatment / Intervention?

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Little kids today with Aspergers & Autism are getting treatment to help them function. Did you get treatment growing up? Here is a list of popular treatments that are typical for what they call Early Intervention throughout the United States. I guess since most here are teens or older, I'm trying to gauge who got what and what was offered. For example, PECS is widely used to teach kids to speak, communicate and develope social skills.

Please vote. Comments welcome.


ABA
Floortime
Occupational Therapy
Physical Therapy
PECS
RDI
SCERTS
Sensory Integration Therapy
Son Rise Program
Speech Therapy
TEACCH
Verbal Behavior Intervention

Nothing! Most treatment I got didn't help me at all; the social skills group didn't teach me anything I didn't already know, or reinforce anything, but it was a great opportunity to socialize.


Do anti-d's to help me reverse some damage count?

I'll be 49 this month. When treatment/intervention might have been effective for me, AS was not in the lexicon of the American medical professionals. Looking at some of the things that are considered effective, I find that I was treating/intervening myself or at my parents goading. However, it was a mask that I learned (somewhat) to wear around what I now know as NTs. Such is life

I received loads of treatment as a kid. However, it was all based on the assumption I had childhood schizophrenia, which is how aspies were generally diagnosed in the 1960s. None of it helped me - none of it. I talk about what happened to me here:

narrative.neurelitism.com

I am grateful that I am a strong person. I know some others who went through what I did never managed to put their lives in order.

uh. no.

I don't even know what most of those treatments are. I don't recall anything being done for me except for my IEP, which seemed more for the school than for me. Why bother helping people when you can just improve their grades? It all looks the same in statistics.

What they didn't realize is that I was f*****g BRILLIANT but still did poorly in school because I didn't give a shıt.

I don't know what those acronyms mean, but I am currently being treated with neurofeedback. I am being treated for sensory processing disorder; however, the doctor treating me said he just got a new patient who is receiving neurofeedback for Asperger's. The theory sounded interesting, and I suppose it could work. I just really enjoy watching my brainwaves manipulate pictures and sounds on a computer

Those are just the mainstream treatments. Autism Speaks gives an explanation of each one and you can yahoo them.

But, here's what I was thinking. Even though many Aspies struggle, overall I feel most of them are capable of being successful in their own right. This board has been eye opening. They can make it through school. Many will go to college. Have relationsihps. Careers. Life may be difficult at times, but somehowe, they can pull through. All with little or no intervention.

However, I cannot say the same thing for Autistic people. It has taken a crew of like 35 (therapists, doctors, specialists, special programs, consultants, district officials, non traditional regimes) just to get our kid to elementary school. Whereas, Aspies can go through all of their school years and not get diagnosed until later. School wouldn't even be a factor for us had it not been for intervention. We'd have to homeschool the kid. So, I believe this is a major difference between Asperger and Autism. Many Aspies can make it in this world, even though it's a hard try. While most Autties would crash and burn if left to their own devises. Most of them do require intervention and support. Some, a lifetime.

What do you all think? Is my assumption too general and off base?

The treatment people of my era from the 1960's got was a little different. It was called get the snot beat out of you by half the football team treatment. Being bigger than most of them, at over 6 feet by 7th grade, I only got that as long as I didn't fight back. I resisted doing so because I hated the violence, I hated the feeling it gave me and I hated how MUCH I wanted to keep hitting them... People my size learn early on that other people BREAK if you're not careful. I saw it happen to plenty of others, and no I didn't intervene for exactly the same reasons I already listed. No adult would intervene, the teachers and administrators coddled the little bastards from the sports teams like they were young gods, which only cause their behavior to worsen.

Reading Lord of the Flies years later was no real surprise for me. I'd seen it already.

HOWEVER, early intervention is very beneficial if the program is suited to the child's level of affect. My son was in a program but I don't think they ever used any of the terms you have. It wasn't ABA, he was in a very small group all of whom were very high functioning... A bunch of 4 year olds using 5 syllable words and lecturing each other nonstop on unrelated topics... And yes, it helped socialize him. He is not nearly as affected as his little brother who wasn't able to go to that program, it had already been cut by the time he was old enough.

I had some kind of therapy (i forget what it was specifically but I think it may have been OT) when I was 2-3 years old, and a 3-year run on Prozac when I was in high school (since I was depressed for much of HS). Other than that, everything I have made I made for myself...

Back in kindergarten the school psychologist tried to tell my parents I was dyslexic. My parents were like "not OUR daughter" so that ended that and I got no help until now. Yes I'm 38 now and in occupational therapy and psychotherapy for AS plus brain injury I had a few years back. Part of my OT therapy is learning to have conversations. I wonder if I am the oldest autistic patient the therapists have had?

No treatment. Thank the goddesses.

The real key we found, especially with our oldest son was identifying the co-morbid disorders and treating them correctly. Nothing the boys take or have done other than that one early intervention project related directly to Asperger's. The numbers seem to indicate 50% or more of us will be subject to a mood disorder. Depression is (relatively) easy to deal with if properly recognized and treated. The problem is most seem to have a bi-polar or cycling condition. Antidepressants can really set that off. Mood stabilizers are key. OCD and Tourette's are also common. With luck, the OCD won't be too bad, Tourette's... as long as they don't have coprolalia (and only a small percentage do) it's just annoying and sometimes embarrassing. It's a lot easier to get people to understand why your six year old wants to cluck like a chicken than it is to explain why he's spewing out something that sounds like a Jerry Springer soundtrack... or a rap album, I guess.

Maybe that's the thing that gets me, yes we need to treat the mood swings and the tics, but autism?? KNOWLEDGE it the only treatment I needed there. Knowledge that "YES" I am different and "YES" there is a reason and here it is. KNOWING that I have to consciously learn body language/facial cues etc is the only tool needed.

Oh, and we're often offensive.... usually without meaning to be.