Should parents give up on their children’s enjoyment of therapeutic processes in order to achieve significant and measurable results?

Frans Tassigny

Description

Should parents give up on their children’s enjoyment of therapeutic processes in order to achieve significant and measurable results?
Thousands of stressed-out parents are trying to find suitable therapies for their autistic children. What contributes to their stress is the process of deciding between what many parents perceive as being either (1) results-oriented, mechanistic main-stream therapies or (2) process-oriented, enjoyable, but alternative therapies.
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Informations

• Publié par: Une-Universite-de-la-Psychanalyse
• Nombre de lectures: 16
• Langue: English

Extrait

Should parents give up on their children’s enjoyment of therapeutic processes in order to achieve significant and measurable results?

Thousands of stressed-out parents are trying to find suitable therapies for their autistic children. What contributes to their stress is the process of deciding between what many parents perceive as being either (1) results-oriented, mechanistic main-stream therapies or (2) process-oriented, enjoyable, but alternative therapies. http://www.autisticvancouver.com/free-workshop/

David Nevel• Dr. Levykh, The answer to the somewhat loaded question you ask is "no." A pleasurable experience for children participating in a therapy program and quantifiable outcomes should not be mutually exclusive. For example, Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), which research has shown is the most effective means of helping children with autism and related developmental delays develop skills that other children acquire naturally (such as functional language), relies heavily on the use of socially mediated positive reinforcement. Behavior analysts, therapists, and teachers who have successfully used behavioral methods will report that the most effective ABA interventions and teaching programs are those that children find enjoyable. There is often a warm bonding process that occurs between the therapist or teacher and the child, and ABA teaching environments are filled with enthusiasm and joy. There is no need to mischaracterize methodologies that achieve "significant and measurable results" in presenting your alternative therapy.

Dr. Michael Levykh, PhD• Dear David,

I am not surprised at your being so offensive, since you are an ABA practitioner, after all. However, I am genuinely surprised at the fact that you – being an attorney – misread my post. What I wrote was: “what many parents perceive as being either…or.” This was an opinion shared with me by ENORMOUS amount of parents I have been in contact with for the past decade. While I have no doubt at your abilities to defence intelligently the very therapy you practice (ABA), you seem to have no expertise in alternative methodology and its efficacy supported by equally convincing research.

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David Nevel• I didn't mean to offend you, Michael. Frankly, I was a bit taken back by the implications of your post and workshop announcement. Let's write it off as a misunderstanding. I would certainly welcome the opportunity to review any research you have demonstrating the efficacy of the alternative methodology you have developed.

Dr. Michael Levykh, PhD• No harm done, David. We will keep it touch. :)

Shell Tzorfas• A great therapeutic process whether certified or not, should be a fun nurturing session. I teach kids using a lot of art, drawing painting and others. There is much that can be learned with this skill-and quietly, I advance these kids using art into reading and writing. Sometimes puppets are used for behavior strategies. Sometimes the eyes respond to exercises that improve reading and writing. It is a holistic approach- but one that might not have a specific name. Perhaps because it covers so many different multiple layers. Thanks, Shell of "Recovering Autism ADHD and Special Needs," as introduced on youtube.

Dr. Michael Levykh, PhD• Shell, you made a very important point: "There is much that can be learned with this skill-and quietly" - fun DOES NOT necessarily have to be in here-and-now; that is, on the surface the child can be quiet, even serious, but the process is still very enjoyable and the REAL fun begins when the child achieves the mastery. Thank you. :)

Debbie Dacus, MT-BC• Dr. Levykh--I was sincere in my request to visit with you more about your methodology and explore your personal experience with music therapists. I am in Texas and don't know the availability of MTs in the Vancouver area. It seems to me, from what I have read of your research, that we could collaborate beautifully and could share some knowledge with each other. Would you have any interest in pursuing that? Thank you for what you are doing for your clients.

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Dr. Michael Levykh, PhD• Dear Debbie, sorry I was too busy to respond to your warm and encouraging post. It would be lovely to talk more; I will be available (through email, for now) only on Saturday or Sunday, if that works for you. Thanks, Michael

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Debbie Dacus, MT-BC• Terrific! Let me know how to contact you and thanks for your willingness to visit. Debbie

Dr. Michael Levykh, PhD• Just a reminder: LESS THAN ONE WEEK LEFT !!!

John Slegers• .

I've read several complaints about ABA by parents who used it. I'm certainly not convinced that ABA is the way to do.

Anyway, cognitive capacity, spontaneous behavior, sensory sensitivity, stress tolerance and other important factors differ so strongly on the individual level that what's the perfect therapy for one person is holding the other person back. There's most definitely no one-size-fits-all solution for therapy and many folks do not even need therapy or special treatment at all to become succesful in life.

Ellen Doman• John, Thanks for stressing the issue of individual differences. I completely agree that there is no one-size-fits-all solution therapy-wise and drastically varying levels of need for a therapeutic intervention of any kind. Even within the life of one individual, what works and what is needed changes. This is where the simple diagnostic labels often lead professionals astray.

David Nevel• John, Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is predicated on the premise that each person's behaviors are the product of his or her own biological makeup and unique history of environmental influences. ABA interventions are therefore tailored to the needs and abilities of the individual rather than according to a "one-size-fits-all" curricula or learning program. If you want to know more about ABA, I suggest you review the research literature, which shows that the methodology has produced excellent outcomes in helping children and other persons with autism and other developmental and intellectual disabilities learn, develop, and become more independent. I am sure Dr. Levykh will agree with me on this, and is not suggesting that his therapy and ABA are mutually exclusive.

John Slegers• @ David Nevel :

Herebelow are two comments from mothers of a child with ASD who was treated with ABA that should give you an idea of where I'm coming from....

" Filling up my daughter's day in & out of school 50 weeks of the year with 40hrs of ABA did not change her capability to learn it just allowed her to acquire skills that once we moved on to learning new skills were in the main quickly forgotten, or that she continued to need to be prompted on. Why? Because she simply did not learn the 'why bother' that self motivates.

When we moved away from ABA to RDI (which is a parenting based programme) she gained the 'why bother' & began to learn the things we had tried to teach her unnaturally through ABA in a natural way. The more competent she felt in her own aquisition the more she explored to learn more. And she was one of those self-injurious, non-verbal children. She also learnt to talk through ABA but did not learn to communicate until we stopped using ABA. "

" Mention ABA to my young adult ASD kiddo and he'd spit at the experience. It didn't last long. Just like anything else, ABA is only as good as the people who are practicing it, and like anything else, fits only certain people, not all. I know about what [name] is doing , the RDI, and I know many mothers who use it on their own...and they modify it to suit their child(ren) and parenting style as time goes on. Since we accept ASD as a developmental delay, lots of these kids need more time to even develop trust (Erikson's trust vs mistrust stage before they move onto the next few stages -- "

Dr. Michael Levykh, PhD• Dear All, Although I tend to play a devil’s advocate more often than not, I think many of us are stuck at the level of a particular label. For example, Behaviourists considered our mind as being something unknown, a black box. Well, just because our mind was not part of the main behaviouristic model, that doesn’t mean that at the peak of the behavioural movement, people all over the world suddenly became headless. Likewise, during the cognitive revolution, many leading researchers were using computer generated model of information processing, which did not include emotions. Well, just because during the cognitive revolution, emotions were not included in the main-stream models and were considered opposition to cognition, it doesn’t mean that suddenly instead of being humans, we all became heartless robots. However, my question is: How can one possibly think that a marriage between a headless person and a heartless robot could possibly lead to the creation of a whole person? In other words, what does really Cognitive Behavioural Therapy stand for?

Debbie Dacus, MT-BC• Dr. Levykh---I am new to this LinkedIn thing. Did you get my email sent directly to you? Debbie Dacus, MT-BC

David Nevel• John, Describing what two mothers supposedly said to you is no substitute for becoming familiar with the scientific research. There are many, many published studies demonstrating that ABA is effective in helping people with autism and other developmental and intellectual disabilities learn and develop as well as replace problem behaviors and become more independent. I do agree that ABA "is only as good as the people who are practicing it," but that is true of any methodology.

Dr. Michael Levykh, PhD• It is unfortunate, David, that the type of research you refer to, uses naïve empiricism, as it advocates, not only to make an effort to accurately see what is there – and, let’s face it, behavioural reactions are the easiest to notice and measure, but also to make an even bigger effort not to see what is not there. In the short story Silver Blaze, by Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes solves a mysterious disappearance after noticing the “curious incident” of the dog in the night. When noticed by Watson that the dog did not bark in the night, Holmes replied that THAT was the curious incident. :)