Treatment Helps Non-Verbal Autistic Children to Speak

If you have a child who has PDD and is non-verbal, this article might be of interest to you. I have copied it for your information. The original article was printed in Health News. "Study tests novel treatment developed at BIDMC BOSTON -- A new treatment can help nonverbal children with autism to develop speech, according to a proof-of-concept study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and reported in the September 29 issue of the journal PLoS One. Known as Auditory-Motor Mapping Training (AMMT), the novel treatment builds on the observations that children with autism – who typically struggle with communication, as well as social interactions – often respond positively to music. Autism affects an estimated one in 110 children and one in 70 boys. ”Communication deficits are one of the core symptoms of autism,” explains first author Catherine Wan, PhD, a researcher in the Music and Neuroimaging Laboratory of BIDMC’s Department of Neurology and an Instructor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School (HMS). “It has been estimated that up to 25 percent of all children with autism are nonverbal, but surprisingly, not much is out there treatment-wise that directly helps these children to speak.” The AMMT treatment uses a combination of singing (intonation) and motor activities to strengthen a network of brain regions that is thought to be abnormal in children with autism. “We developed AMMT, in part, because another intonation-based therapy, known as Melodic Intonation Therapy, had been successful in helping stroke patients with aphasia recover their ability to speak,” adds senior author Gottfried Schlaug, MD, PhD, Director of the Music and Neuroimaging Laboratory at BIDMC and Associate Professor of Neurology at HMS. After eight weeks of AMMT treatment (five days per week), the six children in the proof-of-concept study -- who ranged in age from six to nine and were previously completely nonverbal -- were able to approximate whole words and phrases. The children could also generalize their speech production to words that were not practiced during the therapy. “Noticeable improvements in speech were seen as early as two weeks into the treatment,” explains Wan. “More importantly, the improvements lasted as long as two months after the treatment sessions ended. “In the future, we plan to compare the effectiveness of AMMT with a control intervention,” she adds. “For these nonverbal children to say their first words is especially gratifying for parents, and represents a critical step forward in their language development.” This study was supported by The Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation and the Deborah Munroe Noonan Memorial Research Fund. In addition to Wan and Schlaug, study coauthors include BIDMC investigators Loes Bazen, Rebecca Baars, Amanda Libenson, Jennifer Zuk and Andrea Norton, all of the Music and Neuroimaging Laboratory; and Lauryn Zipse of the MGH Institute of Health Professions. BIDMC Contact: Bonnie Prescott Phone: (617) 667-7306 Email: bprescot@bidmc.harvard.edu "

Dynavox Maestro

I was a graduate student in 1996, and was in an elementary school in Arnold, MD to do an observation of a 4th grade class. In that class was a girl who had no ability to speak. When she first came to the school for mainstreaming, she could only scream. When I arrived for my observation, she had been provided with a Dynavox communication device and had learned to use it. She could carry on conversations with her classmates and her teacher using her Dynavox and no longer needed to scream. I thought then, how wonderful it would be if V had access to something like that. It was out of reach for us at that time. The device is very expensive and, although medicaid would pay for the device with proper paperwork, V did not have medicaid at that time. It is possible that her private insurance would have covered it, but a speech language pathologist would have needed to write a lengthy report to justify the need for the device. V was not making great progress with her speech therapist at that time, or really at any time that she was in school. Years later, I asked the school speech therapist about pursuing the Dynavox. Her response was that V needed to master less complex communication systems before she would be ready for it, and the matter was dropped. Without her support, it was impossible to get the funding necessary to obtain the device. However, in my mind, providing V with such a device that would allow her to say what she wanted or needed to say, was the ultimate goal toward reducing her frustrations. Having Lauren, our current speech therapist, begin to work with V 2 and a half years ago was the beginning of making real progress toward that goal. Lauren has been building V's picture vocabulary weekly and teaching her how to use the pictures as a means of communication. Finally, V had someone who believed in her ability to use something more advanced to express herself and we began the application process to get V her own Dynavox Maestro device. Lauren completed the report that is required by Medicaid, which confirms the need for the device and the ability of user to access the device. I had V's primary care physician write the prescription for the device, as durable medical equipment, and the Dynavox representative put together the application packet and sent it to Medicaid for approval. The process began in July, and we had our device by the end of September. The day the Maestro arrived was a really exciting day. I had waited 15 years for my daughter to have access to this. We are just at the beginning of this process now. Lauren and I have to learn to use this device and personalize it for V. V's tutor and her support staff will have to be trained to use it with her has well. We can't get our initial training meeting with the Dynavox representative until Oct 25, so we are trying to figure out how it works on our own for now. There are instruction manuals, tutorials on the device and also on the Page editing software, and recorded online classes on the Dynavox website. There is also a technical support phone number. I have found all of the resources helpful so far. I was able to get through to a human being quickly at the tech support phone number for assistance with downloading the page editing software. Courtney, our sales rep at Dynavox, has responded to my email questions quickly. Because of page editing software, Lauren and our tutor can prepare pages that they need to work with V from their home computers, save the work to a flash drive, and plug it in to the Maestro when they arrive at my house for their session with V. Right now, Lauren has the Maestro at her house to work with it, but I can still use the page editing software to personalize Vs pages at my computer. We have a lot to learn about this powerful tool, but I am hopeful that it will allow V to speak to us the way she wants and needs to. She will have to learn how to navigate her way through the device, but she learns what she wants to learn pretty quickly. She has shown promise with similar software on the ipad. The accessories include a carry case with a should strap to protect the device and minimize the chance of dropping it, a 9 hour rechargable battery, and a keyguard so that her resting hand won't disable the touchscreen. I am excited to see what a difference this device might make in V's life!