Touro Unveristy
Pseudoscience
Did you know that if you search the Internet, you’ll find more than 400 therapies that claim to treat or ‘cure’ Autism Spectrum Disorder? In today's research tells there are only 2% of treatments that are strongly supported by evidence. ‘Fad’ therapies for autism spectrum disorder approaches that quickly become popular for a while, then disappear. They sound promising and show amazing results, but aren’t usually supported by scientific evidence.
The use of Holding therapy for autism spectrum disorder is based on a theory published in 1983 by a Dutch scientist, Niko Tinbergen which was about his observations of birds. Dr Martha Welch, a child psychiatrist in New York, made …show more content…
According to Welch and Chaput (1988) “Based on our experience, regardless of etiology, when early childhood autism is the symptom complex, intact families achieve significant to dramatic improvement in the symptoms, in the child’s relatedness to the parents, and in the quality of life of the family, provided they participate in a rigorous program of mother-child holding that is supervised to insure continuity of effort.” According to Simpson et al (2005) “Welch claims that some children with ASD have fully recovered from their disability and achieved normal development, and that all others showed some cognitive, emotional, and/or physiological improvement after being treated with her version of mother-child holding therapy”.
According to Boris (2003), “There were at least two deaths in the USA in 2002 attributed to interventions designed to address the specific 'attachment problems' of children. The forensic details suggest that the treatments employed in these cases were somewhat different; however, in both instances forcible restraint (e.g., a form of holding therapy) was used in an effort to “promote re-attachment.” According to Simpson et al (2005),”Any intervention that involves force is potentially physically and psychologically …show more content…
I am not ashamed of trying new things because any parent who has a child with or without special needs only wants the best for them. I have learned so much from this class after reading several fad treatments that led to losing a child. I think I would not forgive myself if i continued to put my son in a situation that could mean taking his life. The disadvantage of doing so many treatments at one time is not recognizing what really is helping him meet his goal. I also realized how many people join the bandwagon of advising and advertising to desperate parents about how they can cure their child of autism. As a parent, we should be more responsible in asking more questions and researching about what we want to use as scientifically based treatments to protect ourselves and our children from these dangers and