I was somewhat startled to read a September 16, 2011 promotional release for a Brain Balance Program center opening in Pennsylvania that claims to be a "revolutionary" treatment for a variety of developmental delays including ADHD, Dyslexia, Asperger’s, Tourettes, OCD, Asperger's and Autism. The Business Wire advertisement/news release Revolutionary Treatment for Developmental Delays Comes to Philadelphia is Bold and Brash and Boasts that contrary to popular belief autism and the other listed developmental delays can be cured ... via the "revolutionary" Brain Balance Program:
"What’s going on? Dr. Joseph Schneider, director of the new Brain Balance Center in Springfield, PA, asks a more direct question, “What’s going wrong?”
A widely held, but erroneous belief is that there is no cure for these problems, combined with well-meaning teachers and other professionals using academic approaches, may actually be contributing to the soaring statistics of new diagnosis.”
Parents are repeatedly told that these neuro behavioral and neuro academic dysfunctions can get better but they will never disappear. Not surprising considering that the methods that doctors, psychologists and behavioral specialists use to diagnose and treat these conditions have not changed in over 50 years.
“I can tell you that they CAN disappear. They do disappear. And I have fully documented proof that more than 1,000 children to prove it. It is called the Brain Balance Program, a revolutionary, non-medical approach that effectively corrects the hemispheric imbalance between the right and left sides of the brain,” say Schneider with unbridled enthusiasm."
It seems almost surrealistic, with all the intense debates about autism treatments, from the solidly evidence based like ABA to the ridiculously absurd like swimming with dolphins, to see a promotion for a "revolutionary" autism treatment program marketed with "unbridled enthusiasm". It almost seems like the owners of this proprietary treatment want someone to heap scorn and ridicule on their claims.
On autism treatments I am very small "c" conservative. I wait for credible authorities like the US Surgeon General and the American Academy of Pediatrics to review the research literature and offer guidance on what constitutes evidence based effective autism treatments. I am NOT telling other parents what to do with their financial resources or their child's precious development time. I am simply saying I want to see reviews by credible authorities before I gamble my son's development, and possibly his well being, on "revolutionary" treatments.
The unbridled enthusiasm of the co-owner of a proprietary treatment doesn't do it for this autism parent.
On autism treatments I am very small "c" conservative. I wait for credible authorities like the US Surgeon General and the American Academy of Pediatrics to review the research literature and offer guidance on what constitutes evidence based effective autism treatments. I am NOT telling other parents what to do with their financial resources or their child's precious development time. I am simply saying I want to see reviews by credible authorities before I gamble my son's development, and possibly his well being, on "revolutionary" treatments.
The unbridled enthusiasm of the co-owner of a proprietary treatment doesn't do it for this autism parent.
