What are the effects of long-term interactive music therapy on young adults with severe autism?

Autism - am i wrong in stopping this therapy?

• i have a son who is 3yrs 8 mnths. by now i have no doubt that he is suffereing from autism. ( i went thro a whole period of denial and looking for other possible causes for his problem), his problem actually is that he cannot understand what is being said..language receptive delay. he is echolalic. repets almost everything said to him but he cannot retain words and their meaning. many times when he wants to say something you can see him thinking hard for the correct word. his current vocabulary..for words whose meaning he knows is arnd 45-50. small words like ball, bird cat, aeroplane...stuff liek that. he has been on therapy on and off for almpost 1 yr. but here lies my main problem. for him ohter than language delay/ communication problem and the resulting frustration, he has no other problem. he is very normal as far as emotions, understanding, affection ect go. he had abv avg intelligance. ok another prob he is has is hyperactivity. he cannot sit still for long. attention span is also short. but again for things that he cannot really understand. for things thathe likes he sits still and does it for a long time. now the therapy that he recieves goes something like this. there the[rapist has many toyson the table.. first stage he was given the toy only when he sat. that was fine. he learnt that soon. next stage was he has to keep his hands folded till the count of 5 while sitting, only then he would get the toy. if he would move even a little the whole counting would be repeted till hedoes it right and the meanwhile if he cries let him cry. this took weeks to acheive but still we got there. i was fine till that point of time. but as time passsed her demands from him grew, and reinforcement was kept the same. i started feeling that she want him to turn into robot. wheni say sit then sit, wait then wait. anynormal kid would also not do that. and she wasimmune to his crying and protesting. now this therapy might be a solution for kids higher up in the autism scale but my son is not like that. the things that she wanted him to do... half of that he would do readily..if she started off with a hug and kiss and loving voice and gesture to help him understand what she wants. i know that. im is mother. sometimes her attitude seemed to me like she thinks he is being naughty. and his needs will not be met till he follows her rules. like if she is sowing him a book and says 'point to car'.. and if along with point he says 'car' then the book will be taken away as point shud only mean point not say, when she says 'what is this' he shud keep his hands folded and say 'car'. she refused to listen to me. it seemed wrong. just like it would be if a doctor gave the same med to any one who is sick despite hving diff sysmptoms. after a few weeks of this he got frustrated... so much so thathe started banging his head and throwing tantrums which he never did before. the therapist blamed me saying that i wasnt doing enough follow thro at home.. if i did then he wudnt act out. i stopped the therapy. it has been 2 months now. his behaviour i wouldnt say is better but it is certainly not worse which i feeared it would be if i had cont with that. but as time passes ..guilt , fear. and apprehension has taken over me. after all im not a professional. what do i know. maybe that was the correct method. she was the best therapist in my area. now i dont know what to do. shud i start going back to her. after reading her methodsi wud luv any inputs from anyone who has faced such a prob or has a child going thro therapy. thanks in adv.

• Answer:

  This does indeed sound like ABA. But from what you describe, are you sure your son has Autism? It doesn't seem so to me! He has specific language problems and hyperactivity issues from what you say, so this would place him more on the ADHD spectrum than anything else. Let me explain why the approach your therapist is taking is wrong. This is a behavioural therapy, - it focuses on behaviour, not the cause of the problem, which is in the brain. Why is it wrong? Because it may have and effect upon behaviour, - the way your son reacts to a specific stimulus, but it can have no effect upon his experience of that stimulus! Let me draw you and example. - Consider a child who has over-sensitive hearing and who screams in agony every time he hears a high pitched noise. Your therapist will train him not to react by screaming by using a system of rewards and aversives, (punishments) to reinforce his behaviour. She may well succeed in extinguishing the screaming behaviour and replacing it with another response. The question you have to ask yourself is this. - Is this child's hearing still over-sensitive and is he still in agony every time he hears a high pitched noise? The answer of course is yes, - all the therapist has done is to 'condition' him to react in a different way, - she hasn't solved his problem at all.