More Autism Ridiculousness on CNN

A recent report on that trusted news network, CNN, titled, "'Horse Boy,' family find respite from autism in Mongolia," described how an autistic boy in Austin Texas began to show improvements in language skills after riding a horse named Betsy. The story cautions, however, that a distinction must be made between this kind of "recreational therapy" and the "medical treatment that uses horses and is supervised by a licensed speech-language pathologist."

Now everyone knows that licensed speech-language therapists, highly skilled in the methods of science, must be the only ones qualified to supervise this serious medical treatment -- I'm sorry, I can not write those words without laughing. Medical treatment? Riding horses? C'mon, how gullible do they think we are? Never mind, don't answer that question.

But, all kidding aside, you might wonder just how riding horses can be an effective treatment for autistic kids. Well, according to the licensed speech-language therapist CNN interviewed, the powerful movement of the horse is "having neurological impact on the autistic child." And I guess she should know since I'm sure she's not only had years of training as a neuroscientist, but also training in the research methods to make that determination.

On the other hand, this "therapist" cautions that "For some autistic children, riding too long can overstimulate their nervous system, leading to more erratic behavior" (Now, there's a factual statement about the nervous system if I ever heard one).

So, I guess the dilemma is to try to figure out beforehand which kids will respond which way. Perhaps they should enlist a psychic to help them with that.

Speaking of psychics, the story doesn't end there. The father actually brought in an African bushman who was a healer and noticed that his son improved after the healer laid his hands on the kid.

So, like any other logical, rational person, the father took his kid to Mongolia so he could experience both horses (yes, they have a lot of horses in Mongolia) and shamans. And, guess what? His kid's behavior changed dramatically! Well, whose behavior wouldn't change dramatically after being high jacked to Mongolia and forced to ride Mongolian horses and be healed by Mongolian shamans?

It's not until the end of the article that we finally read the following: "Rowan's applied behavioral analysis therapist has him studying math and English at the third-grade level -- a full year ahead of some of his peers." So, applied behavior analysis, the only scientifically documented treatment for people with autism, is what really produced long-lasting and measurable changes in the kid's behavior.

Then what about all the time and money spent on horses, speech-language therapists, African shaman, and trips to Mongolia? (If you couldn't tell, that was a rhetorical question.)

Before ending this post, however, I want to comment on Austin Texas. As a native Texan myself, I am loathe to criticize it too much (our last President notwithstanding) and also because it is a city with great music and restaurants. But, probably because Austin is a liberal bastion (surrounded by the reddest of red counties), it has attracted more than it's share of quack programs for autism.

Austin has the distinction to be the home of programs such as Thoughtful House and HALO, both of which promote therapies with no scientific foundation.

Thoughtful House claims to recover autistic children through "the unique combination of medical care, education, and research." Of course "medical care" is code for chelation therapy. Unfortunately, someone who claims to be a behavior analyst, Doreen Granpeesheh, Ph.D., is one of the founders of Thoughtful House along with the infamous Andrew Wakefield, M.D. (see my previous post, The Great Vaccine Scare Epidemic). Oh yes, Thoughtful House also offers hippotherapy.

HALO is the brainchild of the imminent scientific researcher (I'm being facetious, of course) Soma Mukhopadhyay, the mother of Tito and the developer of the Facilitated Communication-like method called Rapid Prompting. As you'll notice from her website, there is an extensive list of peer-reviewed scientific articles supporting her method (I'm being facetious again).

So, now we can add hippotherapy and shamanism to the list of quack programs for autism that are in Austin. But, before we get too judgmental about Austin, we should take a look around our own communities. I think we'll find this ridiculousness is everywhere.