It’s Autism Awareness Month and over the next four weeks, Barbados TODAY in collaboration with Spectrum Possibilities, will be sharing articles that seek to create awareness about autism and the need for appropriate support and acceptance of people living with autism.
For many years, it was thought that autism had a genetic basis. Genes are the basic unit of heredity, so it was believed that autism was inherited from parents. However, the most current research on the human genome and epigenetics presents a new understanding of autism and recognises epigenetic factors as contributing to the development of autism. Epigenetics looks at the interaction between a person’s environment and their genes, and how that interaction contributes to gene expression to turn on and off genes and affects health status.
With respect to autism, research has suggested an interaction between certain chemical and environmental toxins, pollutants and medications, with individual genetic profiles. The relatively new field of Functional Genomics now offers new individualized recommendations for managing any underlying genetic health vulnerabilities, by addressing likely environmental contributors to genetic expression of illness and dysfunction and adding individualised dietary and supplemental support to facilitate better health and optimised functioning.
Neuroplasticity: the capacity of the brain to change and reorganise
Sometimes people think of autism as fixed and unchangeable. However, every therapeutic intervention is seeking to leverage the brain’s capacity for neuroplasticity, the capacity to grow new neural networks and reorganise.
We mostly live so automatically that we do not often think about how dynamic our experience is and that as living beings, we are constantly responding and adapting to circumstances around us. Our biochemistry, musculature, sensations, thoughts, feelings, etc., are continuously changing, as we adapt to our changing environment, many times a day and automatically. Intentionally and strategically targeting specific areas of development and functionality can take advantage of neuroplasticity to create new pathways of activation and establish new patterns in the brain. Providing opportunities for enrichment and stimulation across multiple areas of development offers the opportunity for levels of growth and change that are more holistic and integrated and may open new possibilities for people with autism at any age.
In this sense, with autism, there are not simply issues with communication (therefore a focus on speech and language), or only issues with functional skills or sensory processing (therefore a focus on occupational therapy), or serious behavioural problems (a focus on behaviour). The whole person with autism is simultaneously experiencing a range of challenges that affect how they see, hear, feel, sense, and respond to the world around them.
In addition to specifically targeted individual therapies, there can also be an integrated approach which focuses on the whole person. Integrated approaches may include multiple therapies simultaneously being pursued, or an integrated approach may also be accomplished by therapies that support the whole person, recognising the brain and central nervous system as the overarching organising system affected by autism.
Movement
An often-ignored aspect of impairment for many with autism is ‘Movement’. Movement may be understood as integrating the individual with autism’s whole experience of themself and in relation to others. It is also an integration of all developmental skills and social, emotional and physical interactions while growing, living, being and moving in space. Several movement related issues have been identified amongst children with autism, including posture, balance, coordination of both sides of the body, muscle tone and body awareness. Such challenges may be evident through difficulties moving the mouth to form words, using the hand, arms and whole body to write, walking and running in a smooth coordinated manner, amongst others.
Many movement issues are addressed by occupational therapy from a developmental and functional perspective. Occupational therapy sees movement as critical to development. With regard to autism, it examines such things as the integration of reflexes as establishing the early learning patterns for movement. It looks at how development may have become stuck at certain ages and stages and seeks to stimulate development, sometimes working back to complete earlier developmental stages before going forward. Occupational therapy uses play, movement exercises and activities to address sensory processing, fine and gross motor skills and functional skills for independence. From this perspective, movement is meaningful and so activities to develop skills for daily living are a primary goal.
Another movement therapy that can further support the whole person with autism in an integrated way is the Anat Baniel Method of Neuro-Movement Therapy. This is a brain-based therapy that supports an integration of emotional, cognitive and physical experience, through slow supported movements that activate brain and body awareness, to rewire the brain and thereby experience new possibilities for being in the world. In the words of Anat Baniel, “Movement is the Language of the Brain.” The goal of this method is to “wake up” the brain for greater movement organisation and thereby support the person’s awareness of themselves and experience new possibilities for interaction with others.
The recent addition of the IncludeUSports Academy has introduced sports and physical fitness for special needs, including autism, to the locally available special needs resources. It may seem as if sports and physical fitness are a choice for those showing sporting interest or aptitude, and that physical fitness goes along with our current focus on managing obesity and non-communicable diseases.
However, movement has been identified as a critical integrating aspect of a part of the brain called the cerebellum, which integrates movement, language, and social processing. As such, stimulation of the cerebellum through targeted movement activities has the capacity to bring about changes in the previously identified impairments of autism – communication, social interaction and repetitive behaviours.
Essentially, intentionally moving the body with a targeted plan of therapeutic goals changes both the body and the brain, as a whole-body experience that can have beneficial therapeutic effects for people with autism of all ages. Movement therapies can also stimulate the development of dynamic intelligence, which can improve the capacity for creative problem-solving, adaptability, accommodation, self-awareness and confidence to explore new possibilities.
There are also computer programs which integrate movement, sound frequencies and vision therapy programs, as well as brain-based technologies for those with autism, which address anxiety, regulation and attention through biofeedback. A quick search online can offer more information about such programs, which may be pursued privately.
Autism is not unchangeable. It is possible to stimulate further development with targeted and integrated interventions when you actively support optimal brain, metabolic and physical health and activate neuroplasticity. New things are on the horizon!
Deborah Thompson Smith is the mother of a 19-year-old son with autism and the Executive Director of Spectrum Possibilities, Registered Charity No. 815
