Report on the Autistic Kids Project in
ONCE a week, a rather strange scene plays out in the
principal's office of the
On the floor of an emptied-out school office, four
adults sit on the floor, each with a child on the lap. While the therapists
gently squeeze the children's heads, shoulders, backs and arms with their
hands, the children themselves seem locked in their own world. They squirm,
crawl away, whoop and giggle and stare into space with almost expressionless
faces while playing with blocks or puzzles, often seeming oblivious of their
therapists.
When a stranger enters the room, one child might jump
up and hide under the principal's desk.
Yet since the group of craniosacral therapists started
treating 10 of the children voluntarily in February, their teachers have noted
marked improvements in their behaviour.
Principal Alletta Pierce said: "All of them have
shown some sort of change- some very subtle, some negative, but change all the
same.
"Autistic children are usually very withdrawn,
yet after the craniosacral therapy most of them became more aware of the people
around them.
"One boy who never talked before has started to
verbalise (imitating speech and words), another older boy started reading,
another one became less aggressive and started playing with the family dog.
"One boy ventured out of his home and started
exploring the family garden, something he would never have done before. A child
who previously would have become upset and thrown tantrums for the tiniest
reason is now starting to smile and reach out to people.
Nerina Kearns, a teacher at the school, told of how a
four-year-old boy in her class improved.
"Initially he had severe mood swings. His
behaviour was erratic and he seemed unsettled. Then as the treatment
progressed, his behaviour evened out. He became a lot more verbal and started
imitating sounds and noises.
He started taking part in the class activities a lot
more. He is far more stable emotionally - for the first time he is able to act
on emotions and cry when he's upset. His toilet training regressed, but that
could have been due to anxiety."
Nellian Bekker, one of the therapists, said their
therapy on the children was free of charge, as their work was part of a study
project.
"As far as we know, craniosacral therapy is not
done on autistic patients anywhere else in
"We work with the central nervous system, the
cerebro-spinal fluid (around the spinal cord) and the neural tubes around
nerves. We try to find restrictions in the nervous system that prevents the
nerves from functioning properly and release these restrictions."
The therapists themselves also noted changes in their
young patients. Brigitte Weltz said: "One of my patients started playing
with her sister, another one recognised the neighbour and two started
writing."
Pearce said it took the children quite a while to
adapt to the therapists, but that more and more children were included in the
therapy.
"We would like to expand the treatment to all 60
pupils in the school, but that wouldn't be possible without additional
funding."
Apart from extra speech therapy and music therapy, the
children at the school's class activities are designed to teach them the kind
of basic behaviour that non-autistic children learn automatically by mimicking
the behaviour of those around them.
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Jeanne van der Merwe
+27 21 488 4789
For information about the project contact Brigitta
Weltz bweltz@mweb.co.za