Kaufman To Sell Son-Rise In Scotland

Scotland on Sunday reports that Raun Kaufman is off to Scotland to sell parents of autistic children on his Son-Rise program. The article quotes several voices urging caution with respect to Son-Rise and Mr. Kaufman's claim including Dr Richard Mills, director of independent charity Research Autism:

"Anecdotal reports of recovery are not evidence. There have been no independently conducted, peer-reviewed scientific trials of the Son-Rise method so we cannot recommend it to parents."


The MADSEC Autism Task Force Report (2000 Rev.) described Son-Rise as:


page 6:

• Without scientific evaluation of any kind: Greenspan’s DIR/”Floor Time,” Son-Rise.

page 54:

Discussion

There have been no peer-reviewed, published studies of The Son-Rise Program’s effectiveness or outcome statistics. Son Rise: The Miracle Continues chronicles the experiences of Barry and Samahria Lyte Kaufman as they created a program to meet the needs of their young son, diagnosed with autism and an IQ under 30. According the Kaufman (1997), their son currently has a near genius IQ, and no traces of his original condition.

Conclusions

There have been no studies of the Son-Rise Program’s effectiveness. Researchers should consider investigation using research protocols. Professionals considering Son-Rise should portray the method as without scientific evaluation of any kind, and should disclose this status to key decision makers influencing the child’s intervention.

autism

National Autism Symposium Script Released

The Script for the Harper Government's National Autism Symposium Stage Production has now been released. The auditions for parts in this staged production are closed (never having been open) . The actors pre-selected by the CIHR will test their acting skills by pretending that they are representative of provincial autism communities, whose organizations were not actually consulted and did not pick their own delegates. Actors must be able to portray real delegates earnestly engaged in discussion of autism issues. The audience will see these skilled actors pretend to arrive at the following conclusions in the final scene:

1) There is no actual increase in autism, it is a figment of our collective consciousness. The authors of one Montreal study say so.

2) There is no consensus about autism treatments, contrary to the silly beliefs of the state agencies in New York, California, Maine, the US Surgeon General, the dozens of Ph.D's and MD's who form the advisory board of the Association for Science in Autism Treatment, the researchers who contributed to the recent Cambridge University research sponsored report by Research Autism which ranked autism interventions, the hundreds of thousands of parents across North America seeking ABA services of their autistic children, and the authors of hundreds of research studies showing gains for children who received ABA.

All of these sources will be revealed in the National Autism Symposium Stage Production as having foolishly leaped to the conclusion that ABA is the treatment of choice for autism and should not be accepted as evidence of a consensus about autism treatments.

These are some elements of the script which will be followed at the Stephen Harper National Autism Symposium Stage Production scheduled to be performed November 8 and 9. The full script can be found in the Harper Government Response to the Report of the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology, Pay Now or Pay Later - Autism Families in Crisis.

Regretfully, members of organizations composed of actual Autism Families in Crisis will be unable to view the Autism Symposium Stage Production. After all this is Canada, not the US, where democracy and law require open public performances at events of importance and where actors must audition for their parts and be democratically selected by the communities they pretend to represent. And after all someone might disrupt the performance, and violate the sensitivities and human rights of the actors, by shouting out such obscenities as "Applied Behavior Analysis", "ABA" or "Medicare".

Autism Interventions Ranked - EIBI (ABA) Best - Facilitated Communication Worst

A list of autism intervention rankings by Research Autism, a UK charity, is available online at:

http://www.researchautism.net/interventionlist.ikml

Research Autism in its own words:

Research Autism is the only UK charity exclusively dedicated to research into interventions in autism .

Established in 2003 as the Autism Intervention Research Trust, we commission, carry out and support high quality, independent research into new and existing health, education, social and other interventions. Our goal is the improvement of quality of life and outlook, for the individuals affected and those around them.

We have the active support of some of the world’s leading figures in autism and research. They have given freely of their time and expertise to work with us. We also work closely with our research sponsor, the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge, as well as with the National Autistic Society.

http://www.researchautism.net/pages/About_Us/About_Us.ikml

Not surprisingly, Early Intensive Behavioural Intervention (ABA) received the highest ranking and Facilitated Communication received the worst ranking amongst the numerous interventions ranked. I say not surprisingly because those rankings are consistent with other professional and academic reviews of the efficacy of autism interventions.

EIBI received 3 green check marks indicating Very strong, positive evidence * 2 or more Grade A studies or * 1 Grade A study and 3 or more Grade B studies. The majority of these studies show significant positive effects

Early Intensive Behavioural Intervention(Back)

Ranking :
[Very strong positive evidence]
Type : Behavioural
Introduction

This is a highly structured and intense intervention in which a child is taught a range of skills by a team of therapists.

The therapists break down the skills into small tasks that are achievable and taught in a very structured manner.

Desired behaviour, such as use of language or socialisation is positively reinforced and accompanied by lots of praise. Negative behaviour, such as self harm or aggression is ignored or punished.
Opinion

* There is strong evidence to suggest that EIBI programmes are effective for many children with autism.

* However, individual response to treatment is variable and these programmes do not result in improvements in all areas of functioning.

* For some children, alternative interventions, such as specialist pre-school placements may produce comparable results and may offer greater opportunity for interactions with peers.

* If EIBI is undertaken, the possible impact on parents (in terms of time, finances, organisation involvement with other siblings) should be considered.


http://www.researchautism.net/interventionitem.ikml?id=13

Also not surprising, Facilitated Communication received the worst ranking of any of the interventions assessed - 3 X's - Very strong negative evidence. * More than 1 Grade A study showing no significant positive effects or * 3 or more Grade B studies showing no significant positive effects or * 1 Grade A study plus more than 2 Grade B studies showing no significant effects.

In addition to 3 X's; FC also received 3 question marks indicating Very strong evidence of harmful effects. Any Grade A or B studies indicating adverse/harmful effects.

Facilitated communication is designed to help people with limited communication develop their pointing skills.

Someone else physically supports the the individual so that he can point to pictures, symbols, letters and/or words.

By doing this, the individual can demonstrate what he wants to communicate.
Opinion

There is a significant body of evidence to show facilitated communication is ineffective when used with people with autistic spectrum disorders.

There is also evidence it can lead to significant harm.

For these reasons we do not believe that it is an appropriate intervention for people with autistic spectrum disorders.


http://www.researchautism.net/interventionitem.ikml?id=16