Every parent of an autistic child is eager to help their children, and most are open to try out new alternative treatments, even those that have not been clinically trialled or scientifically proven to be effective. However, it cannot be denied that there is heavy anecdotal evidence of efficacy in a range of alternative treatments, including the following which have been reported elsewhere:

Stem Cell Therapy

There are reports of alternative treatment using Live Cell and Stem Cell Therapy. Here is a video showing a child with autism before and after she have had stem cell treatment.

Family Immersion Model to treating autism

Here is another video showing how one family’s experience at PACE Place, a family immersion program in Beaverton, Oregon is helping families living with autism in children.

Dr Rashid A Buttar’s Protocol

See the success of Shin Nicholas’ autism treatment using Dr. Rashid A. Buttar’s autism treatment protocol.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

Follow this video to discover the results of treating Autism with hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.

Facilitated Communication Technique
In order to facilitate the communication of an autistic child, this technique assumes that by supporting a nonverbal child’s arms and fingers so that he can type on a keyboard, the child will be able to type out his or her inner thoughts. However, diametrically opposite to this assumption, several scientific studies have shown that the typed messages actually reflect the thoughts of the person providing the support rather than those of the autistic child. Notwithstanding this, parents find this act itself to help the child and the parent, perhaps in bonding and allow a certain level of communication during the process.

Here is a video showing another assisted communication therapy session with a kid with a view to helping her communicate.

Here is a video showing how
Holding Therapy Technique
In this technique, the parent hugs the child for long periods of time, even if the child resists. Advocates of this technique claims that it forges a bond between the parent and child. Others are of the opinion that by doing so, the technique helps stimulate parts of the brain of the autistic child as he senses the boundaries of his or her own body. There is no scientific evidence, however, to support these claims. There are also objections towards the holding therapy because of the negative effects of “forcing” the child as you hug him or her.

Here is a video showing how speech and hugging is used to help an autistic child. In the words of the therapist:

“Whenever I arrive at Jacobs house he runs up, says hi, gives me a hug and reminds me of the fun things we have done together (it’s so cool). However, he did need a bit of help to get it grammatically correct. For example he would say “We go to Rainbows End!” (A theme park)He actually meant “We went to Rainbows End” I gently corrected him often but he would still say “go” instead of “went”. So we played this game where when he said “go” he had to spit it out and say “went”. After just one session he got it. Now he consistently says “went”. Here he just starts doing it for the fun of it. Constantly being corrected can affect one’s self-esteem, learning by playing a silly game can often be more effective with the added bonus of having fun together. ”

Auditory Integration Therapy
Auditory Integration Theraphy necessitates that the child listens to a variety of sounds with the goal of improving language comprehension. Supporters of this treatment suggest that it helps people with autism receive more balanced sensory input from their environment. When tested using scientific procedures, the method was shown to be no more effective than listening to music. However, this alternative treatment stands out as some parents report that children make significant behavioral and language gains following this treatment.

Here is a video showing the joy of learning by autistic kids through music.

Dolman/Delcato Method
Autistic people are made to crawl and move as they did at each stage of early development, in an attempt to learn missing skills since childbirth or to stimulate lost skills and bring them to the fore again. While there are no scientific studies to support the effectiveness of this method, it cannot be denied that a degree of movement would constitute physical exercise that can help the autistic child in learning co-ordination and movement abilities, rather than staying aloof and alone.

There are tools for these alternative methods such as the faciliated communication therapy, auditory integrated therapy and the Dolman Method listed on the right sidebar of this page that can help you make a quick start.

Rather than seeking to cure an autistic child, autism treatments attempt to alter negative behavior and teach necessary vocal and social skills to the autistic child so that he can enjoy a good quality of life and gain independence.

Before we discuss the treatment strategies for the child with autism, let us take a look at this video featuring President Barack Obama ( then Senator ) on autism and disabilities.

The common symptom in all autistic children is an impairment in social skills, which however, differs in severity. For example, some autistic children may be withdrawn and aloof, keeping to themselves, very much like in a “dream world” of their own, while others engage in self-injuring behavior such as head-banging or hand-biting. Still others may display different degrees of aggression, attention deficits, or hyperactivity that the parent will find difficult to control.

As each autistic child has his own unique combination of impaired social skills and different behavior problems, there is actually no single standard, out-of-the-box treatment strategy. Because of this, an effective autism treatment strategy will encompass several autism treatments to deal with the different problems. However, the goal of any autism treatment is to improve the behavior, the quality of life of the child, helping in communication skills while moderating and minimizng and removing undesirable behavior. The effective treatment strategy must place emphasis to help the autistic child reach a level of independence, eliminate undesirable behavior such as self-injury and self-stimulation. There is also a need to learn about medications that can help control symptoms of autism, and also the side effects of certain medications. At the same time, there are available, alternative treatments that have helped others, and it is important for the parent to find out more about them.