Autism and Audiogical Therapies

Host: Autistic kids, sometimes, overreact to simple hearing stimulus and there is a thing called Tomatis technique where they try to retrain the ear with different frequencies and sound to get them less sensitized. And the people do it, don't shut the hearing, they don't control the level of sound into the ear which disturbs them a little bit because as we just discussed before, one of the reasons for hearing loss, is having very loud sounds of extended varied times. So there is some danger unless that person really is highly trained. In your profession, have you seen any kind of a loud stimuli and then coming down at frequency environment, so there is some concern about that causing a problem down the road etcetera? Shirley Pollak: Wow! I would even take this back to the beginning of your question. In Audiology, that kind of treatment is known as Auditory Integration Therapy and it is kind of controversial because the evidence that it does any good at all is a very anecdotal at best. As a matter of fact the American -- Host: They have been around for a while and said nothing new. Shirley Pollak: I have been hearing about it for at least as long as I have been in -- Host: 30-40 years up until this one. Shirley Pollak: It is not becoming more commonly used as far as I know, insurance doesn't cover it because it is considered experimental and as a matter of fact, the American Academy of Audiology and ASHA, The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, have both put out physician statement stating that this kind of auditory integration therapy or training is experimental, has never been proved into do any good and they don't stand behind it at all. Host: I can't find any evidence-based study, evidence-based study has to be that no one knows who had what done, no one has any financial gain from it, okay, because many times it's designed the study to prove you right. That is evidence based. You design to study to see what is right and people see a study and then make conclusions. Be very careful, drunk hippies do it all the time, and people want to make their opinion zapped will get a study designed to prove their issues are correct and sometimes parents, oh I have ran to this kind of therapy, it gets better, forget the fact you might be doing 16 other things to the kid and you're happy with this therapy, so I will say this is what made my kid better not knowing that ABA therapy, whatever else you are doing, something could have helped, we are not sure this could help. So you have to be very careful. You may hear people and you were just talking about, what you just mentioned, is a therapy that is questionable at best and I would imagine if I had a kid that was autistic, I would reach out for anything; I would blame drugs, vaccines, anything I can put my hand on doesn't help anybody. Shirley Pollak: Yeah and I fear that that might be what is a part of what is going on that parents feel that they are willing to try anything that they are willing to pay any amount of money, anything that they hear might be considered that their child and then they hang their hopes on thing that may or may not in fact, being a huge difference. Host: And I mentioned that if I had a kid that was autistic, I think I would go to extremes too but in the end, having a scientific mind, I will still ask the one question, what science based evidence based studies are being done. So I don't waste and one case I heard, almost $80,000 was asked of a family to go through this whole extended period of time, some only 6,000 to 7,000 but the question we should always ask, can we name some people who have successfully come to treatments like in speaking to them, give me some evidence based study so that I know what we are going through has some fruit, some real scientific basis. Is that true? Shirley Pollak: I agree a 100% and actually the only consolation that I have right now is that that I don't see it getting any more popular. I don't see it is a -- Host: They are sounding more like a week or ten days, it is been around 34 years, I would love to find more information, I have been searching and then asking and here I have to mention like it is fact amongst the little blocks that the autistic people go to, parents of kids, who have a child like that, I feel bad. But I even question it, I can hate now, I am not trying to say anything there, I just don't know if that works. Shirley Pollak: I don't know either. Host: And I am worried that if someone is untrained, that gets hearing stimuli at a very loud high frequency, just it was in the 80-90 range and then bring it down, doing techniques like that, is that good to the kid now and bad later or bad a whole way across the board? I don't know. Shirley Pollak: I think that there are a lot of questions about these kinds of treatments, I think it is right to question the kind of treatment that doesn't have any evidence-based study to support it. I know that it is considered experimental and results, going to result anecdotal at best. Any audiologist needs to function by the ethical guidelines of their supporting board which in our case is the American Academy of Audiology and ASHA and again decision statements do not support that kind of testing.