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You and YoursÌý- Transcript 91Èȱ¬ Radio 4 |
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TX: 15.10.04 - Autism Continued Ìý PRESENTER: LIZ BARCLAY |
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THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT.Ìý BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE 91Èȱ¬ CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. BARCLAY This week as part of our month examination of the condition autism we've been looking at some of the interventions or treatments available. Harriet Lambton lives in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. Harriet was diagnosed as severely autistic when she was two, her parents were told she would never go to mainstream school or lead an independent life. Initially she had speech and language therapy but after six months or so she changed to the Pictorial Exchange Communication System or PECS. This is where parent and child use pictures and photographs stuck to a board to communicate. Harriet's mum Margaret told us what sort of pictures are on Harriet's board, what's important to her. Ìý MARGARET Harriet's main motivators are chocolate buttons and yoghurt - you can see that's a very wrinkled one, that's used regularly. Harriet also adores dried fruit. Ìý Harriet? What would Harriet like? Yoghurt. Ìý We had a real difficulty starting her off on PECS because she couldn't see any point in it. And then once we'd made a breakthrough with the yoghurts and that was her high motivator and that was it she then took off and then realised that actually this was a way - it was quite a powerful tool and she could then ask for what she wanted. To begin with she'd just hand over a card and was totally mute, whereas now she actually says something when she makes an exchange. Ìý ACTUALITY I love you. Ìý Mummy loves Harriet. Ìý BARCLAY Harriet and Margaret Lambton. Many parents turn to diet as a way to control their child's behaviour. Twelve-year-old Christopher Dawson was diagnosed with autism at the age of three and has been following a special diet for over eight years now. He initially excluded both gluten and the milk protein known as casein but as he and his mum explain he now only sticks to a wheat free plan. Ìý CHRISTOPHER When I had Weetabix it seemed okay but when I had ordinary bread - sandwiches - I just felt a really, really bad stomach ache. And when I was having tea with actual pasta I've actually got a bit tired really. Ìý MRS DAWSON We talked to a paediatrician because there's so little evidence yet on this diet, so it was started in the summer holidays we did try a regular diet. We lasted for three days and he had ordinary spaghetti bolognese with us and he wanted to go to bed at 7.30 - his normal bed time's about - in the holidays - is about half nine or ten. Ìý CORNWALL JONES Chris have you got a shelf in the freezer for your bread? Ìý CHRISTOPHER Yeah. Ìý CORNWALL JONES Okay, what sort of bread is that, why is it special? Ìý CHRISTOPHER It's kind of different to the others. Once I've tried some special bread from Glutafin, that was rather fresh and instead of the usual sandwiches I had it was actually very soft and it felt a bit like heaven really. Ìý MRS DAWSON The effect on my child of the diet has been almost miraculous. He still has social problems but I hope that he will go on to university and hold down a good job. Ìý BARCLAY Catherine and Christopher Dawson talking to Lindsey Cornwall Jones. Ìý Professor Pat Howlin from St. George's Medical School is here, she's on the board of the recently formed Autism Intervention Research Trust - that's set up to evaluate how effective these treatments are. Professor Howlin, how effective do you think diet, such as we've heard there from Christopher Dawson, and PECS can be? Ìý HOWLIN If we take the diet first. I think there's no doubt that for some children a change of diet can have really quite remarkable effects. The problem is it doesn't work with everyone and also one has to be very careful taking out substances which have been important in the human diet for thousands of years out of a child's diet. So I think it's generally recommended it's only done with - under the careful supervision of a dietician or paediatrician who would know about the possible side effects, as well as benefits. Ìý BARCLAY And what about the pictorial scheme? Ìý HOWLIN Again I think that it's been well demonstrated over many years that using alternative forms of communication to help children who don't have the verbal skills to communicate can be very, very useful. Whether one particular system is better or worse than others is not really established but certainly using pictures or signs to communicate can be extraordinarily helpful. Ìý BARCLAY Well both of these treatments are fairly inexpensive but other interventions can prove rather more costly. Our piece yesterday on the controversial Son Rise programme prompted many people to get in touch, amongst them Philip Robbins who's been using Son Rise with his own son for more than six years. He also acts as an ambassador for the scheme and he told us: "Our son has developed from hiding under a blanket and removing himself from human contact to being a very happy 11 year old. Of course," he says, "it's not possible to say whether other interventions would have had similar, worse or better results but then we include parts of many other interventions into the Son Rise programme to maximise the benefit anyway." Professor Howlin what do you make of it, what do you make of the Son Rise programme? Ìý HOWLIN Well I think one of the problems is that as you've just said many parents use other things as well to augment it, so it's very, very difficult to know whether it's the Son Rise bit of other bits that have really been effective. Again it seems to work with some individuals but not with others and I think the question really needs to be not does this specific treatment, whatever it is, work with all children but for which particular children or which particular types of problems does this approach work for, rather than looking for miracle cures that work for everyone, looking for particular types of strategies that work for particular types of children. Ìý BARCLAY So you're saying that we need better evaluation of the various interventions. How soon before the body that you've set up - The Autism Intervention Research Trust - can offer clear assessments of these different interventions? Ìý HOWLIN Yes I haven't set it up, I'm just a member of that trust. I'm not quite sure how soon it will get going, it depends on funding to be able to do this but the hope is to be able to collect information on all the sort of popular treatments that are around so to be able to inform people about the possible benefits or problems with these treatments and really to give people information that they're sadly lacking at the moment. Ìý BARCLAY Professor Pat Howlin from St. George's Medical School thank you for joining us. Back to the You and Yours homepage The 91Èȱ¬ is not responsible for external websites |
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