MB 12 Injections - A treatment option for Autism Spectrum Disorders

   I have been driven by the "many children with whom I spend half of my day" to take out time to write whatever little I know about MB 12 Injections. 

   Current upcoming biomedical research now explains Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) as a plausible ecological and gastrointestinal disorder in genetically vulnerable children. MB 12 or Methyl- B12 or Methylcobalamin, is essentially a family of vital vitamins that detox our bodies from excess Sulphur.
Children with ASD have a defect in an enzyme that is needed to complete this process of detoxification.
Hence supplements of this vitamin help in improving these chemical processes in the body and surprisingly (indirectly) result in -

• improved speech
• language expression
• socialization ( improved eye contact)
• emotional control
• personal awareness
• mental processing
• overall health

These injections should be continued along with the regular interventions of Speech/Language Therapy, OT and Special Education.

The success stories are many! There are plenty of studies reported in the West  that prove the benefits of MB 12 injections.Though we lack sufficient controlled data in the Indian context to prove the 'quantity and quality' of improvement but still this surely looks like a promising treatment option for children with ASD. 

These injections are initially given for 3-6 months to see any discernible changes and continued later if found favourible.

Side effects include - hyperactivity and sleep disturbances, but these mellow down with time.

They are easy to administer at home. ( given subcutaneously) . Currently these injections are procured from USA.

Many of my ASD kids are taking the MB 12 injections and are showing good progress in my sessions, in school and at home :)

Find more info here - http://www.drneubrander.com/index.php

Outdoor play - why and how?

 In today's techno pro world where children have been left confined indoors to indulge in excessive TV and computer, the charm of outdoor play and fun is fading away. And the ones bidding adieus are the variety of learning opportunities that are fostered through outdoor play. My daughter will complete 9 months in a few days and as a mother I know that she loves the 'park time' way better than her favorite I pad games!

Lets see what do outdoor activities help a child achieve - 


1. A medley of developmental tasks - fine and gross motor skills, exploring, risk taking
2. Physical Exercise - must for development of motor skills and cardiovascular endurance
3. Enjoyment - children need opportunites to explore, manipulate, expand, experiment, discover, practice, sing, yell, change and create!

4. Learning about the world - how do plants grow? do sticks stand in sand? why do we slide down instead of up? How do I make my bicycle go faster? etc.. new doors of curiosity are opened..

Not only do children learn lots of basic and fundamental information about how the world works in a very effective manner, they are more likely to remember what they learned because it was concrete and personally meaningful (Ormrod, 1997).

5. Learning about self and the environment - how high can I go on the swing, Can I slide on sand, Can I go on the slide with the head first? To learn about the physical world, the child must experiment with it.

6. Health - Fresh air and exercise always improve childrens' health.

Find some interesting outdoor activities here 

The magical world of Bubbles...

Bubbles are magic! Yes they truly are.. For kids and even for the little kid hiding inside an adult. Bubble fun is my favourite activity in speech therapy sessions. You can do so much with these little popping blobs.. Be it with infants, toddlers, preschoolers or even little older children, the floating, hopping, knocking bubbles work wonders.

I have found that--

• Bubbles are great to break the monotony of a therapy session with the kid. You can see the child's eyes glow at the sight of the bubble toy. So when you feel its getting boring doing the repeated activity with your little one, get the bubbles out!
• They are perfect tools to improve eye contact. Blow one at a time and in front of your face, this way the child tends to look more at you.
• They also help in developing visual tracking skills.
• You can encourage children to learn more words while playing with bubbles.. simple words like- up, down, more, pop, big, small, many, few, near, far, yes, no ...and so on can be focussed upon. You just need to consistenly repeat these words while playing with them.
• You can practice "blowing" skills (important oral motor skill for speech development) with bubbles.Children also learn rounding of lips during this fun activity.
• Popping the bubbles teaches cause and effect relationship.It also helps in fine motor control of finger pointing.
• This also instills the habit of turn taking. You blow and the child pops. Then you switch roles. Simple!
• Blowing bubbles in front of a big mirror helps in teaching imitation skills too.
• Simple instruction following can be another motive behind taking up this activity.. " pop the bubbles" , " pop the smallest one", etc.
• Bubbles can be used to teach "how to make a request". "Can I please have one more!"
• You can use them to make the child respond yes/no..
• The concepts of size, number, color etc all can be taught with the floating bubbles.
• Bubbles can be used to teach better breathing control hence you  indirectly work on improving the strength of abdominal muscles of speech.
• When the bubble hits the child on his body, you can also revise body parts.
• They work as super rewards for children of all ages.

I use different types of bubble tumblers. Children especially like flashy and  attractive ones. I have a variety of shapes with me...sunday ice cream,ice lolly, fish, butterflies etc. They all work beautifully!

Check out some intersting bubble activities cum recipes here!

Smell Box, a speech therapy tool?!

Vision, Hearing, Touch, Taste, Smell, Vestibular and Proprioception are the 7 horses of our sensory system that interact with each other to make us use our bodies effectively in the environment around us.It is indeed intriguing how these different senses integrate in our body to provide information. By such sensory integration, these sense organs indirectly help us to gather opportunities to communicate better!

Extrapolating this idea, I have tried using visual, auditory, tactile and olfactory kits during my therapy sessions to elicit speech.

On this page I will share about the 'Smell Box' that works wonders for kids who exhibit problems of insufficient expression of language.

The Smell Box can be made at home. It basically consists of 2 classes of odors. 1 pungent and strong and the other mild and sweet.

Pungent odors come from

• petrol,
• old scrappy food,
• mustard/horse raddish sauce,
• grated raddish,
• asafoetida(hing in Hindi),
• naphthalene balls,
• dettol/savlon,
• salmon omega & other strong tablets
• garlic etc.

Mild smelly items can be

• aromatic massage oils,
• mild perfumes,
• strawberry/apple jam,
• mild talcum powders,
• sugar,
• mithai,
• flower petals
• aromatic candles
• and most importantly your child's favourite food item, (chocolates, biscuits ) etc..

You can store all these items in similar looking little boxes, name/ tag each of them and store together in a bigger box.

The smell box can be used to elicit Yes/No response from your child. The pungent odors will lead to modelling out - No, while the mild sweeter odors lead to a Yes response.

I have observed  that children pick up 'No' response very quickly through this activity with the smell box. You can start by accepting gestures for yes/no and later graduate to verbal attempts.

You can also build your child's language by talking about the different smells in our environment.

Another game that you can play with the smell box is, identification of the source of the smell without looking at the box in which the stuff is stored. You can blindfold your child while playing this and even take turns. Great activity to build vocabulary, improve sentence formation, and teach turn taking.

So go try this tool now.I'm sure you yourself will have loads of fun doing this activity!

Eye contact and how to improve it!

Eye contact is the deepest way to form successful relationships and have better social interactions. Eye contact should be established not only when the child wants something from you, but also when she wishes to interact and connect! Always greet your child with a smile and a warm countenance when she makes eye contact with you.This way kids feel loved and cared for! The more your children look at you, the more they will learn, the more they will learn about the world of people, and how people communicate, about facial expressions, about the other subtleties of communication.

Children on the Autism spectrum have challenges looking at people. The more we encourage children to look the more likely they will have successful relationships with their peers.

To improve your little one's eye contact-

• Always position yourself in front of your child so that she can look at you.
• Be at eye level or a little below. Be at least 2 feet away from them.
• 
  
  
  While offering any object/toy.food/book etc to your child keep it in front of your face so that she can look at you.
• Reward your child when she looks at you. Use different tones of voice to celebrate the moment.. You can sing/whisper/ do a little dance or happily denote that the child looked at you!

You can-

• Play with stickers and bindis. Stick them on your face near your eyes. Choose different flashy ones, different sizes and colors. You can include your child's favorite sticker too!
• Incorporate different styles of hats, so that the child looks at your face. You can narrate stories to mimic different people wearing different hats. Use lots of tonal variations in your voice while doing this activity.
• You can cut out different head gears, that make your face look different..e.g. - different hair styles cut out in cardboard etc
• Use wigs! They work wonders..Pink, Orange, yellow, green..pull them all out!
• Candles have been my all time favorite.. They also encourage children to learn blowing ( very important oral motor skill for speech development) and also teach children cause and effect relationships.
• Peekaboo! yes get naughty and playful with your child.You can use curtains, pillows, dupattas or anything that helps you get your child look at you. You must talk to the kid while playing this old age game.
• Face/Eye masks also work well. You can get your child's favourite cartoon character mask and play!
• Bubbles - I personally have found this to be "the wonder tool " for kids who have poor eye to object contact. They get so fascinated by the floating, popping  bubbles..Blow one at a time.. and watch your child enjoy!

 Don't forget to respond back positively when your child makes eye contact with you.. She will surely do it again!

Speak with your hands!

I stumbled upon this "just beats" track by B.Ames while downloading some music for my iPod..and I was totally fascinated by the title.. Speak with your hands!! Something which all of us do..without even realising.. We all communicate using words and hand/body gestures. Ever noticed a dancer or an artist talk? They  incorporate a lot of hand and facial gestures to make their speech enthralling and attractive.

We all have also seen hard of hearing people who use sign language to communicate. Its amazing how hands can speak!

I myself use a lot of signs and hand gestures while teaching "talking" to my little kids. "Total communication" is the strategy I always employ. Hence gestures and signs are some strong speech therapy tools in my kitty.The younger a child, the easier its for me to introduce signs along with speech.Simple gestures for sleep, eat, drink, come, go, no, stop, sit, love, thanks etc come very handy!

These extra tools augment the speech and language development of all babies and toddlers. They especially work well with late talkers who start expressing their needs through pointing and gestures and then slowly graduate to attempting words.

One should always use plenty of gestures and facial expressions along with vocal intonations while singing rhymes and songs with children.The handed signs and gestures give added spatial cues which children pick up in a jiffy! For example, lets consider the rhyme Incy Wincy spider.. Using gestures for "climbing" of the spider, "falling" of the rain, rays of the "sunshine" , the kid is sure to participate with enthusiasm and will also learn the spatial features of simple verbs used in the rhyme and also grab concepts like the sun is up in the sky.

This reminds me of an autistic child who comes to me for therapy. He always utters "Incy Wincy" (misarticulation errors present) and signs a climbing spider, when he wishes to listen to this rhyme. So even though his speech is not clear, his expression is complete because of the accompanied gesture.Hence no frustration and only enjoyment follows!

In the USA, sign language for babies has become a frequently practiced approach. This helps foster speech and language skills in normal as well as special kids. I found the following article quite useful.

                                         Sign Language for children with special needs

Whether you choose to use these signs with your babies or not, it is worth remembering that expression of language can be through any form or modality.Research has proven that sign language is not just for deaf babies.It is said to promote expressive & receptive language and vocabulary skills of hearing toddlers too. I would like to amplify that gestures and or signs should be accompanied with clear and slow speech as what we are focusing on is - total communication.

So enjoy speaking with your hands! You might just explore how effective it can prove for your child's speech development.

Tips to enhance speech and language skills in your child

Children can communicate since their birth. Infact research shows that a foetus can communicate right from the 3rd trimester of pregnancy!

It is important that an infant learns to pick up speech and language early on. Here are a few tips that will help in promoting your child's speech and language development.

• Eye contact. It is essential for you to look at your child's face and eyes whenever talking or communicating with her. This way she will learn that it is imperative to look at people while communicating. Children get clues about shaping their mouth to pronounce words while looking at your face when you converse with them.

• Turn Taking. The art of turn taking is important to become a social communicator. You must talk to your child and then pause to give her some time to vocalise. This skill can also be worked upon while playing with your child.

• Give your child opportunities. As your child is communicating with you, and you know what they want, give them time before you jump upon fulfilling their needs. This will give them the opportunity to verbalise, point, or even come up with a word.

• Give choices. Giving choices to your child always helps them to become better communication partners. Choices provide your child with an opportunity to vocalise or attempt a word. The child feels confident by evincing her choices and hence is on the right path of further expansion of expressive language.

• Provide commands/instructions. You can begin with simple single step requests that only involve one element, such as 'look', 'smile' etc.Then increase to two elements when one element becomes easy for your child (i.e. "Sit down," or "Touch your ears," and so on).

• Instill the habit of reading books. You can read simple books to your child with one or two colourful pictures on each page. Then ask them questions that can be answered verbally or by pointing to the correct picture. Don't demand a lot initially. If your child fails to reply or respond after 15 seconds, answer the question yourself.

• Reward and Reinforce. If your child comes up with an utterance resembling a word, praise and reward her and then model the correct target word which you think she attempted.For example, if the child says "daw" for doll, say "You said doll. Yes, it is a doll!"

• Hunt for different occasions. Language can be learnt best from our surroundings. Hence its best to make your little one a part of different novel situations and occasion so that she can pick up more and more language. A simple trip to the mall can be a great chance to help your child imbibe new words.

• Clarity of your child's speech. Parents usually understand their kids' speech more than strangers do. It might be an idea to observe how much do others understand your child's speech.This will give you an idea as to how clearly your child is speaking. Children undergo a developmental phase while learning to talk.If you feel that your little one's speech is unintelligible till the age of 3, consult a Speech Language Pathologist/Therapist.

• Correct Modelling of words.Pronounce your words clearly when you speak with your child. Talk slowly and remember to look directly at your child's face.

Although speech and language development varies with every child, a little extra support from the communicative partners in a child's environment will ensure a smooth acquisition of speech .Always remember, parents are "Super heroes" for their kids. Children will emulate whatever their parents do and say. Implementing these aforementioned tips will  aid all parents and care givers in communicating better with the little angels!