How I Discovered Autism - and Imitation Autism
Greetings!
When I was an undergraduate student, I was interested in acting as a career. But all acting students were required to take a class in speech and hearing disorders. I was assigned to research "childhood aphasia." It must have been fate - when I got to the library and went to the "A" section, I forgot the word "aphasia" and instead started reading about "autism."
I was intrigued by the stories of children who seemed locked away in their own little worlds, unable to communicate or to be reached. Armed with a pile of books, I returned to my teacher with the news that I was ready for my research on autism. The teacher informed me of my mistake and noted the "fact" that autism was not a speech or hearing disorder. At that time and as it is today, autism was classified as a mental illness, a psychiatric disease.
Even then, I couldn't understand how autism could be classified as a mental health disorder when the problem seemed to me to be one of communication. However, since I had done so much research already, my teacher allowed me to continue studying autism for my report.
I was only 20 years old, but the first article I read about autism was an eye-opener.It was from a 1965 Life Magazine and the article was called "Screams, Slaps and Love." It described the program developed by Dr. Ivar Lovaas, who believed there was a need to slap autistic kids to get them to talk. If slapping and screaming at the child didn't work, the electric shock room was always available.
In the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, April 2005, therapists were still studying and arguing about the use of electric shock although children are noted to fear the shock apparatus and some show an increase in maladaptive behavior. The Applied Behavioral Analysis approach used today began as an outgrowth of Dr. Lovaas' work.
 
From this early experience, I had an intense passion to figure out a gentle, fun way to teach bonding and communication. I knew that when I felt safe enough to share myself with another person, then I could communicate much more easily. When I was afraid, I would "fight or flight."
The career path I pursued after that was very much influenced by this early experience. My graduate work, scholarships and research grants, special appointments, and subsequent work all focused on issues relating to how we learn to use language to communicate, and how people with language and communication disorders can be trained to overcome the symptoms causing problems. My research included studying language and communication disorders through various scientific approaches -- education, psychology, speech pathology, psychotherapy, and brain science -- as well as incorporating new technologies and the arts into training programs.
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And then, fate intervened again. After 15 years of work and research in the brain science of language and communication disorders, my third child was diagnosed with severe autism, mental retardation, and sensory integration problems. I was heartbroken.
But, using the skills I had gained as a professional, I was able to find the answer to my main question, which I posed as a scientist: "Did my son have a disease that would need a cure? Or did he have symptom clusters that would respond to symptom training, so that he could become symptom-free?"
As it turned out, Whitney did, indeed, have symptoms, and these symptoms led me to discover that the visual side of Whitney's brain was over-riding the language-processing side of his brain - imitating autism. His strong visual brain was preventing the development of his language and communications skills. It was a breakthrough moment in my scientific career. I identified this syndrome as the "Maverick Mind."
I developed learning exercises that worked to build a bridge between the visual and verbal regions of Whitney's brain. His older brother and sister joined in training their younger brother. And Whitney began to respond, gradually learning to speak and write and communicate. Before long, he entered a mainstream educational system. Today, he is a college graduate, working as an engineer. And he is symptom-free.
These experiences - beginning with my "mistake" in choosing to study autism instead of aphasia - are what inspire me to continue working with Mavericks today. Many of the thousands of children I have worked with over the year years have, like my son Whitney, been misdiagnosed with autism because the symptoms are remarkably the same. The difference is that with Mavericks, it is the strong visual brain that is interfering with the auditory-verbal side of the brain, preventing the development of language and communication skills. |
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Do you have a child who displays the symptoms of a Maverick Mind?
Click HERE to schedule a Free Telephone Screening and find out if your child qualifies for Brain Engineering Lab's training programs.
Choose "Free Telephone Screening" from the menu.
Select a day and time that's open, and we will call you. |
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Internet Teleconference and Webinar
~ Tuesday, April 13th at 11:30 a.m. EDT (New York Time) ~
"Ask The Doc"
This webinar is for visual families who are new to Dr. Florance's 5 Steps of Brain Engineering. Dr. Florance loves to meet new parents and learn more about the visual thinkers in the family, and explore whether the highly visual brain creates symptoms that could cause your child distress. She prepares each webinar especially for the participants selected.
Priority seats are given to those who have visual thinkers in the family such as engineers, computer programmers, film makers, photographers, architects, physicians, nurses, artists, musicians, actors, athletes, bird watchers, graphic designers, CEO visionaries, advertising exectuives, real estate developers, internet business developers, just to name a few examples.
This webinar is free, but seats fill quickly.
Please complete a short survey (3 Questions), so that Dr. Florance will get to know something about you before the Webinar. Dr. Florance creates "Ask The Doc" from questions submitted.
Click HERE to take the survey and receive Webinar instructions.
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| Parent Corner
"I made an important discovery. Our son did seem autistic for a while and I understand now why neighbors, doctors, and therapists wanted him to be tested. [He was] taking toys and throwing them rather than playing with them, and circling around the table and counters over and over. I discovered that these behaviors have stopped once he started to sign. He was trapped in his own mind! Unable to communicate with us ... But now that he is signing he seems happier most of the time. Signing has opened doors to us and him that were previously closed. I could see his ability when no one else could. I knew something was amiss. I spent the nights studying books on autism ... but something just didn't add up and I could not figure out what that was. He is a Maverick, I can confidently say that now. I am so filled with hope, I can barely contain myself." (Mother of a 2-year-old Maverick)
"Teaching fluency of thought and communication -- I never thought it was possible to teach these until now. Improving attention, memory, and channel switching seem to be the keys. My son's attention and memory have increased in capacity tremendously. I can SEE his thoughts being propelled forward. There is more fluency to his conversation and his retelling of the events. His confidence in this arena has really taken off. Thank you for providing a vision, and hope, and the willingness to teach the skills necessary to make the transformation possible. (Mother of 13-year-old Maverick) |
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Free Screening
The visual brain is very powerful and because of this overwhelming power, children can have problems with attention, memory, cooperation, motivation and communication. The visual brain can become the enemy of the auditory-verbal brain and cause it to malfunction.
Find out if this is the situation you are facing by scheduling an appointment with my assistant. Just click http://brain-engineering-labs.genbook.com. Choose "Free Telephone Screening" and select a day and time that's open and we will call you. It's as easy as that.
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written by Dr. Cheri Florance, Ph.D. with Marrin Gazzaniga
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Thank you and we look forward to helping you soon.
Cheri Florance, Ph.D.
Brain Engineering Labs
866-865-9820
www.ebrainlabs.com
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