Scotson technique

[monkey2010]

Hi,
Is anyone doing this treatment with their child? It would be good to hear other experiences as it's a big committment and expensive.

I'm particularly interested in if it can help early ASD symptoms and/or movement and co-ordination problems.

thanks

Yes,

Have been doing it with my son for over 2 years now. He has mild cerebral palsy.

I don't know about ASD symptoms - but physically its helped my son enormously.

When he started he had no awareness let alone use of his left arm and hand. Now he uses it out of choice. Still very stiff but slowly becoming more and more useful to him.

Co-ordination and balance have all improved masssively.

I am a real fan of it.

Not heard of this before-I've just looked it up on internet as my ds has CP and other issues-looked at some pictures,before and after and am a bit worried by timescale ie:would that child have improved that much in 5 - 18 months anyway? not being rude,Skewiff- do you think it is this therapy that has helped or all the other stuff you do-or a combination-can you tell me a bit more please as I'm interested in any therapy that could really help,thanks

Skewiff - how manageable is it doing the exercises everyday? my son is only 9 months old and is often quite resistant to physio. He has periods of really rapid breathing and over-excitement - do you think it could help with this?

Monkey - Yes it definitely could help with breathing and behaviour.

My son was a terrible terrible sleeper because his breathing was irregular and shallow and he sleeps and breathes beautifully now.

The exercises are really really manageable actually. I have done the full 2 hours since we started, but may cut down soon as I am pregnant again. I used to do it all whilst my son was asleep. Now I do it all whilst he watches television. It is totally different to physio in that the child is passive and so not being 'made' to do anything. My son loves the Scotson being done and if I stop whilst he's watching tv he puts my hands back on him and asks me to start again.

Intothewest - I don't think that the children in the pictures would have improved that much anyway. I'm not sure how old your child is, but the longer I've seen my son and other children with CP I've realised that without input their physical restrictions stay much the same and often (because of growth) get worse.

You are right that it is difficult to know whether its the Scotson or other therapies that have helped my son. However he started nursery in September and I also became pregnant then. Because of these two things we stopped everything else apart from the Scotson (as I can do this at home). DS has continued to improve and develop just as before - if not more so. He is becoming aware of his individual fingers in his affected hand now. I don't nag him/ bring his awareness in any other way to his body apart from through the Scotson massage.

Sorry this is all really long. But if you have any further questions I'll be happy to answer.

thank you-I'm glad your son is improving

I think you can apply for funding from caudwell for this. go onto yahoo group from treating autism website - they know a lot about it.

Yes you can apply for funding from caudwell. And also from the Tree of Hope. Both charities really believe in Scotson and help a lot of people who go there.

Riven - there are people who go to Scotson who also have children with very severe CP. The people that I have met there say it has helped them hugely too.