A recent article in Forbes magazine focuses on Jacob’s Ladder Center, a “neurodevelopmental learning center” in Roswell, Georgia. Reading about this center, I’ve wondered what is different about its approach, and what might be the main components of an education for autistic children.
Amy O’Dell is the founder and director of Jacob’s Ladder, and also the mother of 14-year-old Jacob, who (according to the center’s webpage) exhibited “sensory play” and “self-stimulatory behaviors that are typical with an Autism diagnosis.” Jacob also had other health issues, including immune system disorders, kidney complications and a serious heart defect that required surgery in 2000. O’Dell used what she calls a “neurodeveopmental approach” to help her son’s brain “build and strengthen neural pathways”; she combined intensive sensory and gross-motor therapy. Jacob can now speak “eloquently,” likes physical activities such as wrestling and football, and can read far above his grade level. In 1999, she founded Jacob’s Ladder, which now provides therapy for 5 to 20 kids full-time, and another 40 part-time. An evaluation is $900. The fee for the school is $2,950 a month and its staff of 25 consists of “largely unlicensed aides trained by O’Dell.”
According to the Forbes article, Jacob’s Ladder Center is based on the theory that “the brain is, to a degree not appreciated by doctors a few decades ago, “plastic”; it can adapt to neurological deficits.” Research by Michael Merzenich, a UC, San Francisco professor, is cited. Other providers of educational therapies for autistic children have used similar arguments about the “plasticity” of the brain to make a case for early intervention. The neurologist of a student at Jacob’s Ladder notes that the center provides “repetitive behavior treatment with early intervention … a nice combination of other people’s views.”
I have not seen the center and am curious as to how its approach might differ from other educational methods and programs for autism. As I’ve noted, my own son has learned best using Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), delivered with an emphasis on fun and flexibility and a lot of structure, and with a willingness among therapists to integrate ideas other therapies (speech; OT; Floortime-like techniques to develop play skills) and to consider my son’s sensory and communicative needs, and that look at him not as a diagnosis, or a label, but as……himself.
That’s been the right place to start with his education.
We’ve certainly done the mud-playing on our own……..
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We have Brain Highways Center here in San Diego which sounds similar in its maximizing the brain’s plasticity and neurodevelopmental approach. There is a time for everything. We have found that the best program over time (even a lifetime) is a combination of strategies including ABA, sensory integration, music, fun, and re-patterning.
I still wish though that my son could have participated in something like this German kindergarten in the Black Forest. Check out the pictures and puddles. Playing in the mud is so “therapeutic!”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120813155330311577.html?mod=djemWMP
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When Charlie was just being diagnosed, we did not think he had any sensory issues—-wrong!, as we later discovered; Charlie could have benefited from physical therapy to address his coordination and other needs. The sensory issues that the first OT’s we met talked about seemed secondary to Charlie’s lack of speech. Since then, we’ve done nothing but learn how it’s necessary to draw on so many different therapies and perspectives to help Charlie learn. Certainly, Charlie’s learning to ride his bike and swim have helped his speech, attention, and ability to focus.
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I was skeptical of the benefits of OT when Brad first received his diagnosis, but I’ve since done a 180. I’m not going to pretend to understand praxis. But I’ve come to believe that the sensory challenges cause the social and communication impairments. When we treat the sensory issues, the social and communication skills improve. Of course I can’t prove that. Nobody can. But the idea has merit, and it gives me a lot of hope, because OT is a mechanical therapy that can be administered, and the physical results are near immediate and measurable.
Brad had very poor musle tone, particularly in his trunk, and he has problems with bilateral movement. I personally do exercises with Brad every day, and I’ve seen huge improvements. And he’s also improved in communication and social. I can’t prove the two are related, but my intuition is that it’s no coincidence. ps I didn’t change his diet.
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