Buy My Book And Become your own Wellness Detective Here
by Jeanne van der Merwe
ONCE a week, a rather strange scene plays out in the principal's office
of the Alpha School for Autistic Children in Woodstock.
On the floor of an emptied-out school office, four adults sit on the floor, each with a child on the lap. While the therapists gently squeeze the children's heads, shoulders, backs and arms with their hands, the children themselves seem locked in their own world. They squirm, crawl away, whoop and giggle and stare into space with almost expressionless faces while playing with blocks or puzzles, often seeming oblivious of their therapists.
When a stranger enters the room, one child might jump up and hide under the principal's desk.
Yet since the group of craniosacral therapists started treating 10 of the children voluntarily in February, their teachers have noted marked improvements in their behaviour.
Principal Alletta Pierce
said: "All of them have shown some sort of change- some very subtle,
some negative, but change all the same.
"Autistic children are usually very withdrawn, yet after the craniosacral
therapy most of them became more aware of the people around them.
"One boy who never talked before has started to verbalise (imitating speech and words), another older boy started reading, another one became less aggressive and started playing with the family dog.
"One boy ventured
out of his home and started exploring the family garden, something he
would never have done before. A child who previously would have become
upset and thrown tantrums for the tiniest reason is now starting to smile
and reach out to people.
Nerina Kearns, a teacher at the school, told of how a four-year-old boy
in her class improved.
"Initially he had
severe mood swings. His behaviour was erratic and he seemed unsettled.
Then as the treatment progressed, his behaviour evened out. He became
a lot more verbal and started imitating sounds and noises.
He started taking part in the class activities a lot more. He is far more
stable emotionally - for the first time he is able to act on emotions
and cry when he's upset. His toilet training regressed, but that could
have been due to anxiety."
Nellian Bekker, one of
the therapists, said their therapy on the children was free of charge,
as their work was part of a study project.
"As far as we know, craniosacral therapy is not done on autistic
patients anywhere else in South Africa.
"We work with the central nervous system, the cerebro-spinal fluid
(around the spinal cord) and the neural tubes around nerves. We try to
find restrictions in the nervous system that prevents the nerves from
functioning properly and release these restrictions."
The therapists themselves also noted changes in their young patients.
Brigitte Weltz said: "One of my patients started playing with her
sister, another one recognised the neighbour and two started writing."
Pearce said it took the children quite a while to adapt to the therapists,
but that more and more children were included in the therapy.
"We would like to expand the treatment to all 60 pupils in the school,
but that wouldn't be possible without additional funding."
Apart from extra speech therapy and music therapy, the children at the
school's class activities are designed to teach them the kind of basic
behaviour that non-autistic children learn automatically by mimicking
the behaviour of those around them.
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For information about the project contact Brigitta Weltz bweltz@mweb.co.za