Okay, okay I know this book has been around for ages—since 2007, in fact. Anyway, on the off chance that someone else in the stratosphere has yet to read it herein follows this particular autism mum’s assessment.
When I was writing the chapter on early intervention in the Australian Autism Handbook back in 2007, I touched briefly on the topic of neuroplasticity— the capacity of the brain to ‘rewire’ itself through thought and activity—as a possible explanation why intensive early intervention can make such a difference to kids on the spectrum, in some cases rerouting a developmental trajectory that has been heading the wrong direction back to an almost typical path.
Increasingly researchers are finding that ASDs are disorders of neural connectivity, with localised areas of disorganised overconnectivity yet connections between different regions of the brain, essential for processing complex social interactions, being poorly developed—‘bumpy old back roads instead of superhighways’ as it was once explained to me.
If, as believed for most of last century, brain anatomy is fixed there wouldn’t be much you could do about this. Fortunately neuroplasticity researchers have come along and challenged the concept of the ‘unchanging brain’, giving us parents hope. I didn’t write much about neuroplasticity in the AAH, however, because at the time it was still regarded as a rather fringe science and didn’t want to bamboozle our non-scientific readers.
Ironically, that very same year The Brain That Changes Itself was published, became a New York Times Bestseller, and neuroplasticity became flavour of the month, positively mainstream.
Given my interest, why did I take me so long to read The Brain That Changes Itself? I’m not sure – possibly burnout from reading too many autism books. However, as I mentioned in an earlier post, we had some difficult times with Joe late in 2010 and found I was in need of encouragement. I thought The Brain That Changes Itself might fit the bill. Which it did.
It’s possible I’m a tragic nerd, but I found the book to be a complete page turner. I ignored the kids and housework and became a book bore. ‘Did you know that blah, blah, blah?’ my poor husband had to hear about 50 thousand times over the ensuing days.
The whole book is terrific, but it was Chapter 3: Redesigning the Brain that really captured my attention. This chapter focuses on research carried out at the University Of California in San Francisco (UCSF) around children with language and learning disorders. Professor Michael Mezernich and his team are the brains behind Fast ForWord, a plasticity-based children’s’ computer game that’s designed to improve auditory processing, attention and memory through a series of seven carefully targeted brain exercises. Although Fast ForWord was not specifically developed for children with autism, the researchers have found that many children on the spectrum also benefit from it, with the program not only alleviating their language issues but also helping them to become more connected socially.
This accidental finding encouraged Mezernich and his team to conduct research into ASDs. Their work thus far points to an overconnected but disorganised, hyperexcitable, hypersensitive brain (or specifically in this case a region of the brain called the auditory cortex).
And now to the best news of all: based on encouraging research in rats, where they found they could reverse brain changes they believe may be associated with autism, UCSF is currently developing a modified program to Fast ForWord, specifically for children with ASDs. Oh happy, happy day!
My initial instinct after reading The Brain That Changes Itself was to grab Joe and get on the first plane to San Francisco, but I guess I must be patient and allow the researchers to do their thing. In the meantime, I am signing Joe up for a locally-based Fast ForWord program this year and will report back periodically on progress.
Have any of our readers enrolled their child on the spectrum in Fast ForWord? If so, did it help? We’d love to hear your stories.
As for The Brain That Changes Itself, I’m giving it five stars.
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And just a wee note from me here, Tom did a stint of Fast ForWord before he started school way back in 2003, and I really did think it helped his language a lot. We did another stint in 2009, and we were supposed to over the last holidays but somehow they zoomed by and we didn’t.
Doing the programme is demanding, it’s 50 minutes a day. But I’m a great believer in intensity, and we parents are trying to make real changes, so intensity is good. There are all sorts of Fast ForWord programs now, and you can do them at home. Not that it’s easy to get a huge almost 14-year old to sit still to do them when he’d rather be listening to heavy metal music. But that’s another story!
Thanks for sharing this info, Benison. You’ve inspired me to reserve the Doidge book at the library and look into FastForword providers in Sydney. Please do keep us posted on how Joe goes with it this year. I think I heard of FastForword years ago and looked into it for my son (now 10 yrs old, on the autism spectrum), but dismissed it because it seemed to be about reading and spelling, and they were actually the only academic areas where he didn’t seem to have a major problem. But now I’m hearing that it may also help in other areas, such as auditory processing and social skills (even general brain re-wiring!) so I guess I’m going to have to re-examine it. Adding another therapy (cost, time etc!) is always a big deal, so I greatly appreciate the help you and Seana are offering in making those hard calls.
Great to hear I inspired someone, Monique! Yes, I had the same misconceptions about Fast ForWord until I read Doidge’s book. To be honest we haven’t started FFW yet because February is such a busy month for us, but will definitely commence mid-March at the latest. It requires quite a time commitment and I want to do it properly. I am a scientis after all! Promise to report back then.
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