P A T I E N T E X P E R I E N C E – A U T I S M

NAME: Mitchell Pacis

COUNTRY: Australia

AGE: 6

DIAGNOSIS: Mild with low-functioning autism

REASON FOR COMING FOR TREATMENT: Mitchell has exhibited symptoms of autism since the earliest stages of infancy. His family believe the catalyst for his autism was acute illness following birth, diagnosed as bronchiolitis, positive RSV virus and right ear infection. Eight hours after being discharged from the hospital following his birth, his mother noticed Mitchell's difficulty in breathing, a runny nose and bluish discoloration in his lips. Treatment administered included oxygen therapy in an incubator for one week, and Mitchell was discharged after a month.

START OF TREATMENT: April 6, 2006

BEFORE THE TREATMENT: Mitchell exhibited excessive hyperactivity for children of his age. He had behavioral problems such as self stimming and a uncommonly short attention span. Motor and physical development were normal. His receptive language was good but very basic. He was able to follow commands such as getting a cup or putting paper in the garbage can but he would not respond immediately and mix the commands with unrelated objectives before completing the task. His expressive language was poor with very limited speech (few words such as 'mom', 'dad'). Mitchell was also unable to communicate his own needs, such as going to the toilet, expressing when he was in pain and making requests. He could only maintain eye contact for a short time.

Therapies previously conducted include: Behavioral Therapies (including Applied Behaviour Analsysis (ABA) and Picture Exchange System (PECS)), vision exercises to improve eye contact, speech therapy, vitamin and chelation therapy and hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

See Videos: Before1, History1, After1, After2, After3

AFTER THE TREATMENT (April 30, 2006): Initial improvement included the substantial decrease in his request-response time. Whereas before, a simple request might have taken a 15-20 second time interval for him to act, he now responded almost instantly. The duration that he would comfortably maintain eye contact also increased. He showed a greater sense of self-awareness and a greater sense of awareness of the world around him, illustrated by him checking himself before exhibiting anti-social behaviour and improved toilet conduct.

Email Update from Mitchell's parents (June 4, 2006): We are all doing fine here. Mitchell's awareness of his surroundings has come out better in terms of rebelling to us if he dislikes something and saying more words like, ‘go', 'fix' and 'pooh’. These are words I’ve never heard him say before, but no sentences yet that are distinguishable, except for the ones that he used to know like ‘don’t want'. His playful ability has also increased in terms of playing with his toys like matchbox cars and trucks, which he hasn’t done for a while now, rather than self stimming actions like jumping around for hours on end. Mitchell is undergoing strict intensive one-on-one therapy at the moment and we are trying to gauge and monitor the speed of his awareness and concentration. We are using Facilitated Behaviour Therapy and I am trying to organize a video for him to send to you soon. His behavioural problems have improved considerably since visiting China. Eg. He doesn’t sleep on our bed anymore (which is a big relief). He wouldn’t jump up and down on top of the sofa. He would sit still in his chair during eating time rather than jumping around. Occassionally, we would see him jump up and down when he sees something he likes on TV. Basically, he seems to have settled down a lot since before and is doing less stimming actions but we’re still a long way away from recovery.