Asperger's Syndrome
Recent advances in Neurofeedback protocols have given considerable impetus to work with Asperger's Syndrome. The advantage here is that the person at issue may in fact exhibit considerable intellectual gifts, which can be helpful in Neurofeedback. Training for this condition involves a primary focus on emotional regulation, with a secondary focus on anxiety (worry) and obsessional features that may be present. Other non-verbal learning disabilities may also be present, and these may require specific attention.
Case Report:
Adolescent training for Asperger's and Migraine
A 13-year old was brought to the office by his mother. He did not come willingly.
The mother brought the child for his Asperger's, and not for his daily migraine headaches. The mother was concerned because the son was not picking up facial cues. He also had occasional violent meltdowns, anger episodes, and rages. He was severely depressed.
In the boy's world view, if he had to be here for Neurofeedback it was going to be for his sleep issues. He was very negative about the training, thinking it was for "losers" and "retards," so he denied any association between the Neurofeedback and problems of the brain. The headaches turned out not to be a motivator for the training because he had absorbed the notion that he would just have to live with those.
The boy had a slight headache after the first Neurofeedback session. That evening he went for a walk with his dad, with whom he famously did not get along. This was unprecedented. A headaches was experienced after the second session as well, and then again just before session #7.
Only at that time did the switch get made to the headache protocol. With the switch to the migraine protocol no further headaches were experienced until session #18. By this point his sleep had also improved, and there was less emotional reactivity. The parents' focus throughout remained more on school and social issues than on the headaches.
At session twenty the decision was made to move the family into home training. Ten sessions were done at home under these circumstances, at which point the son refused to do any more sessions. Some time later the boy experienced another bad headache. The mother immediately put him on the instrument and got rid of the headache. This led to the son accepting more sessions somewhat grudgingly. The family came in for a mid-course correction session at the office at session 37.
Some time later the boy declared that he no longer wanted to be in his algrebra class. It turned out that he was very competitive, and that if he couldn't do better than the others in a class such as algebra then he just didn't want to be there. Left frontal training was recommended to the family. They did one session of the training, and the very next day the son got the highest mark in the class in algebra. This helped change the son's attitude toward the training somewhat, but he remained in a slightly oppositional stance. It seems like he could not fail to interpret matters in terms of something being wrong with his brain, and he could not go there.
With sessions having become merely episodic in the household, the Neurofeedback instrument was returned, and the family will come to training as necessary at the office. At this point there is no issue any more with emotional melt-downs or anger episodes or rages. The youngster could still benefit from additional training, but it is no longer an emergency.
