A Case Study: Patrick

My son Patrick was diagnosed with PDD/ASD/NOS in February 2000. He’d started Early Intervention in October of 1999 for what I thought was a speech delay. He was nearly three years old but his expressive and receptive language was at 12 to 18 months, his vocabulary only 130 words. His primary mode of expression was a fast jargon and he would often scream, grunt, and tantrum. He had several “behaviors”: flipping light switches, opening & closing doors, visual stimulating with his hands, running & crashing his head into the couch, perimeter walking of a new room, ear patting, attention to all ambient noise, excessive eye blinking, and teeth grinding. He was constantly in motion. He displayed anxiety and fear when presented with new activities, both fine and gross motor, structured or unstructured. He had trouble falling and staying asleep.

For the first year of Early Intervention we focused on play techniques including “Floor Time” and a sensory diet of swinging, jumping, squishing, hugging, and sleeping under weight and head pressure. We learned some sign language and used pictures to clarify what Patrick did not understand receptively. I began to see Patrick’s expressive language grow and his tantrums settle. His language skills increased to those of a 2 year old. With these gains, he sought movement even more. It seemed to help keep him together. He was always more agitated on rainy days when we couldn’t go on the swings or for a walk. A year into his Early Intervention, Patrick’s OT, Cathy Deitch, was trained in Therapeutic Listening®. She wanted him to begin listening to modulated music over headphones for 30 minutes two times each day. She said it might help give Patrick more of the vestibular input he was always seeking, therefore allowing him to slow down in movement and in speech. She also said it could help him potty train.

Initially Cathy and I struggled to get the headphones on Patrick for he did not like to have his head touched. We sat at the kitchen table with his favorite cookies but that didn’t work. We tried the trampoline and the computer - no go on either. By this time he was screaming and flailing, and we decided he needed to calm down. We got out the stroller he likes to ride in and he calmed immediately. While I pushed the stroller, Cathy maneuvered the headphones onto Patrick. He allowed them for a few seconds and then took them off. I stopped the stroller. He cried, “Go! Go!” so we repeated the maneuvering we had just done and got the headphones on again. Patrick ceased all screaming and crying. He allowed the headphones for 20 minutes of fast-paced walking before saying “all done”, at which point we stopped. That night he got into bed without a tantrum and was asleep in ten minutes!

The next day Patrick woke up in a really good mood. He was cooperative and attentive. He had two sessions with his special education teachers, in which he initiated play, remained attentive, and made more eye contact than usual. Cathy came in the afternoon. We headed right for the stroller and headphones. Patrick wore them without incident for the full 30 minutes. He did not tantrum and went to bed without issue. Over the next week, Patrick made many gains. He had a bowel movement in the toilet, made a request that hadn’t been modeled for him, and used the word “mine” for the first time! Others observed and commented on his increased use of sentences and questions.

Patrick has continued with Therapeutic Listening using a variety of CDs. In his first six months of Listening, he started wearing a hat, participating in gross and fine motor work with little complaint, clapping to rhythm, and briefly riding a tricycle. His language skills increased to 2 years and 10 months.

The modulated music (Ease 1, Ease 2, Mozart for Modulation, Rhythm & Rhyme) and headphones have been a key to unlocking so much of our child and who he is. It has been like a small miracle to watch the effect it has had on him. Therapy alone took us to a certain level; the headphones carried us far beyond that. Thank you.

- Margy O’Neill, parent