Check out this website: http://www.crossroadsinstitute.org/home.html

I don't know if other neurotherapy programs are the same. This specific program helped my son and they claim they have had really good results with lots of Autistic kids. My son receives services from their satelite program here in Anchorage. They also have a distance program too. And I believe they have moved their main office to California.

Here's what happened. First they do this really long assessment which includes a QEEG brain mapping. If you know your kid can't handle it, then you can break the sessions up into smaller chunks of time. My son was pretty aggressive during the first assessment so we wrapped him tightly in a blanket which helps calm him.

After the assessment results come back, they design an individualized program for your child. The main part is the neurofeedback using the computer. Originally they tried to get Kavan to do all these games but he hated it. So later they tied the neurofeedback to videos.... which worked really well. They also may have your child do other exercises.

This service is really expensive so I decided to commit to doing one round of treatment (36 sessions) and then decide if it's worth it. For my son, it's worth it. But as we know, not everyone always respond so you'll have to see. Our first sessions only lasted 15 minutes. Now he can do the entire 80 minute session with no problems. In fact he loves it now. So far we've done four rounds but we are getting ready to start another one.

My son is so much more cooperative, fewer mood-swings, more language, calmer, learns quicker, shows some self-control. But best of all, his internal flips that turned to aggression all but disapeared. And teaching him tolerance started working so his meltdowns due to external triggers also dramatically decreased. His aggression / SIB episodes decreased from over 40 per day to less than 2 per MONTH! I have big hopes that we will be able to eventually extinguish this behavior. Oh yeah.... He's really happy now most of the time. I love it. Each time we do QEEG map prior to a new round of treatment, the results show that his brain activity is closer to normal than before. I don't expect him to recover because we didn't start until he was 12 and his brain was already developed. I just want improvement.

The state paid for his first two rounds but then turned us down based on some ridiculous reasons. So I went to fair hearing with the state and WON. I had cool charts that showed how much his SIB had decreased. So now they are paying again for this service under his Medicaid waiver.

Here's a brief story about my son on another Neurofeedback site. http://www.centerforbrain.com/conditions/autism...\
-case-examples/family-finds-a-normal-life/
You can see the SIB graph that we put together for fair hearing. Click on the graph to see the whole thing.

An eeg is used to determine if someone has seizures. A qeeg is used to measure electrical activity in the brain. If the brain is not balanced than you build a protocol to treat it using Neurotherapy.

This is different than getting an EEG (performed by neurologist) which just captures electrical activity during a single point-in-time. A qeeg is done during assessment but the child is engaged in various activities to measure the brain activity so the doctor can evaluate the overall functioning of the brain. Than during the TREATMENT phase, they use that information to know how set up the protocol.

A traditional MD knows very little about Neurotherapy just like they know little about most treatments for Autism. So it's unlikely that your doctor will prescribe Neurotherapy for your child. Which is a shame because it has been effective for many patients with Autism.

For all effective treatments in Autism.... you need to go to each specialist to get the assessment and treatment. Just like you wouldn't go to a speech therapist to evaluate or treat for occupational therapy. You wouldn't go to a peditrician to evaluate for neurotherapy or ABA or ..... etc.

No, this is what I got from wikipedia:
Neurofeedback is a type of biofeedback that uses electroencephalography or fMRI to provide a signal that can be used by a person to receive feedback about brain activity.

Like other forms of biofeedback, neurofeedback training (NFT) uses monitoring devices to provide moment-to-moment information to an individual on the state of their physiological functioning. The characteristic that distinguishes NFT from other biofeedback is a focus on the central nervous system and the brain. NFT has its foundations in basic and applied neuroscience as well as data-based clinical practice. It takes into account behavioral, cognitive, and subjective aspects as well as brain activity.

During training, sensors are placed on the scalp and then connected to sensitive electronics and computer software that detect, amplify, and record specific brain activity. Resulting information is fed back to the trainee virtually instantaneously with the conceptual understanding that changes in the feedback signal indicate whether or not the trainee's brain activity is within the designated range. Based on this feedback, various principles of learning, and practitioner guidance, changes in brain patterns occur and are associated with positive changes in physical, emotional, and cognitive states. Often the trainee is not consciously aware of the mechanisms by which such changes are accomplished although people routinely acquire a "felt sense" of these positive changes and often are able to access these states outside the feedback session.

NFT does not involve either surgery or medication and is neither painful nor embarrassing. When provided by a licensed professional with appropriate training, generally trainees do not experience negative side-effects. Typically trainees find NFT to be an interesting experience. Neurofeedback operates at a brain functional level and transcends the need to classify using existing diagnostic categories. It modulates the brain activity at the level of the neuronal dynamics of excitation and inhibition which underlie the characteristic effects that are reported.

Research demonstrates that neurofeedback is an effective intervention for ADHD and Epilepsy. Ongoing research is investigating the effectiveness of neurofeedback for other disorders such as Autism, headaches, insomnia,[2] anxiety, substance abuse, TBI [1] and other pain disorders, and is promising.[citation needed]

Please give me more feedback about the insurance. Is it covered in California state under MediCal? Which states are you in? Was the therapist doing the sessions a licensed doctor? Thanks for your info. Karen