This list covers alternative therapies for developmental and learning disabilities

Alternative therapies for developmental and learning disabilities

Alternative therapies for developmental and learning disabilities include a range of practices used in the treatment of dyslexia, ADHD, Asperger syndrome, autism, Down syndrome and other developmental and learning disabilities. Treatments include changes in diet, dietary supplements, biofeedback,...

. Many of the treatments—including physiotherapy, massage and others—are neither generally considered as 'alternative therapies' nor as standard treatments for developmental and learning disabilities. They are, however, sometimes given or recommended as treatments specifically for these disabilities and therefore included in the list.None of these therapies are supported by scientific evidence.

Bioenergy therapies

• Bi-Aura therapy
• Craniosacral therapy
  Craniosacral therapy
  Craniosacral therapy is an alternative medicine therapy used by osteopaths, massage therapists, naturopaths, and chiropractors. A craniosacral therapy session involves the therapist placing their hands on the patient, which allows them to "tune into the craniosacral rhythm"...
  
  

• Distant healing

• Electromagnetic Field (EMF) Balancing Technique

• magnetic field therapy
  Magnet therapy
  Magnet therapy, magnetic therapy, or magnotherapy is an alternative medicine practice involving the use of static magnetic fields. Practitioners claim that subjecting certain parts of the body to magnetostatic fields produced by permanent magnets has beneficial health effects...
  
  

• therapeutic touch
  Therapeutic touch
  Therapeutic touch , also known as Non-Contact Therapeutic Touch , is an energy therapy which practitioners claim promotes healing and reduces pain and anxiety. Practitioners of therapeutic touch state that by placing their hands on, or near, a patient, they are able to detect and manipulate the...
  
   (TT) According to the American medical association,theraputic touch is "little more than quackery".

• Thought Field Therapy
  Thought Field Therapy
  Thought Field Therapy, or TFT, is a fringe psychological treatment developed by an American psychologist, Roger Callahan. Its proponents say that it can heal a variety of mental and physical ailments through specialized "tapping" with the fingers at meridian points on the upper body and hands...
  
   (TFT)

• http://www.challengingbehavior.org/do/resources/documents/rph_program_practices.pdf program practices for social development

• Alexander technique
  Alexander Technique
  The Alexander Technique teaches the ability to improve physical postural habits, particularly those that have become ingrained and conditioned responses...
  
  

• Chiropractic
  Chiropractic
  Chiropractic is a health care profession concerned with the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disorders of the neuromusculoskeletal system and the effects of these disorders on general health. It is generally categorized as complementary and alternative medicine...
  
  

• Feldenkreis

• Osteopathy
  Osteopathy
  Osteopathy and osteopathic medicine are often used interchangeably for the philosophy and system of alternative medical practice first proposed by A. T. Still MD, DO in 1874....
  
  

• Physiotherapy and occupational therapy
  Occupational therapy
  Occupational therapy is a discipline that aims to promote health by enabling people to perform meaningful and purposeful activities. Occupational therapists work with individuals who suffer from a mentally, physically, developmentally, and/or emotionally disabling condition by utilizing treatments...
  
   for learning disabilities

• Pilates
  Pilates
  Pilates is a physical fitness system developed in the early 20th century by Joseph Pilates in Germany, the UK and the USA. As of 2005, there were 11 million people practicing the discipline regularly and 14,000 instructors in the United States....
  
  

• Yoga
  Yoga
  Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, originating in ancient India. The goal of yoga, or of the person practicing yoga, is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility while meditating on Supersoul...
  
  

• Zero Balancing

Dietary treatments

• additive
  Food additive
  Food additives are substances added to food to preserve flavor or enhance its taste and appearance.Some additives have been used for centuries; for example, preserving food by pickling , salting, as with bacon, preserving sweets or using sulfur dioxide as in some wines...
  
  -free diets

• Antifungal medication

• Ayurvedic medicine

• B6-magnesium treatment

• Chelation
  Chelation
  Chelation is the formation or presence of two or more separate coordinate bonds between apolydentate ligand and a single central atom....
  
   therapy

• fatty acids

• Feingold Diet
  Feingold diet
  The Feingold diet is a food elimination program developed by Ben F. Feingold, MD to treat hyperactivity. It eliminates a number of artificial colors and artificial flavors, aspartame, three petroleum-based preservatives, and certain salicylates. There has been much debate about the efficacy of...
  
  

• food allergies, multiple chemical sensitivities
  Multiple chemical sensitivity
  Multiple chemical sensitivity is a chronic medical condition characterized by symptoms the affected person attributes to exposure to low levels of chemicals. Commonly suspected substances include smoke, pesticides, plastics, synthetic fabrics, scented products, petroleum products and paints...
  
   (diet base)

• Gluten-free, casein-free diet
  Gluten-free, casein-free diet
  A gluten-free casein-free diet eliminates dietary intake of the naturally occurring proteins gluten and casein .-Controversial autism diet:...
  
   (GFCF)

• glyconutritional supplement

• herbal medicine

• iron
  Iron
  Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
  
  

• lutein-free diet
  Lutein-free diet
  The Lutein-free diet is one of several specific diets reported to be beneficial to people with autism spectrum disorders. It is based on the theory of phagocytosis of pigments first described by research nutritionist Sandra Desorgher The Lutein-free diet is also known as 'Sara's Diet' The diet...
  
  

• megavitamins

• refined sugar-free diet

• secretin
  Secretin
  Secretin is a hormone that controls the secretions into the duodenum, and also separately, water homeostasis throughout the body. It is produced in the S cells of the duodenum in the crypts of Lieberkühn...
  
   treatment

• trace minerals, trace elements

• vaccination
  Vaccination
  Vaccination is the administration of antigenic material to stimulate the immune system of an individual to develop adaptive immunity to a disease. Vaccines can prevent or ameliorate the effects of infection by many pathogens...
  
   (avoidance)

• zinc
  Zinc
  Zinc , or spelter , is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...
  
  

Eclectic approaches

• Educational Kinesiology (Edu-K)

• Sunflower therapy

Hearing therapies

• Auditory integration training
  Auditory integration training
  Auditory integration training is a procedure pioneered in France by Guy Bérard, who promoted it as a cure for clinical depression and suicidal tendencies, along with what he said were very positive results for dyslexia and autism, although there has been very little empirical evidence regarding...
  
   (AIT), auditory processing training

• Education through Music

• Interactive Metronome

• Lexiphone

• Mozart Effect
  Mozart effect
  The Mozart effect can refer to: * A set of research results that indicate that listening to Mozart's music may induce a short-term improvement on the performance of certain kinds of mental tasks known as "spatial-temporal...
  
  

• music therapy
  Music therapy
  Music therapy is an allied health profession and one of the expressive therapies, consisting of an interpersonal process in which a trained music therapist uses music and all of its facets—physical, emotional, mental, social, aesthetic, and spiritual—to help clients to improve or maintain their...
  
  

• Spectral Activated Music of Optimal Natural Structure (SAMONAS)

• The Tomatis Method

Holistic healing

• Applied Kinesiology
  Applied kinesiology
  Applied kinesiology is an alternative medicine method used for diagnosis and determination of therapy. According to practitioners using Applied Kinesiology techniques, it provides feedback on the functional status of the body. AK is a practice within the realm of alternative medicine and is...
  
  

• crystal therapy

• flower remedies

• homeopathy
  Homeopathy
  Homeopathy is a form of alternative medicine in which practitioners claim to treat patients using highly diluted preparations that are believed to cause healthy people to exhibit symptoms that are similar to those exhibited by the patient...
  
  

• naturopathy

Medical interventions

• anti-motion sickness medication and other types for Vestibular Dysfunction

Movement-based therapies

• Brain Gym^(R)

• Brushing technique

• Developmental Exercise Programme (inhibition of primitive reflexes)

• Doman method

• Dore Program

• Education through Music

• Learning Breakthrough

• (Psychomotor) patterning

• Primary Movement

Pedagogical approaches and policies

• Full inclusion
  Inclusion (education)
  Inclusion in education is an approach to educating students with special educational needs. Under the inclusion model, students with special needs spend most or all of their time with non-disabled students. Implementation of these practices varies...
  
  

• Gentle Teaching

• Person Centered Approach (PCA)

Stress management

• Brain Gym^(R)

• caffeine-free diet

• Laughter therapy

• meditation
  Meditation
  Meditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....
  
  

• positive thinking
  Positive Thinking
  Positive Thinking... or Positive Thinking may refer to one of two songs:*Positive Thinking *Positive Thinking...
  
  

• stress management
  Stress management
  Stress management is the alteration of stress and especially chronic stress often for the purpose of improving everyday functioning.Stress produces numerous symptoms which vary according to persons, situations, and severity. These can include physical health decline as well as depression. According...
  
  

Student profiling

• Brain Gym^(R) Optimal Brain Organization Profiles
  Smart Moves (Book)
  The book Smart Moves: Why Learning Is Not All In Your Head was written in 1995 by neurophysiologist and educator Carla Hannaford , and includes an introduction by internationally recognized scientist Candace Pert, whose work on neuropeptides has revolutionized the scientific view of the mind/body...
  
   (OBO)

• Learning styles
  Learning styles
  Learning styles are various approaches or ways of learning. They involve educating methods, particular to an individual, that are presumed to allow that individual to learn best. Most people prefer an identifiable method of interacting with, taking in, and processing stimuli or information...
  
  

Technological interventions

• Biofeedback
  Biofeedback
  Biofeedback is the process of becoming aware of various physiological functions using instruments that provide information on the activity of those same systems, with a goal of being able to manipulate them at will...
  
  

• Facilitated Communication
  Facilitated communication
  Facilitated communication is a process by which a facilitator supports the hand or arm of a communicatively impaired individual while using a keyboard or other devices with the aim of helping the individual to develop pointing skills and to communicate...
  
  

Several scientific studies have shown that facilitated communication is quackery by proving that what the Autistic patient

Autism

Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...

 "says" is influenced entirely by the facilitater.

• Fast ForWord
  Fast ForWord
  Fast ForWord is a family of educational software products intended to enhance cognitive skills of children, especially focused on developing "phonological awareness" . It is marketed as a therapy for strengthening the skills of memory, attention, processing rate, and sequencing for children...
  
  

Touch therapies

• acupressure

• acupuncture
  Acupuncture
  Acupuncture is a type of alternative medicine that treats patients by insertion and manipulation of solid, generally thin needles in the body....
  
  

• aromatherapy
  Aromatherapy
  Aromatherapy is a form of alternative medicine that uses volatile plant materials, known as essential oils, and other aromatic compounds for the purpose of altering a person's mind, mood, cognitive function or health....
  
  

• Bio-Touch™

• Bowen Technique
  Bowen Technique
  The Bowen technique or Bowen therapy is a term used to describe a variety of therapies based on the work of the Australian layman Tom Bowen, and was later taught to others by his students Oswald and Elaine Rentsch. The practitioner lightly rolls across different muscle groups, with two minute...
  
  

• Brushing and joint compression

• Emotional Freedom Technique

• massage
  Massage
  Massage is the manipulation of superficial and deeper layers of muscle and connective tissue to enhance function, aid in the healing process, and promote relaxation and well-being. The word comes from the French massage "friction of kneading", or from Arabic massa meaning "to touch, feel or handle"...
  
  

• reflexology
  Reflexology
  Reflexology, or zone therapy, is an alternative medicine involving the physical act of applying pressure to the feet, hands, or ears with specific thumb, finger, and hand techniques without the use of oil or lotion...
  
  

• Reiki
  Reiki
  is a spiritual practice developed in 1922 by Japanese Buddhist Mikao Usui. The teaching was continued and adapted by various teachers. It uses a technique commonly called palm healing as a form of complementary and alternative medicine and is sometimes classified as oriental medicine by some...
  
  

Training methods

• Davis Dyslexia Correction

• Positive Behavior Support
  Positive behavior support
  Positive behavior support strives to use a system to understand what maintains an individual's challenging behavior. Students' inappropriate behaviors are difficult to change because they are functional; they serve a purpose for the child. These behaviors are supported by reinforcement in the...
  
   (PBS)

• Sensory Integration
  Sensory integration
  Sensory integration is defined as the neurological process that organizes sensation from one’s own body and the environment, thus making it possible to use the body effectively within the environment. Specifically, it deals with how the brain processes multiple sensory modality inputs into usable...
  
   Training (SIT)

• Whole Language
  Whole language
  Whole language describes a literacy philosophy which emphasizes that children should focus on meaning and strategy instruction. It is often contrasted with phonics-based methods of teaching reading and writing which emphasize instruction for decoding and spelling. However, from whole language...
  
  

• Using Floortime approach (DIR) developmental individual difference relationship based

Visual approaches

• Asfedic Tuning (TintaVision)

• Brain Gym^(R); Vision Gym^(R)

• Coloured overlays

• Dunlop test

• Harris Filters

• Intuitive Colorimeter

• Irlen Syndrome

• Optim-Eyes

• Optometric evaluation and optometric visual training

• Prism glasses

• Tinted lenses, ChromaGen lenses

• Visual Tracking Magnifier

External links

• http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/chi-autism-science-nov23,0,6519404,full.story