Supplemental Therapies

Have you tried supplemental therapies such as music therapy, aqua therapy, hippotherapy, listening therapy, psychotherapy, etc.? What have been the results?

My son has Asperger Syndrome (AS), but he also has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) which drives me up the wall. It takes him forever to do something because of ritualistic behaviors that he just has to do. Repetitive behaviors such as checking things several times, the need to have things “just so”, wanting things to be perfect or done correctly, the need to touch objects, etc. has totally gotten out of hand. This “dilly dallying” as we call it at home was also causing problems at school.

When you tell MONK to do something, he should do it in a timely manner. Why should I be so concerned about this odd behavior? This could affect him academically and socially and later, employment as well.

It had come to the point that OCD was taking over my son’s life. I was taking a graduate course at Johns Hopkins and made MONK my project. By doing that it helped me understand what his behavior of concern was, why he was doing it, and hopefully help him to control his OCD tendencies.

I did a thorough background examination of him by reviewing his records, conducted interviews, made several observations and collected data. I used charts and diagrams to visually see what MONK was doing which enabled me to break down the information that I collected. I then summarized my findings, discussed the setting/event, and antecedents, consequences, and function.

The behavior of concern was then determined and I came up with possible interventions and consequences for this. I also discussed the function of why he was probably doing the behaviors and interventions that could help.

Keeping a third person perspective on the project helped me tremendously by not focusing on my personal feelings and the battle at hand. Keeping to just the facts helped me see what I was doing wrong as a parent and what I should have been doing.

We then used various strategies at home (Social Autopsies, SOCCSS, Daily Exercise, Task Analysis, Demonstrate/Model, Time Management, Priming, Prompting/Cueing, Praise/Positive Comments/Feedback, etc.) and MONK made some progress, but it was obvious that more extensive intervention was necessary. During the summer of 10th grade to help reduce his OCD tendencies, MONK went to cognitive behavior therapy in Silver Spring, MD.


Cognitive Behavior Therapy

The goal of cognitive-behavior therapy is to teach people with OCD to confront their fears and reduce anxiety without performing the ritual behaviors. It also focuses on reducing the exaggerated or catastrophic thinking that often occurs in people with OCD.

During cognitive behavior therapy the therapist might start by just getting to know the child and parents. The therapist might ask about favorite activities or TV shows, pets or hobbies, or particular sports. The therapist will also ask some questions about problems with worry and rituals that the child has been having. Then the therapist will explain about OCD and how the cognitive behavior therapy works to help it get better. The therapist will help parents understand the child's OCD and what they can do at home to help it get better, too. In cognitive behavior therapy for OCD, kids learn different ways to deal with their worries without doing a ritual. At first, it may seem hard to stop doing rituals, but the therapist can teach kids how to feel safe enough to try. It's definitely tough at first, but if they stick with it, kids begin to feel stronger and braver against OCD. After learning about ways to get their worries under control, kids start to practice them. As with anything new (such as playing the piano or kicking a soccer goal), the more someone practices, the better he or she can do it. When kids practice what they learn in behavior therapy, they find out it actually works. Kids with OCD usually go to therapy about once a week (or sometimes more often) for a while, then less often as they begin to get better. Getting better can take anywhere from a few months to a few years (Sheslow, 2008).

Therapy sessions started with me, the therapist, and my son and we discussed how things were going and if anything needed to be changed or addressed. The therapist then met with my son and they talked about why he was doing certain things and how he could stop doing the ritualistic behavior that he was doing. These interventions were then utilized by my son at home and my job was to keep data on his progress and report back to the therapist the following week.


Outcome: MONK really wanted his OCD to stop which probably helped tremendously with his attitude and him being willing to try new things such as cognitive behavior therapy. His OCD behaviors did stop with their interventions and when school resumed, so did his therapy due to it being a 2 hour drive one way. Since then, when his OCD at times becomes apparent, he refers back to the techniques that he learned and makes adjustments. So far it is working, but this will probably be a life long struggle that he will face from day to day.

Note: Our insurance paid for some of cognitive behavior therapy, the rest came out of pocket. It was not cheap and the effort of getting to and from therapy took its toll on mom (I HATE driving in Washington DC traffic hence I live in the sticks). Would I recommend cognitive behavior therapy to another? Yes, it worked for us and it could probably work for you.