Any experiences with DAN! protocol?

CVC

My son has a severe expressive language delay with autistic tendencies.  I am looking into alternative therapies for him: allergy testing, heavy metal poisoning testing, nutritional supplements.  Anybody have any experience?

SammyluvsJ

I'm in CA and an ABA therapist. Quite a few of the little ones I work with also go through with biomedical testing. GFCF diets are common, vitamin supplements, chelation (stripping metals), and hyperbaric oxygen therapy are the ones that I see most frequently.

breezy0629

I wish I had more than this, but I have no experience other than one lady I met who said her son benefited greatly from this/biomedical treatments. I only saw them/him for about 4 DT sessions & he seemed to still have some pretty bad behavioral issues - but then again, we were in a group setting, so i'm sure he was different there than at home. I did not see him prior to this.

It looks like our children are VERY similar in age... (2.5  & 1) Have we chatted before? I'd love to know how things are going with your DS. Do you have a diagnosis? What qualities mark a severe expressive language delay?

My 2.5 yo is diagnosed 'Autism', but I feel the diagnosis will drill down more specifically once he is a bit older.  

CVC

Breezy - he has been diagnosed, he doesn't talk at all.  He has randomly said words perfectly, but it is few and far between.  In the last year he's said about 10 words, one time, and never again.  Thus the "severe".

He started signing in Nov and now does about 10 signs, which has been huge for him.

The autistic tendancies have come and gone.  He used to hand flap and walk on tip toe when excited, now rarely.  His eye contact is usually great, but sometimes not.  He hasn't been formally diagnosed with autism, but there is no doubt he is on the spectrum, it's becomming more obvious the older he gets, but he is definitely high functioning and it's been suggested to me that he may be PDD.

breezy0629

Also, to follow up *auntie* on that, I would certainly look into that in ADDITION to other therapies. You should still be able to do EI, if you aren't already. There is nothing to LOSE with SLP, OT, and DT - PT too if needed. 

In about 12 weeks, we saw a dramatic differance in DS. Not everyone has results so quickly, but the earlier the start, the better.

Hope you find something that helps DS. It is so frustrating to know that if they could only communicate their needs, some of the behavioral stuff would dissolve too.  

joecherishsme

We have been doing the DAN! protocol for almost 2 years now. If you haven't gone to https://www.talkaboutcuringautism.org/index.htm for more info. They also have a TACA usa yahoo group and various support groups across the country. I would go there as well as the Defeat Autism Now website. You should also consider going to a DAN! conference.