Originally Posted by twogirlsdad
I understand some of the concerns posted here, but approaching my research on brain balance centers without any bias,

Are they imagining it?

Without a proper study, they might be. Here are a few tips to help you sort out facts from unsupported claims:

Originally Posted by twogirlsdad
I have no horse in this race other than to find out through first hand experiences whether parents believe this program is helping or not helping their children,

I wouldn't advise you to put much faith in scattered reports (or worse, reports on the center's web site).

Scattered reports are just that: scattered reports. The center wants people to use its service, so there's a conflict of interest in anything on its website. People selling something often exaggerate how great their product is. This is why we need things like peer-reviewed studies and FDA approval of medical treatments. They help us decide if a medicine or treatment is helpful or not.

Here's another point: reports from people who say they believe in something are called self-reported data.

Self-reported data has lots of problems. In this case, one of them is that you don't know if everyone who used the service has made a report on it. Maybe lots of people tried this method and it didn't work for their kids. Maybe some of the kids who tried the method weren't definitely autistic. You also don't know what kind of autism the autistic ones had. How bad was it? Was it Asperger's? Was it something else? Did the kids have other problems?

You don't know any of these things because the guy in charge of the center hasn't published studies that give people ALL the information.

Peer-reviewed studies force scientists to be careful about their work and force them to prove that what they say is true.

Sometimes the system breaks down, but it's way, way better than the other option, which is no oversight at all. If there were no peer review and no FDA, people would be selling all kinds of garbage and making crazy claims about it.

In fact, they still do, but we have the FDA and peer-reviewed studies to help us sort out the garbage from the good stuff.

Unfortunately, autism is a field that's got a lot of garbage in it. I have a lot of sympathy for people with autistic kids because so many people are trying to fool them.

Honestly: if the treatment really worked, the guy who owns the center would be more likely to run some clinical trials. If his method worked as well as he says it does, he could:

1. Get FDA approval so that insurance would cover the treatment;

2. Help millions of kids.

3. Become a famous researcher who made a breakthrough in a very high-profile condition;

Val