I had a friend do this with her son who has Aspergers. They saw really good changes with his social-emotional abilities and tolerance, and other behavioral and cognitive benefits with the first round. Teachers, therapists, friends- everyone was wowed, so they went ahead with another round which ended up causing him a lot of difficulty. If your child is showing any backwards movement, I'd probably withdraw early. Two others I know have had mixed benefits. "
Which therapy/modality are you referring to? I can say after 3 years in the field of Neurofeedback, I have seen nothing but positive results for those on the Autism spectrum (as well as virtually everyone else). That said, I use NeurOptimal® which is a pure feedback form of Neurofeedback, not operant conditioning like many of the others.
I have had several people tell me that they had done traditional neurofeedback with initial success but then problems emerged later in training. This can be a problem with the qEEG neurofeedback (operant conditioning) because that method involves human judgement about what your brain needs and protocols that "push" the brain one way or another with rewards. This can be very effective, but for many reasons it can also be problematic with the possibility of over-training and side effects.
NeurOptimal® is based on a whole different paradigm. Essentially the idea that when the brain gets pure feedback about its own activity, it will self correct in a way that is optimal for that individual Central Nervous System. Because there is no pushing involved, this type is non-invasive, non medical and safe for anyone to use at home.
You can purchase or rent a personal system and have the exact same effective training results as if you went to a professional's office. Rentals usually run around $800.00 for a month with 20-30 sessions. The cost of a home trainer is $5,500.00 with 300 sessions(with the option to add more for as low as $10.00 each). The systems have a fairly high resale value too, so you can buy one, train all you want and then sell it and get a good chunk of your money back. Or you can look for a used one (just make sure to verify with the manufacturer that it is still up to date and eligible for their tech support).
It wont "cure" any medical condition, but the training gets the brain in the best shape possible. Typically sleep and stress levels improve appreciably within 10-20 sessions. When sleep and stress are improved, the brain has a lot more energy to spend on other things. That's when all sorts of other symptoms start to drop off. I have seen people get off their sleep and anxiety meds and greatly reduce ADHD meds within 20 sessions (of course I advocate working closely with their doctor if that's what they want to do)
I was very skeptical to sign my daughter up at first because the research is sparse. Ultimately I was desperate and I'm glad I tried it. I now understand why the research is sparse. No one will ever get rich with this, people train for 10 - 100 sessions and get on with their life, not like medications that create customers for life.
IMHO, research starts with the flawed assumption that you have equivalent subjects to begin with. You simply can't control for all the variables in humans (genetics, leaky gut, trauma from birth or seemingly small head bumps in toddler-hood, food sensitivities, gut microbiome imbalances etc. That said, the research that has been done has shown nothing but positive results thus far.
Neurofeedback is not new, it has been around since the 1960s, NASA even uses it to train their astronauts for peak performance.
Okay, there's my 2 cents, I'm doing what I can to get the word out there, HTH. If that isn't hat you were referring to, please disregard ;-)
