JOG: As a certified DAN! [Defeat Autism Now!] doctor a few years ago, how do you view treating ASD [autism spectrum disorder] kids today compared with when you first became certified?
Dr. Harry: In my opinion, a lot has changed about the way I view the approach to treating children using the “DAN!” method. I no longer think that all children require the same protocol. I think that we need more scientific studies into basic issues about the “gut-brain” connection and changes in immunology.
I think that any and all treatments offered to children should be individualized and explanations given to parents about why certain supplements are given. An informed parent can make a better choice.
JOG: Implicit learning is at the core of the treatment program. How do you best describe the meaning and benefits of this type of teaching?
Dr. Harry: The study of implicit learning is a relatively new frontier in neuroscience and neuropsychology. It has the potential to rethink how we understand our experiences and to optimize approaches to learning new information, such as learning the grammar that was never acquired by children on the spectrum [autism spectrum disorder].
Infants had to “learn” this grammar this implicitly, by definition, because no one ever taught it to them explicitly. For example, a parent probably never said, “What is this?” and gave the child a reward if correct, and no parent I know ever taught the complexities of grammar.
Children use a different set of brain pathways associated with implicit learning. In autism, some of these implicit-learning pathways are damaged.
When you turn on a light switch at home, how do you know where it is without thinking, and how do you know which way to get hot water as opposed to cold when you turn on the faucet? This is an example of implicit learning and memory, the kind that happens when people are just going about their daily business, when they are focused on living, not on memorizing or having to learn things consciously.
This kind of learning has been called by various names, including “learning by osmosis” and “thinking without thinking.” Implicit learning or memory is acquired incidentally by focusing attention on something other than what is being internalized. For example, a child focuses explicitly and consciously on the acoustic properties of a word, while implicitly and unconsciously internalizing its grammatical structure.
All learning leads to memory. Implicit learning leads to implicit memory. Whereas explicit learning represents knowledge of which people are aware and can consciously recall—such as facts and events and general knowledge about the world around them—implicit memory does not allow for conscious recall.
Implicit learning is involved in learning new motor skills such as bike riding, acquiring new cognitive skills such as developing intuitions about how other people will act, and learning new languages. In the case of LFA [low-functioning language in children with autism] kids, that means relearning their first language.
I think implicit learning is much more important for adapting to new places and people than conscious, explicit forms of learning. Because implicit learning is not available to conscious awareness and is used automatically without conscious control, however, many people typically don’t realize how important it is.
Implicit learning is the way infants learned to acquire their grammar—no one taught them. During the first 12 months of life, infants possess only implicit memory, while explicit memory emerges much later. Three-year old children exhibit an implicit memory that is still superior to their explicit memory.
Because most LFA kids never acquired the grammar they need to speak a language (that is, from saying “Ga ga goo goo” at birth to “Mommy, I don’t want to go to sleep”), these children have had to consciously memorize all the language they have. Parents tell me that whether a child has 5 words or 500, they are all memorized, and these parents know them all.
To restore language function in an LFA child, they have to go back to infant forms of learning their grammar implicitly, with a “grammar machine” that is not completely functional because of damage from autism. With implicit teaching and neuromodulation (and the phenomenon of brain plasticity), however, this can and is being accomplished.
Rebuilding the ‘Grammar Machinery’ in Autistic Children, Part 1:
theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/22086/
Next week: Part 3, regarding the alarming spike in the incidence of autism in the past decade.
