Z-score Training with Profound Autistic Spectrum Disorder: A Case Study

STS Instructor Authored by Penijean Gracefire

Article at a glance

Practitioner perspective. This article describes a clinician's own experience, cases or methods. It was not peer reviewed or controlled, so it can be subjective. Read it as practical insight, not as evidence that a treatment works.

Area: Practitioner Perspectives
Authors: Rutter P
Journal: NeuroConnections (Fall 2009)
Year: 2009
Participants: 1
Population: Children
Protocol: 4-channel live z-score training (percentZOK) at F3, F4, C3, C4 with linked-ears reference
Sessions: 40
Equipment: BrainMaster live z-score training; NeuroGuide and SKIL (QEEG)

Key findings

One medication-free 12-year-old with profound autism, tics, aggression and disrupted sleep
4-channel z-score training at F3, F4, C3 and C4 (percentZOK, 248 z-scores), reward rate kept at 40-60%
After 40 sessions his mother reported less aggression and bed-wetting, better sleep, fewer tics and more speech and eye contact
Post-training maps showed less hypocoherence and less high beta; single case, no controls

A clinician's account of training a 12-year-old boy with profound autism, very limited speech, tics, sleep problems and aggression toward staff and peers. Even recording his QEEG took dim lights, nature sounds and a water bottle for him to bite instead of the clinician's arm. His maps showed alpha hypocoherence, excess fronto-central phase and localized high beta that held across two normative databases. The author trained him at F3, F4, C3 and C4 with 4-channel z-score training (percentZOK, 248 z-scores), keeping his reward rate at 40-60% and working in the dark because of his sensitivity to light and sound. Over 40 sessions his mother reported less aggression and bed-wetting, sleeping through the night, fewer tics, more speech, eye contact with peers and quicker responses. Follow-up maps showed less hypocoherence and high beta. The author notes he improved without understanding what the training was for. It is a single uncontrolled case, reported by the treating clinician and the boy's mother.

Read it in NeuroConnections, Fall 2009 (ISNR archive), p. 28 →