Revs, Autism, Hemiplegia & Body Agnosia
We are so very pleased to read Paul Isaac’s Blog on how Revs Massage Insoles have helped the symptoms & challenges he experiences with autism, hemiplegia and body agnosia. Paul is an autistic trainer, speaker, consultant and blogger. He has co-authored several books including Life through a Kaleidoscope and Living through the Haze. Paul has released and published 5 books on the subject of autism published by Chipmunka publishing and has contributed to other books too.
Paul was invited by Dr. Phoebe Caldwell to try wearing Revs Massage Insoles. This was her thinking…
Dr. Caldwell writes… “I have been working with autistic people with severe sensory issues on a national and international basis for about forty years, using an approach that is now known as Responsive Communication.
Responsive Communication[1]is a combination of using Body Language to establish emotional engagement, (Intensive Interaction), with Attention to Sensory Issues. These sensory issues, such as hypersensitivity (oversensitivity) to light and sound, trigger a lot of the stress, anxiety, confusion and pain experienced by people on the spectrum that can have behavioural consequences. In the past ten years, we have learned a lot more about them through the books and films being made by people on the spectrum.
Autism shows itself differently in different individuals. Another of the sensory issues that can cause great problems is under-sensitivity to the pressure feelings from our bodies to our brains which tell us what we are doing. (I know I am sitting because I feel pressure on my backside, back and feet. These messages tell me I am sitting).
A couple of years ago, I began to notice that some of the people who were under-sensitive to these (proprioceptive) messages, were scrunching up their toes inside their trainers when they started to feel confused. I wondered if it might help if we could find some way of increasing the messages to the brain, ‘turning up the volume’ of the incoming stimuli, so they might be more aware of what they were doing. I began to look for ridged or textured insoles. A colleague suggested that Revs Insoles with their nodules might provide the necessary pressure, something that was always available and would help to ground the individual”.
When Dr. Caldwell approached Revs, we were delighted to support such a worthwhile trial. Revs have been working with Dr Caldwell for some time now, establishing if Revs Massage Insoles can help people with autism, especially those with sensory issues or poor proprioception. We are currently running a trial with 12 people, and we hope to report our findings very soon.
“Revs Insoles can take a few weeks to get used to for some people; not all the participants in our trial of twelve people were able to persevere. Nevertheless, we were surprised at the degree of the positive outcome”.
We will publish more information on the effects of our trial and the results for each of the individuals in due course. In the meantime, we wanted to share Paul’s experience which he has published on his own blog here – Paul Isaac’s Blog – Autism from the inside.
[1]Caldwell P. and Gurney J. ‘Responsive Communication’ Training Film, engaging with people with autism. Free to view here.
