“It's Time to LICK Autism" is Sharon Ruben’s motto. This mom, turned author, has been on a one-woman journey to help her daughter, Ashley, beat Autism. It started when Ashley was an 18 month old toddler. She was non-verbal, non-social and she would only eat crunchy food and had a fixation with dirt.
After they received the autism diagnosis, Sharon immersed herself in research. They tried speech and OT therapy to help Ashley. They tried to make changes to her diet including gluten free. It was slow-going with both. They did not make a breakthrough until they tried auditory training or listening therapy.
This therapy works on strengthening the middle ear muscles, whose sole job is to filter sound. The middle ear muscles pull on the ear drum to let sounds come through or keep out distracting sounds. If the middle ear muscles are weak, the sounds will be distorted, soft or loud making it extremely hard to interpret the sounds. Or sometimes too much unfiltered information will come through rendering the child hyperactive; chasing every sound they hear. Dr. Tomatis of France was an ENT, who first made the connection between ears and sensory involvement. He incorporated listening to music in his therapy. He chose Mozart over other musicians because he found Mozart contained more of the higher frequencies to the compositions; those which charged the brain and carried consonants and consonant blends. Through his research, others have followed his lead to the next level.
Over a decade ago, Sharon took Ashley to an auditory training therapist in Bethesda, MD., every day for years. She noticed immediate improvement; Ashley began talking. She made remarkable process. By the age of 4, Ashley was no longer considered on the Autism spectrum. Fast forward to today, Ashley is a talented and intelligent teenager. She is a straight "A" student, in the "gifted" program, a champion swimmer and plays the violin, guitar, and the piano.
As part of Sharon’s journey, she wrote "Awakening Ashley: Mozart Knocks Autism on its Ear", the story of Ashley's full recovery from autism and she has created her own revolutionary auditory training. It is a program called Lollipop Listening Therapy to help children with autism, developmental delays improve their language and communication and sensory integration dysfunction and auditory processing disorder. This program is not only for special needs children, Lollipop Listening Therapy can help any child learn to listen. Even adults can use the program for anxiety, stress, even attention and focus. You can learn more about Lollipop at www.SoundTherapySystems.com.
On April 20-21, Sharon is hosting "It’s Time to Lick Autism" Boot Camp in Washington D.C. to educate parents and the community about Autism, to share her story and to give back. 2 days of Learning, Listening, Laughter and Leisure. For more information call Sharon at (571) 435-3518 and check them online www.itstimetolickautism.com.
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