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Massage For Children With Autism
Massage For Children With Autism
Helped My Daughter
www.AutismParentingMagazine.com
How Autism Qi Gong Massage Helped My
Daughter
Hi, my name is Leslie Burby and I thought that I would share my experience
about how the autism massage helped my daughter Mary. In the next edition
of Autism Parenting Magazine, we will be doing an interview with Dr John
Pagano who is a specialist in a special type of Qi Gong massage that is helpul
for children with Autism.
So let’s start with how I met Dr. John Pagano, (the man who performed the
massage on my daughter.) Did I know him previously?
So after reading the literature, finding out that it was scientifically proven to be
helpful and that he was willing to do this massage for free as a child study, I
agreed to let him perform the massage on Mary. After all this was helping him
learn the method and in turn my daughter would be getting services for free,
which we needed at that time because money was extremely tight. So, I of
course consented and I told him I wanted to be there. He said of course,
parents are always present during the massage, during the entire thing that in
fact the whole purpose of this massage is for the parents to learn this type of
massage. So they can do the massage daily to their child as needed.
At first, to be honest, when John would come, (around dinner time), she would
run and hide and we would have to get her to come out and lay down and it
was an ordeal. And, I was starting to wonder if I made the right decision and if
maybe I should make him stop coming. Was this just one more battle that I
was putting on the family? One more struggle I had to face every day with her?
Just about the time I started to have those reservations, she started to ask for
him on a daily basis.
If she doesn’t have “patpat” she’ll have trouble calming down, relaxing, she has
trouble closing her eyes. She’ll have trouble going to sleep, she’ll have trouble
staying asleep and everything involved with sleep. All day long is a struggle for
her to get through. Her sensory issues will just drive her insane but “patpat” is
extremely helpful.
To chart the progress, we filled out questionnaires. They had specific questions
about what type of behaviors we wanted to see improved, how often she was
melting down? How often she slept? What medications she was on or sleeping
aids?
As the weeks went on, we did more questionnaires (BUNSE Checklists) and
they checked in to see if the behaviors were improving, how often the
meltdowns were occurring? If her sleep patterns had improved? And they had.
In a matter of months, it was like all of the major stressors I had before; the
major concerns I had, were gone. I mean of course, she still had the
occasional meltdowns and of course, she still has the occasional bad day but
did the massage work?? Absolutely, and I was probably their biggest skeptic.
I have to say I was presently surprised and John became such a pleasure to
see. Mary looked forward to seeing him.
The reason why I wanted to interview Dr. John Pagano is because many
autism methods go unnoticed. I had never heard of Qigong massage and the
Qigong Institute and I want other families to know that there is help and hope
out there. Your child can learn how to sleep better. That your child can learn
how to ask for help such as: I’m having a bad day, can we do the “patpat?”
Can we do the massage? It is helpful for children with autism and it is helpful
for children with other behavioral issues. It is scientifically proven to be
effective and I’ve seen it first hand, which is why next month’s issue will have a
full interview with Dr. John Pagano.