Even though he’s been dead for more than 200 years, Mozart is still working miracles. Just ask Ashley Ruben.

“I had autism,” says 8-year-old Ashley. “[Mozart] helped me speak … it made me the same from all the other people.”

Ashley was diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) when she was only 21 months old. Today she’s in the third grade, a straight-A student at Mary G. Porter Traditional School in Woodbridge, Va. Like many girls her age, Ashley loves “Hannah Montana,” “High School Musical,” and Green Day. But, her mother, Sharon Ruben, remembers when Ashley’s outlook was not so sunny.

As a toddler, Ashley was clumsy and uncoordinated. She wouldn’t take to a bottle, had difficulty using a sippy cup, and was diagnosed with numerous ear infections. At 18 months, Ashley’s verbal ability was on the level of an infant’s. Also, she was a late walker and wouldn’t let her mom read to her.

“She never said ‘mama’, ‘dada’, ‘doggie’ or ‘ball’,” says Ruben. “She had nothing, absolutely no language – just grunting.”

One day, Ashley’s grandmother, Sheila Komito, said goodbye to her while she was watching television. Ashley didn’t even look up. Komito then suggested having Ashley’s hearing tested.

“I just kind of blew it off,” says Ruben, who has two other daughters. “I said to myself, ‘there’s no way my daughter would be deaf.’ ”

But, after failing to get a response out of Ashley by banging pots and pans around the house, Ruben knew she had to look into it. After researching online, Ruben was worried that her daughter might be autistic. A string of doctors and referrals later, Ashley finally saw Chuck Conlon, MD, chief of the division of neurodevelopmental pediatrics at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He confirmed Ruben’s fears when he saw Ashley in Fairfax.

“It’s a blow that you can’t describe,” Ruben says. “It was heart-wrenching.”

At 21 months, Ashley was officially on the autism spectrum. The autism spectrum, Conlon says, includes three categories: autism, Asperger syndrome, and pervasive developmental disorder (ADD). Conlon says that both he and a child psychologist independently concluded that Ashley met the criteria for PDD.

“The initial impression was that she had a severe communication disorder,” Conlon says. He explained that Ashley displayed several signs of autism, including lining up crayons instead of coloring with them. “I remember she was very adept at puzzles.”

For Ruben, everything she’d observed and read about online clicked. She networked, did some research, and assembled a therapy team of about 15 specialists, including nutritionists, speech therapists, occupational therapists, and psychologists.

Ruben says one of the psychologists said that auditory processing was Ashley’s biggest challenge. “When you can’t hear the frequency of sound, you can’t understand the language,” Ruben says.

Mozart to the Rescue

Enter 18th-century Austrian classical music composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

One of Ashley’s psychologists recommended a fairly new and somewhat controversial form of therapy called auditory integrated therapy, which Ruben refers to as “auditory training”. The basic premise of this therapy is that listeners put their ear muscles through a workout, listening to Mozart at different frequencies to stimulate different parts of the brain or body.

“I think someone once says that Mozart is the equivalent of Valium,” Ruben says. “It’s powerful and yet you calm yourself with it, as well.”

As far as Ruben is concerned, this form of therapy cured Ashley of autism. The oscillations of high and low frequencies stretch and relax ear muscles, giving them a workout, in a sense. Ruben says that when ear muscles are toned, they do a better job filtering sound.

A Rapid Response

Results for Ashley were almost immediate. While riding home from therapy in Bethesda, Md., with her parents, Ashley began to speak. “All of a sudden she said, ‘I want cookie’,” Ruben says. “My husband and I just looked at each other. We nearly drove off the road.”

This was the beginning of Ashley opening up to people, or “coming to life,” as Ruben says. At age 4, after about two years of intensive speech and occupational therapy, a gluten-free diet, county service, and auditory training, Ashley was taken off of the autism spectrum.

“That was just the greatest day of my life,” Ruben says. “At that point, I was pretty burnt out. It was a long, exhausting road.”

Now, Ruben is preaching the auditory training gospel, as a licensed practitioner. The whole program costs close to $4,000 for 20 weeks. By contrast, Ruben says an auditory training center costs between $8,000 and $10,000.

“All of my girls listen to this. All three of my girls are in a gifted program,” Ruben says. However, Ruben says the program is not a cure for every child. Essentially, its effects may vary.

Still, Ruben says, “Controversial as it may be, there’s a lot of data to suggest it works.” She’s also witnessed some of her client’s success stories.

Five-year-old Alyssa Celis is not autistic but was diagnosed with auditory processing disorder. Her mother, Yael Celis, says that when Alyssa was younger, she wouldn’t respond to her name or speak much. Alyssa loved routines, such as snack time or playtime, but would prefer to be socially isolated. This past summer, Celis started Alyssa on Ruben’s program.

Celis says Alyssa shows more progress every week. “We saw a lot of changes in her. She’s pretend playing, which she hasn’t done before.”

However, Celis says, it’s important to be diligent with treatment. “You have to have it regularly; you have to have constant stimulation for the brain,” Celis says. “It may be expensive at the start, but the outcome is just priceless.”


Source: Josh Eiserike/Potomac News