Recent study shows autistic children improve IQ and social skills with Reflective Network Therapy

1. Autistic Children Improve IQ and Social Skills With
Reflective Network Therapy
By ICare4Autism | Published: August 7, 2014
Reflective Network Therapy
(photo: childrenspsychologicalhealthcenter.org)
The results are in on a 49-year long multi-site study on the effectiveness of Reflective Network
Therapy (RNT), and indicate a significant rise of IQ in children with autism spectrum disorders.
Led by Gilbert Kliman, M.D. of The Children’s Psychological Health Center in Santa Rosa and
San Francisco, California, the study also maps improvements with social skills, communication,
and more positive general behavior.
1700 preschoolers were treated with RNT since 1965, 680 of who were diagnosed with an
autism spectrum disorder. Third-party researchers conducted IQ tests on 31 autistic children (79
total) twice over the course of their Reflective Network Therapy. The children with autism
showed some of the highest gains, with an average increase of 24 IQ points. Comparable
research on other forms of therapy for autism and other pervasive developmental delays showed
no significant change to IQ.
Reflective Network Therapy “harnesses small social networks in the classroom, composed of
parents, teachers, in-classroom therapist, and peers,” explains Dr. Kliman, a pioneer of RNT.
The focused therapy of one child at a time, in the presence of their peers allows therapists,
teachers, and parents to react as a team to behavior and allows classmates to process and mirror
their peers’ progress and behavior. “It provides intensive interpersonal exercises within the
child’s own preschool class on hundreds of occasions during the course of a school year,”
continues Dr. Kliman, “and could save public special education systems, parents, and insurers
millions of dollars for every ten children receiving treatment.” Dr. Kliman estimates the cost of
RNT to be approximately 1/6 the cost of traditional therapies.th
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Written by: Martha Sullivan
Original articles:
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-07-breakthrough-unique-therapy-children-
autism.html
http://www.childrenspsychologicalhealthcenter.org/what-is-rnt/
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Autism Education, Autism News, Autism News, Autism Research and tagged autism america, Autism
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