New clinic in Rostraver to take Holistic approach to treating autism
An outpatient clinic focusing on a holistic approach to the treatment of children with autism opened March 1 in Rostraver Township.
The BehaviorWorx Center for Autism and Behavior is in the Peasant Village Professional Plaza.
“It’s based on applied behavior analysis, which is used with children with autism all over the country, but we do things a lot differently than any other clinic I’ve ever experienced in my 16 years of practice,” explained Kristan Weisdack, founder and CEO of BehaviorWorx of Southwestern Pennsylvania. “Holistic is a big picture view of behavior. We’re dealing with the root problems, while everyone else is dealing with the symptoms. It’s medical and biological issues that are causing these behavioral problems. We look at everything that can be related to behavior.”
Applied behavior analysis is the practice of applying the psychological principles of learning theory in a systematic way to modify behavior. The practice is used most extensively in special education and the treatment of autism spectrum disorder.
“It says what stimulus in a person’s environment is causing them to act a certain way,” Weisdack said. “They look at what happened in an environment and how did that person act and how can we change those variables.”
Applied behavioral analysis will be combined with root problems that may include nutrition issues, allergies and undiagnosed vision issues.
Weisdack, a licensed behavior specialist, has worked in the mental health field specializing in autism and behavior intervention, but this will be her first clinic. The outpatient clinic will work with children ages 3-12.
Her experience comes from a personal level as well. Her son was born prematurely at 33 weeks, two days. He needed help in areas such as infant massage and changes in nutrition.
“Once we really changed his diet and addressed some of his movement issues, his language exploded,” Weisdack said of her son who recently turned 5. “As long as we’re mindful of what he eats, he does very, very well. He’s very intelligent.”
Weisdack explained that many outpatient clinics work just with the child. That will not be the case with BehaviorWorx.
“We have a very heavy focus on coaching parents,” she said. “We bring them into the room, model things for them, show them what to do and make sure they can demonstrate that intervention with their child.”
Something that is shown to the parents is how to massage the child to “naturally detoxify the body.” Special attention also is paid to any allergies the child may have.
“Some of the common ones are gluten and dairy,” Weisdack said. “There’s telltale signs such as eczema, allergy shiners, chronic ear infection; so many things that point in that direction. We equip the parents with the resources and any journal they may need to advocate for their son or daughter.”
Treatment involves asking questions Weisdack said other practitioners may not ask. These may deal with the child’s birth experience, what antibiotics are being taken, are their eyes working together, what physical symptoms may be displayed or what are their coping or sleeping habits.
Weisdack co-treats with an occupational therapist and they work with kids for 12 weeks – six weeks in the clinic and six weeks of virtual sessions – in which there is interaction with the child in a home setting.
“I’ve found in certain occasions it’s very small issues that cause these behaviors,” she said. “We’re just trying to solve a lot of those problems that are there. We really get to and help the root causes of the behavioral issues.”
Issues that are treated include retained primitive reflexes, involuntary movements with which a human is born.
“If you still have those movement patterns you get excited really easily, you can get overstimulated,” Weisdack explained. “It can lead to bedwetting, handwriting issues, speech and articulation problems, posture issues. A lot of these problems for these children are not that they won’t do what they’re told; their bodies can’t do what they’re told.”
There is a waiting list for children to enter the clinic, and Weisdack said the calendar is filling up quickly for training sessions for people who want to know what BehaviorWorx is doing. The training sessions are geared to help children from infancy to 12 years old.
Anyone interested in bringing their child to the clinic may call 724-562-5032. There’s also a Facebook page at BehaviorWorx of Southwestern PA and Instagram at BehaviorWorx There’s also a YouTube channel called Beyond Behavior.
“We want people when they walk away from our clinic to have a PhD in behavior,” Weisdack said. “Even if they’re going to be with us for a short time, we want them to have a lifetime of success with their child.”