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denver and the west metal pegs into a wooden board. The 9-year-old
wears blue-tinted glasses and a buzzer on his
left ear — visual and audio stimulation for the
Alternative right side of his brain.

therapies for brain Ricky, a third-grader with attention-deficit

disorder and Asperger's syndrome, is among
disorders seeing those undergoing a new "brain balance" therapy
for kids diagnosed with disorders in the autism
spectrum.
success
At a clinic in Golden, kids propel their bodies
By Jennifer Brown across monkey bars, clap their hands to keep up
The Denver Post with a metronome that changes tempo, and
study reading comprehension and math
Posted: 04/15/2010 01:00:00 AM MDT reasoning.

Updated: 04/15/2010 08:58:56 AM MDT The Brain Balance Center is one of the latest
franchises in a growing number of alternative
therapies for autism and related

Brain Balance Center owners Eric and Tamara Eslich help Ricky Heilbron, 9, who has ADD and Asperger's syndrome,
with the monkey bars. Mike Holobeck, a sensory-motor coach at the Golden center, looks on. (RJ Sangosti, The
Denver Post)
neurological disorders.
Ricky Heilbron is racing a timer as he shoves

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No surprise the industry is booming: The

chances this year of a child in the United States
being diagnosed with autism-spectrum disorder
are one in 110, up from last year's rate of one in
150, according to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. That compares with just
one in about 10,000 a decade ago.

Researchers debate just how much of that

increase is due to better diagnosis and how
much is an alarming jump in brain disorders.
Some doctors blame more stress and
environmental toxins for pregnant women and
children, as well as technology — TV, video
games and iPods — that keep kids sedentary and
focused on fine-motor skills, functions
controlled by the left side of the brain.
Ricky Heilbron, a third-grader who has
attention-deficit disorder and
Asperger's syndrome, works on timing
with the help of a computer program at
Brain Balance Center in Golden. Center
director Eric Eslich supervises Ricky's
progress. (RJ Sangosti, The Denver
Post)

In Ricky's case, the right side of his brain is

delayed, say his Brain Balance coaches — he
misses the big picture and is obsessed with Ricky's dad, Mike Heilbron, said his son's
details, he tends to freak out when his routine is outbursts are less frequent, his reading has
interrupted and he doesn't get the concept of improved and he is less of a "space-invader"
personal space, affecting his ability to make since he started the therapy.
friends.
Basically rewiring brain
Ricky's parents recently signed him up for a
second three-month session at Brain Balance,
"By bombarding his brain for an hour, three
therapy that includes three hours of right-brain
times a week, . . . we can basically rewire the
stimulation each week. The program, which costs
brain," said Tamara Eslich, a former chiropractor
more than $5,000, typically isn't covered by
who, along with her husband, Eric, opened
insurance.
Colorado's first Brain Balance in December. "We
are going to find the underlying problem."

Brain Balance now has more than 20 sites across

the country.

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Another franchise for kids with autism and
learning disabilities, LearningRx Brain Training
Centers, has 70 sites, including four in Colorado.
Founder Ken Gibson, a former pediatric
optometrist, said kids with autism-spectrum
disorder often have trouble blending sounds,
which makes reading difficult. His therapy
focuses on lengthening attention span, short-
term memory and speed.
Rapid-fire addition
For a maximum of about $10,000 for a seven-
month program, kids at LearningRx sit through
demanding sessions doing exercises such as
adding numbers in their head as a tutor spouts
them in rapid fire.
"It's like a physical workout, but it's mental,"
Gibson said.
He said the methods of the competition — the
right-brain- versus-left-brain therapies at Brain
Balance — are based on literature.
"There's not a whole lot of science in that area,"
Gibson said. "We try to follow a method that is
more science-based."
The "brain training" that happens at LearningRx
can boost kids' IQs by 15 points and improve
reading ability by four years, he said.
With the flood of expensive, alternative
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therapies — from horseback riding to sensory
stimulation — parents of autistic children should
use caution before enrolling, said Dr. Robin
Gabriels, a psychologist and founder of
Children's Hospital's Neuropsychiatric Special
Care Program in Aurora.
Choosing the right therapy for an autistic child
depends largely on the severity of the child's
disorder, Gabriels said.
"There is no one treatment that we can name
and say that is the one you need to use," she
said.
"When parents come to me and they say, 'Should
I try this new expensive diet or this vitamin
therapy?' and they really don't have a lot of
financial resources, I say, 'Start with what you
know works,' " said Gibson, who uses "social
stories" accompanied by pictures that teach kids
who don't read social cues on how to behave.
Some therapies for sale aren't necessarily based
on widely accepted science, Gibson said. For
example, she said, autistic children don't
necessarily have a right-brain delay.
"We know it's a neurological disorder, but we
don't know a specific brain site that has been
identified," she said. "That hasn't been done yet."
Jennifer Brown: 303-954-1593 or
jenbrown@denverpost.com
4/15/10 12:18 PM