As a mother of three children there are a couple of couple of proverbs I believe in. Those include: "It takes a village to raise a child" and "One knee does not bring up the child" and "One hand does not nurse a child." As a mother of a child with autism, I apply this same philosophy to his treatment: "One therapist does not treat the child!" One of the best lessons I have learned from Cheri Fraker, Laura Walbert, Cheryl Swenny, Sibyl Cox, Dr. Fishbein, and of course, Stacey Vitale is that it takes a multidisciplinary team to treat a child. Too often I see a family find a methodology they like and stick like glue to it. They'll defend ABA till their last breath, or Structured Teaching or RDI or Floortime or dietary restrictions or something else.

One thing that strikes me as odd about some of the ways to treat a child with autism is that often it is dominated by one field, one school of thought. If we know anything about the child with autism, we know that they are all different. Each child has his own mind, his own personality, his own will, her own strengths, her own needs, her own environment. As Joseph LeDoux says in Synaptic Self, "Our hopes, fears, and desires influence how we think, perceive, and remember," and "Learning involves the nurturing of nature."

It is never so simple as the age old argument of nature versus nurture and it is never so simple as to think that one treatment methodology is going to be applicable to every child with autism. The language of nature and nurture is the same, it is synaptic connection that is achieved. The language of autism is unknown to us at this time but it unlikely to be as simple as antecedent, behavior, consequence.

This leads me to another thought. Are we really treating the child with autism or are we guiding him or her toward living in a neurotypical world with an autistic brain? I prefer to think of it as guiding the child. Sometimes I am guiding Ewan and sometimes he takes the lead and is guiding me along the path. If we think of it as treating, the child never gets to lead because he or she is not qualified to lead the therapy, he or she is not an expert. I come across too many experts in autism. I firmly believe that no one individual knows everything about autism.

Not to say that all the current methods of working with an autistic individual don't have some merit, they all seek to do address one aspect of living in a neurotypical world. The problem is that the brain is not so simple and human beings are not so simple. We are complex, we are odd, we do things for no reason at all, we do things contrary to what people expect, we continue to think in ways that push the envelope about what's possible in life. Humans are simply amazing. In order to understand and guide the autistic child toward living in a neurotypical world we have to be as multidisciplinary and as creative as humans beings are. We need a village to guide the autistic child. We need a global village that is ready to undertake the cultural values of the child's family in order to guide the child to his or her rightful place as a valued and respected part of the community.

Respect should be the cornerstone of any guiding method. We cannot set out to break the will of the child in order to treat him or her. Our will cannot be greater or more important than the child's. Too often, it is my way or the highway. Too often, we find ourselves saying there is only one way to do this. Well my friend, there is more than one way to skin a cat. (And by the way I hate that I had to use that phrase because it gives me the heebie jeebies!).

A guiding method should involve many perspectives, many different ways of thinking and problem-solving, many different types of disciplines, and many different types of personalities. It cannot all be about the behavioralist's perception, or the speech language pathologist's perception, or the psychologist's perception, or the counselor's perception, or the educator's perception, or the sensory perception. It has to be all of them. And not all of them are going to agree, but when they all get together and allow themselves to think outside of the paradigm we can come up with some amazing ideas. Finally, the most important member of your multidisclipinary team is the child. Often, if you listen, really listen and if you look, really see with your eyes and heart, and if you feel with your mind and soul, you will find an amazing persepctive right in front of you.