Autism Soccer: Is Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Potential in Autism Treatment?

TMS is a safe, non-invasive treatment that stimulates the brain of autistic individuals.

The autism communities have turned their attention towards a newfound treatment, after a book called Switched On revealed some potential into the treatment of autism.Transcranial magnetic stimulation could potentially be one alternative for autistic individuals.

This stimulation is used to study or treat neurological conditions, and has also helped John Elder Robison (author of the book above) to see things more clearly.

TMS is a noninvasive procedure that stimulates nerve cells with electromagnetic fields. This stimulation triggers a response in the brain, and after several sessions, there’s a potential change to that response in a positive way. These sessions are studied and observed to understand how each brain reacts to the stimuli.

These repetitive sessions are referred to as “repetitive TMS”, and patients who get sessions consistently experience a switch in the way they perceive things. It’s important to clarify these sessions are in no way therapeutically intended.

This is not a recent study. TMS has been studied and researched for more than 20 years to use it as a potential therapy for neurological disorders like Autism or Asperger’s. However, research on TMS as a treatment for the autism spectrum is still in its first steps.

These studies have a long way to go and are still scarce. The numbers of autistic individuals who’ve been part of it round up to 27.

In addition to that, it’s the fact that most studies focused on subgroups of adult men with ASD that did not show any intellectual disability. This leads the results to be inconclusive and potentially erratic.

Don’t get fed up with optimism due to the media coverage. If you’re willing to put your children into trying TMS, the chances are that you could find some answers. There’s still research to be done on the matter.

But there’s a lot of progress, though! Perhaps some answers will come out, and TMS will find its way as a potential therapy for autistic individuals. It’s all speculation, let’s just hope for a positive outcome.

In the meantime, why not choose more friendly alternatives like soccer? Autism Soccer has proven to be a life changer of children who had a hard time with their condition. Reach them and change the life of your kids for good!