Transcript: #13 Detecting and Treating Autism with Shawna Kemp

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Transcript

• 08:24 Special education eligibility
• 15:32 Resources for parents with autistic children
• 21:17 How electronic media can interfere with your child’s development
• 25:30 What exactly is autism?
• 32:15 The autism spectrum
• 35:02 Why autism rates are skyrocketing
• 37:40 Signs of autism
• 47:33 Vaccines and autism
• 57:13 Diet for autism
• 1:10:10 Yeast infections
• 1:06:34 Dietary recommendations for an autistic child
• 1:13:53 Detoxification
• 1:17:02 Special education preschools
• 1:23:45 What’s the advisable treatment protocol for a child with autism
• 1:26:19 Occupational therapy and speech development
• 1:30:08 The importance of early intervention
• 1:34:45 Can your child recover from autism?
• 1:37:52 Where to find information on how to treat autism

Wendy Myers: Good morning everyone. Welcome to the Live to 110 podcast. My name is Wendy Myers. And I’m a certified holistic health and nutrition coach. We’re broadcasting live today from Malibu, California.

Today, we’re going to be talking to Shawna Kemp. She’s an occupational therapist that has been working with autistic children for over 10 years. And she works in the Orange County School District, LA Unified School District. We’re going to be talking about how to detect and treat autism and also about some preconception planning concerns and things that you should be doing during your pregnancy to prevent autism in the first place.

And, this is a big issue today. Today, it’s 1 in 54 children, 1 in 54 males more accurately as of March 2013 is the latest statistics One in fifty-four male children has autism. And this is significant because 80% of children who have autism are in fact males. Less females get autism. It’s just frightening. And so, we need to start educating people and get the word out there about why this is happening and what you can do about it.

This is especially poignant for me because my child was diagnosed with a mild form of autism a few months ago. And luckily for me, I’ve been researching autism and reading all kinds of articles about it for years, so I already knew what to do. I can imagine being a new mother and having that diagnosis and then starting from nowhere and having no clue what to do, where to turn, where to get reliable information. So that’s why I wanted to do this show today.

So, please go check out my website, myersdetox.com™. I started this site because I wanted to educate everyone about the beauty of Paleo nutrition (my version is called The Modern Paleo Diet), the importance of detoxing from heavy metals and industrial chemicals that I believe are the major underlying cause of disease today and have to treat your health conditions naturally without medication.

My goal with myersdetox.com™ is to help you prevent disease and live a long, long healthy life, hopefully to 110.

But if you like what you hear today and this show, please give the Live to 110 podcast a nice review and rating in iTunes. This is going to help people around the world to find the show easier and get my word out on health. I would appreciate it so much.

Now, our guest today her name is Shawna Kemp. She’s spent a lot of time working with autistic children. I thought she had a particularly good insight that she could contribute to this show because she has worked with so many children with autism and is going to be able to tell you exactly what to look for in trying to figure out if your child is autistic.

We’re going to go over all the latest research today about autism, so that you can find out what exactly is it that you need to do if your child does get this because there is hope. You can turn it around.

But there is a spectrum. It’s called autism spectrum disorders. Your child can be very, very functional, but they can also be extremely on the other end of the spectrum where they almost need to be hospitalized because they just cannot function to society. We’re going to tell you all about how to treat your child and detect autism.

Wendy Myers: So Shawna, how are you doing?

Shawna Kemp: I’m great! Thanks for having me on.

Wendy Myers: Yeah, thank you. You are my friend. I should let everyone know. I’ve known you for over 10 years. It’s just great that you just happened to be very knowledgeable on this subject. So thank you for being on the show.

Shawna Kemp: Sure. And actually, I’ve been working for 15 years. I would say 13 years of that has been devoted to being in the pediatric population. It’s been interesting seeing the ratio, the prevalence of children with autism being identified and diagnosed and treated. It is alarming.

Hopefully I can provide some insights from my perception, my experience and help others with their own children with these difficulties. And in fact, I do have a nephew as well who is on the autism spectrum. Let’s see, I think he is 9 or 10 years old now. And so, I’ve seen a tremendous change in him since he’s 10. We got him identified and we made dietary changes and implemented a variety of therapy services to help him further. There is definitely a lot of things going on out there to help those children identified with this disorder.

Wendy Myers: Yeah, And I really just want to thank you for trying to be like on my case with my child because you kept telling me, “She’s got some little funny behaviors there, she’s walking on her tiptoes and doing wild things.” And I was like, “No, she’s fine.”

I just didn’t get it and I just didn’t want to maybe take it in so to speak because my daughter hit all her milestones early. You know she was totally normal until she started — you know, a little bit after she started getting her vaccinations. And so I just was kind of a fooled because I thought, “Well, no. She’s fine. She’s talking at nine months. She had 50 words by the time she was 12 months old. And she’s totally normal and she was above average.”

And then all of a sudden, the progress just stopped. So, thank you for trying to continue to be on me and point it out to me that she’s not progressing normally because it takes a while for it to sink in. Parents are in denial. They don’t want to think something is wrong with their child.

Shawna Kemp: And especially if you don’t having children or if you’re not around other parents with children similar in age, it’s hard to make that comparison. So, that why I’m a big, big believer in putting your child on some sort of program early on, day care, even a couple of hours a day, couple of times a week so they can get that exposure.

That’s really inherently important for their social, emotional development. And it is a way for you as a parent, number one, to kind of compare your child where they fall on that bell curve with other children and then you can identify them early on if there are any speech delays, if their behaviors are out of the ordinary compared to other children. So yeah, it’s important.

Wendy Myers: Yeah, I know it’s hard because you’re always hearing that children develop at different rates. So when they’re that young like 18 months or 2 years old and they’re playing with other children (I have my daughter at play dates), you’re thinking, “Oh, my child is just taking longer to develop” even though she hadn’t progress at all in a year. When she was 2 years old, from one to two years, she didn’t have any progress at all in her language.

It just takes that long to sink in. Even when you’re comparing your kid to other children, you think, “Oh, well that child is just ahead. That other kid is just ahead. My daughter is just going to take a little bit longer to develop.” It makes it tricky to take that first step to go and seek help. And then, you don’t know where to get it. So that’s what we’re going to talk about.

Wendy Myers: So you graduated from USC as an occupational therapist and you have a lot of experience working with children with autism and actually diagnosing them to determine if they qualify for services from when you work in Orange County. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Shawna Kemp: Okay. Well, let me just clarify. We’re not the ones who come up with the diagnosis, the special education eligibility. After many years, I could tell within now, 10 or 15 seconds if someone was on the spectrum based on their behaviors and based on their mannerisms and what their parents told me.

I actually started out working in Los Angeles Unified School District and just the prevalence was going up and up. It became the majority of my case load. And while working in LA Unified, we had clinic served to work with children with sensory processing and modulation difficulties. And it just kind of parked with the course. It just went hand in hand.

A lot of these children were having difficulties functioning in the school setting, which was the population I worked with. And so, over the years, I had more and more and more exposure and opportunity to work with these type of children.

I took a lot of courses since I started working with these children to be able to better serve them, the licensing like the Wilbarger protocol and I’m certified in the Sensory Integration of Praxis Test, which is a whole other subject.

And in the time that I worked with them, I thought that there was just a variety of things that would come up in terms of what was going to work for one child versus another, but there is definitely some common things, some things that were across the board going to be beneficial to any of the children identified as being on the spectrum.

Wendy Myers: It’s where I’ve known you for so long. I didn’t know you were taking all these courses and I just love learning all these new things about you.

Shawna Kemp: Well, it’s acquired. Within our profession, unlike teachers, for our licensing just like nurses and physical therapists, we are required to take a certain number of continuing education units every year. It just made sense earlier in my career, being that I was having all this exposure to these types of children, that I would be taking courses and things that would be beneficial to them so. Otherwise, I’m not going to be a good clinician.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. So, how did you get into working with children with autism? What made you want to work with this population?

Shawna Kemp: It wasn’t so much that I wanted to. It just happened. I kind of fell into working with special education. Originally when I went to school, I started out working in mental health, outpatient, personal hospitalization. And then an opportunity came up to go work in the school system.

Initially, it was like, “Oh, the work days and all the holidays and all that,” so it just kind of fell into my lap and I just found that it was a good match for me in terms of my abilities and what I like to do and I saw an impact. I’m really big on early intervention. And so I thought, “Where would I best be able to help other people?” Early intervention was what I found and working in the schools with parents and educating them.

You can watch whatever you want. I’m sorry.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. Hey, it’s okay. I have a child too.

Shawna Kemp: I have a child in the background.

So it just kind of fell into my lap. And then what was interesting was when my – just like when I started noticing difficulties your daughter was having, I think I was working for Orange County at the time, which was my second school-based paediatric job, my nephew was about the same age as your daughter and I think we were at Disneyland or something. I notice a lot of the similar behaviors to the children I worked with and I thought, “Wow! They just weren’t aware just like you weren’t.”

I 4remember my sister-in-law asked me the question, “Do you think my child has autism?” and I was like, “Well, if you’re asking me that, then there’s a good chance that your child might have it. But I’m not the one to diagnose it.” I directed them to some resources and websites, some doctors and some things that they could start exploring themselves.

That’s really what it boils down to. Parents have to be the biggest advocates for their child ultimately. There’s just a plethora of resources out there. So there’s really, I don’t know, there’s just no getting around. If they are in any way concerned or considering that their child might have any sort of delay or disability, then they can obviously go to a variety of resources that are available on the web.

Wendy Myers: And I can’t express that enough. The parents out there, if you suspect at all, you get an inkling, a notion, some intuition in your mind that maybe your child isn’t developing normally, don’t waste one more day. I wasted about a year that my child could have been getting the help that she need to snap out of this, snap out of autism.

And not that you snap out of it, it takes a lot of years with the right diet and the right environment and special education preschool and what-not, speech therapy and whatever problem your child has. But don’t waste another day. Go get your child some help. Go get find someone to diagnose them. Go to a speech therapist. Go to anyone, any kind of resource you can find on the web, your local school district. There are tons of services out there that are free. Most cities, you can go —

Wendy Myers: Can you tell them about that the resources and their cities that they can go to?

Shawna Kemp: Under three, they can go to – well, like when I worked in Orange County, it was the Regional Center of Orange County. Los Angeles has their own regional center. They will provide you support and evaluation from birth to three.

And then when they turn three, it becomes the local school district’s responsibility. So if they haven’t already been evaluated, which was the case of your daughter, if they’re close to there like 2 years, 10 months or 2 years, 11 months, the school district will start to process and evaluate them, so that when they turn three, they can have the supports in place to help them in the educational setting.

It’s really, really easy. And it’s important for parents to know their rights too in terms of that once they turn three because that’s really the area where I have the most experience in, the 3 to 22 population, when I worked in special education directly, they can basically just go to their local school, probably go to the district office and tell them that you have concerns with your child.

And if you go in with documentation from your primary physician for your child stating XYZ, whatever the issues are, that will certainly help them. And then the school district has a specific amount of time that they have to respond to your request and your request should be you want to have your child evaluated, you want speech therapy evaluation and occupational therapy evaluation. You can have an adaptive physical education evaluation because often times children on the spectrum have gross motor coordination difficulties.

And obviously, the school psychologist, which is the most important piece, they’re going to be the ones that are going to be doing specific evaluation tools in order to determine if your child has a special education eligibility.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. I think it’s key to point out that all these is free. So even if you don’t have the resources, just start the process as soon as you can because it takes a few months to get ramped up to where you start getting services. It’s totally for free.

I almost feel bad for the school districts because they are probably getting so overloaded and it’s costing so much money because so many children are affected with autism spectrum disorders.

Shawna Kemp: Yes. And definitely when I worked for LA Unified and Orange County where it is more contentious, that’s the word we use, on the other end, not as the parent, but as the provider services. And that’s something that’s important to remember too. They are overwhelmed. And being like I said earlier, that the parent is their child’s biggest advocate, they also need to take accountability. They, more importantly than the school district.

The school district is going to provide services, but like I’ve told every parent I’ve ever worked with, they are 75% of the equation for their child’s success in the educational setting and in life. The school district is about 25% of that because that’s the amount of time they spend away from home in the school setting.

So yes, they should go. And yes, these services are free. But more importantly, the parents need to take an accountability and follow through on their end on what they need to be doing. If you’re not having the same expectation for your child at home as you are for them in the school setting, that generalization is not going to occur.

And obviously, it takes a little bit longer at home especially if you haven’t been able to deal with their behaviors or their communication difficulties or their sensory issues or their sensory motor when she’s at home. And then they go into the school setting and all of a sudden, you have all these expectations of them. Over time, you’re going to want to see that at home. And that’s going to take more work on the parent’s part too. It is difficult, but it’s your child.

Wendy Myers: Yeah.

Shawna Kemp: So it’s your most valuable aspect. I know that a lot of people are not aware that there are services and things available to them that are free and they should take advantage of it. But again, there’s only so much the school or the private therapist, whoever you see, there’s only so much they can do. It’s really incumbent upon the parents to also implement those things for their child in the home environment.

Wendy Myers: Yeah, I know. I think the biggest things is mixing the media. No TV, no iPad, no iPhone and all that stuff. Can you talk about how that interferes in their development?

Shawna Kemp: Yeah. Well, I will say use media because it’s already there and so many children are exposed to it at such an early age, but use it as a reinforcer. Because most of these type of children are so visual, that’s why it’s so popular with them. And the way it’s been described to me by higher functioning as Asperger adults, teenagers, they see things in pixels. So it’s very reinforcing for them to have access to that media. But you want to use it as a reinforcer, not as a replacement.

Of course, most of them will prefer to not have to engage and because of the way their minds work, they respond so much better to media. But I know in the case of my nephew, unfortunately, while they’ve done all the other things (the gluten- and casein-free diet, the removing the metal, the intensive in-home behavioral therapy and therapy at school, occupational therapy and also having a one-on-one, so he’s fully included), they have not removed the media. And that is his default. He, of course, that’s what he prefers.

And so I feel like it does interfere because he would do that versus being physically active, which is super, super important for any child’s development. That’s the one thing where I’m like, “You’ve done this right, this right and this right, but you continue to allow an unlimited amount of access to TV and iPad and video games and all that.”

Even in research that’s been done, that’s not healthy for just our typically developing children. I haven’t seen TV in 3 ½ years just because I’m doing this right now and I need to occupy my child who’s 5 1/2. Yes, I let him watch something on the other computer, but I’m constantly controlling it. It’s not unlimited access.

So, I think that parents and providers need to remember that modern technology, it’s a powerful tool, but it’s still needs to be controlled.

Wendy Myers: Yeah, even in kids that’s normally functioning.

Shawna Kemp: Yeah. And like the way a behavior specialist would call it, it’s an A+ reinforcer having the iPad. And they use it a lot. It’s a great tool not just even in that population, but other populations too because there are 70 different applications and you can, in a controlled environment, really start doing some good data collection if you’re working on specific things with a child, whether if they’re expressive or receptive communication skills. Expressive being what you are able to articulate or communicate in terms of your wants and needs, which is always, always more difficult for someone on the spectrum versus the receptive communication, which is what they understand. They can usually understand more than they’re able to communicate.

So, a lot of the applications that’s out there – and I can’t even keep up because there’s so much technology even for me to keep up with. But my rule is when I work with children and when I’m talking with parents, I try to keep it really practical and simple and keep in mind that not everyone one has access to all these fancy things out there and have them. Use common sense and use things in their environment that can help their child in terms of their overall development.

Wendy Myers: Can you explain to listeners exactly what autism is? Let’s start from the beginning. Let’s start on base line. What exactly is it?

Shawna Kemp: Autism is a neurobehavioral disorder. It has an unknown etiology. It causes social skill deficits. It can cause cognitive impairment, otherwise some people know as ‘mental retardation’, severe communication problems like I indicated earlier whether it would be receptive or expressive, it’s always both. And in some children, they may have no ability to expressively communicate themselves.

And like you said earlier, autism is more prevalent in boys than it is in girls. But 80%, it still isn’t clear why. It’s complicated. And also, they’re finding that more children in urban dwelling and cities have it than children in rural setting. So then you have to take into consideration what’s going on environmentally that is causing this increased prevalence.

Wendy Myers: [inaudible 00:26:51]

Shawna Kemp: Yeah, absolutely. I would definitely, definitely, definitely say that has something to do with it. And I see them in other populations in terms of the impact of environmental toxins on the exacerbation of other ailments and impairments.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. I think one, it’s safe to say that one of the reasons I think that more boys are affected is because of all the estrogenic hormone-disrupting chemicals we have on our environment like BPA (bisphenol A), parabens, and phthlates that women are exposed to while they’re pregnant.

One of the best things you can do to prevent autism spectrum disorder is a simple preconception planning because recent studies have shown that the mother, they have to avoid hormone-disrupting chemicals that I just mentioned while they’re pregnant. These chemicals, they’re directly linked to autism, ADHD and so many other diseases and birth defects, developmental disorders, et cetera.

Shawna Kemp: To me, it’s just even on a whole. It’s not just the [inaudible 00:28:05] should be part of anyone who’s considering getting pregnant, but just on a global scale. These things are bad for everybody.

Wendy Myers: Yes, yes.

Shawna Kemp: And it’s just showing up more and more now in this particular disorder. So, at no point is it good to have that exposure to any of those things because it will also show up later on in life.

I switched population exclusively about a year ago (which is whole other story) in working with the geriatric population. More and more people are showing signs of Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s earlier on in their life. And you look at historically what they do for a living, where they live and I’m like, “Hmmm… there’s definitely a correlation there too.”

So, I used to pooh-pooh all of these about eating organic and, “Oh! Well, I just need to build up my body’s immunity” and no, it’s not healthy for anyone. People don’t even think about how toxic their homes are in terms of the cleaners they use. They are completely being fooled. They have no idea that just because something smells good and looks clean, it’s actually more toxic, the environment they’re creating.

Wendy Myers: Yes, any chemical, laundry detergent, perfume, beauty product, body product that has the word ‘fragrance’ on it is full of phthlates and these are endocrine-disrupting chemicals. We’re slathering it on us every day, breathing it in. It’s just a true emergency in our world today and it contributes to our body’s toxic burden. It’s scary.

Shawna Kemp: Right! And that shows up. The impact for you personally is your child was diagnosed with autism. It impacts everyone differently. To me, it’s just a huge wake-up call in a global scale. It’s all in interrelated with permaculture and everything else.

So, hopefully, if nothing else, I think for someone who’s listening who know someone — which most people I think do in this day and age — know someone personally or have someone in their family who have this diagnosis, they could think of other ailments, someone with Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s or whatever that is likely impacted because of their exposure to environmental toxin.

It will certainly impact you and I as well if we’re not really conscientious about what we put in our bodies, number one, and the environments we live in and our exposure to the various environmental toxins.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. And it makes me really sad because even pre-teen, I’ve been slathering my body with all kinds of lotions and perfumes and face lotions and make-up and all these stuff just every single day thinking that I was taking care of my body. And what I was really doing was just filling my body with phthlates and parabens. They’re in every single beauty products you buy at your local drugstore or Target, Sam’s Club or any membership club like that.

I have a feeling it definitely contributed to my daughter’s autism because I had spent my entire life stuffing these chemicals into my body, onto my body and slathering them on me. I was doing it through my pregnancy too. Until at one point during my pregnancy when I started studying more about natural beauty products, the natural health and healthier diet. That’s when it finally clicked for me and I switched to all-natural products and all-natural cleaners and what-not. But unfortunately, it was too late. So, that may have been a contributor in my case.

Wendy Myers: But, let’s just talk a little bit about, you know, it’s not as simple as your child just having or not having autism. It’s not a black or white thing. Can you explain to the listeners exactly what the autism spectrum is?

Shawna Kemp: Well, the autism spectrum actually is like it said, it’s a spectrum. There are five disorders in the DSM-5 that are listed under that. And there is PDD, which is Pervasive Developmental Disorder. And there’s also “not otherwise specified”. There is autism, there is Asperger’s. What else is there?

Wendy Myers: High functioning autism.

Shawna Kemp: Yes, high functioning. What else is there?

Wendy Myers: Is it ADHD?

Shawna Kemp: Yes, Rett syndrome. And according to the National Institute of Mental Health, it’s just basically a group of developmental brain disorders. There’s also the childhood disintegrative disorder. So this spectrum basically covers all of these types of neurological brain disorders. There is definitely similarities between each one of them.

And to me, it doesn’t really matter which label you get. I know some people get stuck on having a label. That’s why in my personal experience, parents have not wanted to have to go and get a diagnostics because they don’t want their child to be labeled. But guess what? It’s just like being labeled with high cholesterol, high blood pressure. Once you know what you have or your child have, then you can follow a more specific protocol on what you can do to reverse or minimize the impact of having a specific neurobiological disorder.

Wendy Myers: Yeah, and I think autism is just one of many developmental problems that’s plaguing our children. We have a lot more control than we think when it comes to preventing these conditions and that we’re going to be covering over the course of the show.

And it’s really frightening. Autism rates have gone from 1 in 150. That was just maybe 5 or 10 years ago. I’m not sure exactly when. And it went from 1 in 100 then it went into 1 in 88. Now, the rates as of March 2013 are 1 in 54 males. And I think it’s 1 in 67 children overall. And what it’s going to be in 20 years, it’s very scary.

Wendy Myers: What do you think, Shawna is causing this sky rocketing turn of autism?

Shawna Kemp: Well, like I said earlier, I definitely think the environmental toxins like heavy metals and the environmental chemicals are contributing to autism or they’re exacerbating the symptom. You had mentioned some of the things earlier, but solvents, diesel exhaust, PCVs, phthalates, phenols that are use in plastic products, pesticides, the flame retardants used in bedding, alcohol, smoking, illicit drugs and the toxins and vaccines, which I’m sure we’ll get into.

And like I mentioned earlier, the household cleaners that we use, by pregnant women and the things are using, they’re exposing their unborn child to these things. So, that to me is one of the most prevalent contribution to why we’re seeing such an increase.

Wendy Myers: It’s hard to avoid all these things. It’s like you almost have to be on a detox program. What I advise people before they get pregnant, detox for a couple of years on a detox program. I prefer nutritional balancing science, which you’re on. I’m on it, my kid’s on it. I’ve been just trying to get everyone I can on it because it’s such a wonderful detox program. It’s very thorough.

And people, we’re just unwittingly spraying our kids when we’re cleaning our houses with all these Windex and all these typical chemicals in our house. We’re spraying our entire environment and covering it with toxic chemicals that contributes to our already toxic load.

And autism is clearly linked to environmental factors. People love to hypothesize that autism is just recognized and diagnosed more, but you don’t have numbers increase like this unless it’s due to the environment. I’m hoping this show serves to wake people up to the devastating nature of toxins in our environment and our diet.

And one of the main reasons I wanted to do this show is to get people taking a close look at their child and to stop making excuses for them and just seek evaluation and treatment as soon as possible. I think we already discussed that a little bit earlier, but say your child has speech delays or other noticeable delays.

Wendy Myers: What are the signs one should look for in your child? What are tale tell signs of autism?

Shawna Kemp: If you see all of a sudden a drastic reduction in their verbal skills, if they’ve had less eye contact, if you are seeing more behavioral outbursts, if they are fussier or you’re not able to console them. A lot of children on the spectrum have some — and this is where I’m really versed in, some sort of sensory aversion, whether it be auditory, tactile is a big one (they dont want to be touch or they avoid certain textures or they’re a very, very picky eater), if you notice that when you compare them if you can to other children of their age, if you’re noticing that they’re socially and emotionally not on the same plane as the other children, those for me are the biggest signs.

You know it’s so easy to point out. The problem is a lot of people who, early on, are in denial, maybe unconsciously, they know something is going on with their child. They almost, without realizing it, start withdrawing from society and being in social situations. If you start seeing that, that’s a pretty — cancelling plans or avoiding going out and go to places that you normally would with your child, the park, the beach, the mall, whatever because you know that your child is going to be difficult, so yeah.

Wendy Myers: I’ve stopped going to lunches with friends because I know it was just going to be impossible. SHe couldn’t sit still in a restaurant for any length of time.

Shawna Kemp: Right.

Wendy Myers: And another thing I also think is if your child isn’t playing with other kids. Like a lot times, I take my daughter to the park or and she just wouldn’t engage with other children.

Shawna Kemp: Right. Yeah, that’s why as soon as it’s feasible, you want — it’s like any other living creature. You need to expose them early on to other living creatures. And that is going to be your indicator right there, “Where is my child at compared to them?” And the first inkling that you have, your intuition’s going to tell you.

And with that, of course, you want to follow the standards. You want to go to your pediatrician. Then you want to get a referral. The problem is, some pediatricians that I’ve been around are more old-fashioned and don’t believe in diagnosing a child with autism or they don’t think that vaccines have anything to do with it. Even my own child’s pediatrician, to this day, she’s they’re trying to push me to vaccinate my child.

So, when you go to your pediatrician with questions and either they’re well versed or they’re confident enough to give you the proper diagnosis or the support you need then, you go and get a second opinion.

Wendy Myers: And it’s hard for the pediatrician. My pediatrician, she’s amazing. She went to Stanford and she went to UCLA Medical School. She’s the best and the brightest. But they don’t spend that much time with your kids. And she didn’t catch it with my daughter.

It’s hard because like I was still a matter of fact that my daughter spoke early at 9 months and I just have it in my head. My daughter is ahead. My daughter is ahead of other children when she was in fact delayed a year later. So, it really took a long time to dawn on me that my child did not displayed the usual signs because she was not severely impaired.

And even me, I’ve been reading about autism and health and toxins and autism’s causes for years and I thought I knew the sign. But what I didn’t really pay attention to were the very subtle signs that my daughter exhibited. There’s always been a denial in the form of, “My child’s fine. She’s going to be fine.”

So, it’s difficult. You ultimately have to be your child’s biggest advocate like you said.

Shawna Kemp: Yeah. I think like you said, we haven’t talked about it yet, but you started to notice a difference after you started getting your daughter vaccinated.

Wendy Myers: Yeah.

Shawna Kemp: And that’s what I hear from — and this is just my personal experience. There’s a lot of research to support. But a lot of my personal experience with parents and even friends who have vaccinated their children, it was within months after that that they started noticing changes in their children.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. And so with my daughter, a lot of people say, “Oh, there’s all kinds of other things that cause autism. How do you know it’s the vaccines?” With my daughter, there was not one chemical in my house, I did not do any cleaning with any toxic chemicals even though laundry detergent was clean, I did not put chemicals on my face anymore, I used all-natural products, my daughter only ate organic food that I made and she was breastfed for six months (she wouldn’t do it after that).

Everything was in place. There was no chemical exposures anywhere though you can get them inadvertently like lead with dirt on the ground if you’re walking around with shoes in your house or what-not. Little things could be happening. But the only conceivable thing that I could come up with was the vaccines. Those were the only toxic thing that was injected into her body that could possibly be causing this. There just weren’t other things that I could — I’ve wracked my brain, there’s nothing else I can think of.

Shawna Kemp: Right.

Wendy Myers: But of course, autism is multi-factorial. I think vaccines just contributes to the problem. Vaccines are a huge controversy in autism. Many people think they play a role even though most don’t. But I personally think that people are crazy to overlook this very obvious source of toxins in our kids.

I have read all the books, I have read all the mainstream books. And after reading them, I had this false sense of security about vaccines because they pretty much advocate doing vaccines. They talk a little bit about the death rates and what-not and you might have some side effects after you get them.

My pediatrician wasn’t really pushing them, but she wasn’t really warning me about the dangers of them either. This is the norm I think, but usually the doctor is outright insisting on vaccines like yours was. And of course, it’s 50% of a pediatrician’s income. So they’re not exactly unbiased. Of course they’re going to be pushing them for the most part because that’s their business. Medicine is a business and people do have to make their living and there’s nothing wrong with that, but you have to consider this when you’re a pediatrician is trying to get you to do vaccines.

All the books I read about vaccines were published by big publishers. These big publishers are not going to publish something against vaccines. It would be business suicide. If you’ll notice, all the books against vaccines are not published by big publisher like Random House. They’re all small independent publishers. These large publishers, they want people to buy their books. The mainstream believes wholeheartedly in vaccines. So if they push a book against vaccines, it’s going to tear sales of the book or even their credibility as a publisher. So why would they do something stupid like that?

I’ve read all these books by Dr. Sears and Dr. Oz and felt that I was fully informed on the risks of vaccines and proceeded with confidence in vaccinating my child. I think this happens to millions of mothers.

Also, last week, we did a really good podcast with April Renee about educating before you vaccinate. She’s been studying vaccines and their harmful effects for 20 years. And unfortunately, her daughter had severe autism and died after she got Guillain-Barre syndrome and she got encephalitis and her child died. She absolutely has connected it to vaccines.

So, luckily I woke up to the dangers of vaccines and stopped vaccinating my child at 18 months and viola! At two years old, my daughter started progressing again. Vaccines can cause brain inflammation. It takes a while for that inflammation to go down. And so, at two years old, she started progressing again.

So I’m sure my child would be much worst had I continued with the vaccines and injecting the aluminum and the mercury and the thimerosal, the preservatives in the vaccines.

Okay. But I’m done with my rant.

Wendy Myers: Shawna, what role do you think that vaccines play on autism?

Shawna Kemp: Well, I don’t think a lot of people are aware (especially certain socioeconomic groups) what’s even in a vaccine. They’re just being told, “This is what your child needs and it’s going to prevent XYZ, measles, mumps, rubella, polio, chickenpox,” which we’re going to get anyway, so it’s stupid.

Wendy Myers: It’s not like that that will kill you.

Shawna Kemp: Yeah, things that really, we’re not seeing anymore or something that your child is likely going to get anyway, so why would you take a vaccine? Even I wasn’t aware of this early on in my career about what the big hoopla was with vaccines and what was in it.

Like you said, the thimerosal, which is 50% mercury, mercury is a known neurotoxin and it’s the most poisonous substance in humans. Why the hell would it be in a vaccine?

And they still put it in the MMR vaccine. That’s the one you hear about, “Oh, your child needs the MMR.” The problem with that one, the MMR vaccine, it actually contains three vaccines in one for the measles, the mumps and the rubella. I refuse and will not give that to my son. I think I stopped vaccines for him too at about 18 months.

The thing is, often times, the vaccine they’re going to give you is a multi-dose vaccine that came in a big bottle that contains 300 shots. So, if you have an option like for the flu shot, you want to take the single flu shot, but that’s a whole other subject, I don’t believe in the flu shot. Anyone I’ve ever talk to had ended up feeling worst and still gotten the flu after the vaccine. So what we are really dealing here?

There’s also the vaccine for meningitis. A lot of people think that mercury is not in our vaccines, but it is. And it’s also in other countries because it’s cheap and it’s a preservative. If the vaccines doesn’t have mercury, then it will likely have aluminium or formaldehyde as the preservative. And aluminum is thought to be more toxic than mercury and it has been shown to contribute to Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.

There’s a really good books author about this and it’s by Neil Miller. It’s called Aluminum in Vaccines, A Neurological Gamble if anyone’s interested in some good reading and have the time.

So even though there are studies saying there’s no link between vaccines and autism, I don’t really buy that because many of these studies are sponsored by pharmaceutical companies, so of course it’s going to be in their best interest to say there is no link.

The bottom line is when you put a brain toxic metal into a developing child’s brain, good things are not going to happen. You know what I mean? It’s just 1 + 1 = 2. So I would highly encourage parents to do their own research and make an educated decision. That’s all I’ve ever told. Ultimately, everyone is going to have their own opinion about things. Just make sure it’s an educated decision.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. And it’s crazy because there’s not any studies saying that, “Oh, vaccines cause autism.” But there are studies, let’s say, mercury causes brain damage. It is toxic to the brain. There are studies, the aluminum is toxic to the brain. So you just kind of have to put 1 and 1 together to make 2. These components in vaccines, the ingredients in vaccines individually have been showing to be toxic to the brain or carcinogenic.

Shawna Kemp: Yeah, and I think, again, so many parents obviously prevalent and more socioeconomic groups and others, they just completely trust in Western medicine. Their doctor is telling them they have to do these things and then the school district thing, “Oh! Well, your child needs… and we need to have your immunization record.” Well guess what? Having your immunization record does not mean you need to have your child immunized with all the vaccines. Sign a release, it’s not a big deal. You are not required by law yet to receive what is it like? The schedule course of first five years of their life, I believe is like 30 vaccines.

Wendy Myers: It’s 38 vaccines. It’s crazy.

Shawna Kemp: Oh, okay 38, yeah. As supposed to what? Eight vaccines you had to get in the 1980s?

Wendy Myers: Yeah.

Shawna Kemp: And that’s a whole other subject. What is that all about. Just sign a release. It’s not a big deal.

Wendy Myers: Yeah, you do not have to vaccinate your child to get into school. This is totally false. You do not have to vaccinate your child if this is not what you want. Every state has a vaccine exemption for religious or personal reasons. You can find more information about this on nvic.org/vaccine-laws.aspx. I’ll have a link to that in the show notes.

But it’s sad because a lot of mothers — my nanny, she was told she had to give her daughter the Gardasil vaccine, which is horrifying. It’s one of the worst vaccines out there with perfectly healthy young woman dying within a week or two of getting that vaccine. It’s just terrifying. And she was just told that she had to do it. So she submitted her child to that unfortunately.

And plus, people, the schools make money. They get money for every child that’s vaccinated. So, the schools have a motivation to get you to vaccinate your child. So, don’t be fooled by anyone. Don’t take anyone’s word for it. You have a right to make a choice.

Shawna Kemp: Yeah, absolutely. And there’s a plethora of information out there. Less and less can people have the excuse, “Oh, I didn’t know.” It’s all out there. The information is there.

And then obviously, there are other things besides the environmental toxins and vaccines that may contribute to autism. There are people that believe that you may carry some sort of gene that will show up if you have children. And there is, there is an increase. I think if you have one child with autism, there’s a 50% chance your next child will have autism.

But that whole thing, it’s so complex. It’s not really clear what genes are responsible. They’re still doing a lot of research on that. And I’ve read about how we actually mutated our own genes within our own lifetime because of our exposure to environmental toxins.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. Yeah. It’s really frightening because these toxins, they do play a role in mutating our DNA and then our cells divide and then the DNA is different after the cell has divided. So, we are in our lifetime changing our species so to speak.fAnd unfortunately, I don’t think it’s a trend that’s going to be reversed.

But you personally, everyone personally can do a detoxification program. I prefer infrared saunas and Mineral Power (formerly called Nutritional Balancing) program. The infrared saunas are amazing too. You don’t want to be doing that to a child unfortunately. That’s not an option for young children under six years old. But once they hit six, you can start doing a sauna if you choose. But like I said, I prefer the Mineral Power program for detoxification.

Well, let’s talk a little bit about diet. How important is diet for a child with autism? It still seems to be overlooked by a ton of doctors. They typically don’t know much about nutrition. It’s definitely overlooked by schools, treating and teaching autism.

When I had my daughter go to the whole LAUSD school district and do other testing. They offered me a couple of schools for her to go to that they were going to pay for. I went to visit these schools and the first thing I see at one of these schools that are treating a room-full of autistic children, they are giving them milk, which is conventional milk with pesticides and hormones and what-not and they were eating apple pie with gluten in it. I was like, “What is going on here?” I was like, “Oh, hell no. My child is not going to this school where they’re feeding them this garbage.”

And so we have elected to send our child to a private school. Fortunately, we can afford that. I feel very, very fortunate.

Wendy Myers: But can you talk us a little bit about the diet that a child with autism should be eating?

Shawna Kemp: The thing is, I believe a diet, it transcends any population. It’s important for anyone over our well being, development, functioning.

But for children with autism, you’ll hear about the GFCF diet, which is a gluten-free, casein-free diet. Children on the autism spectrum, the parents should definitely give it a try.

More and more people are familiar with the GFCF diet, but for those who aren’t, gluten, it’s a protein that’s found in wheat, barley and rye. Studies have shown that gluten contains a substance called gluteomorphin. Gluten exorphins and gliadorphin are also suspects in contributing to autism and other spectrum disorders and learning disabilities such as children with ADD and ADHD because the gluten has a chemistry that is similar to opiate.

There’s been some researches out there that have shown in urine samples of children with autism to have a higher rate of that in their system. Experts believe that that could be a central part of the causes and the effects of their development.

And then casein, which you’ll find in dairy is something else that should be removed from a child’s diet. In fact, I try to minimize my exposure as a non-autistic person (even though I’m on the spectrum sometimes, that’s why I get them).

Wendy Myers: I’m not going to argue with that.

Shawna Kemp: Yeah! You cannot argue with that. And it’s also been found too that when children have that, autistic children have that in their diet, it prevents them from improving their condition.

There’s been some research out there, Dr. Reichel of Norway, Dr. [inaudible 00:59:47] at the University of Florida and others have found that urine samples from people with autism, PDD, Celiac disease and schizophrenia contain high amount of casomorphin in urine.

Casomorphin is basically the byproduct of the casein that has opiate property that are similar to morphine. And they believe that it may plug into the same opiate receptor sites in the brain and this is contributing to behavioral problems seen in autistic children.

Casein is not just in dairy products such as milk, butter and cheese, but it’s also present in smaller amount in many substitute dairy products such as vegetarian cheese and wheat cream topping. So you want to make sure that when you’re looking at labels that it’s verified gluten-free and casein-free.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. Because they use casein to provide texture on those non-dairy products ironically.

Shawna Kemp: Yeah. And unfortunately, because of budgeting and because some of these districts, their budgets are being diverted in other ways, they cannot provide the proper diet that any child would benefit from. I see the same thing in working in school mission facilities with geriatric patients.

So, if you just do your research and also if your child is in a program and the teacher, the instructional aids that are in there seemed unaware of the impact of the things they’re feeding him, start bringing in something, provide your own child food and start educating them about the impact that it has and the benefits, the pros and cons of it. There’s a lot of people who work in education with this group that are not really knowledgeable about the impact of the diet on the children on the spectrum disorder. It’s just unfortunate, but that’s the reality.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. And in the school where my daughter goes to, it’s a totally dairy-free school. They don’t allow dairy. They recommended the parents that they don’t include dairy in their diet because of the casomorphin that cause them to have behavioral problems.

I notice with myown daughter, when she does eat dairy, about 30 minutes later, she’s freaking out — not freaking out, but she’s running around and she’s jumping up and down in the bed. She’s kind of acting out. It’s problematic.

Shawna Kemp: I know it’s a little bit overwhelming. It’s like anyone who’s considering any lifestyle changes, removing various things from their diet. But once you see the positive impact on your child such as in my nephew, it’s well worth it and it just becomes your lifestyle.

Yes, so you want to minimize exposure to gluten and casein. Unless you as the family can do anything that benefit you as well. If you as a family decide to adopt a gluten- and casein-free diet, that would obviously be easiest because then you wouldn’t have to have two sets of cookware and stuff because that also contribute to exposure to those things that are impacting the population the way it is in terms of their behavior.

Wendy Myers: You can do it step-by-step too. First, remove the dairy and then kind of see how your child’s behavior improves. Then you can attempt the gluten. If you live in a small town where they don’t have a Whole Foods, they don’t have a health food store with tons of gluten-free options, you can order online. There’s lots of wonderful resources online to order gluten-free foods and pastas and what-not.

Shawna Kemp: More and more people are being identified just even with Celiac disease and so, there are more and more products available even just at your local grocery store. But the important thing is, like my nephew, even though he’s on a strict gluten- and casein-free diet, he still consumes too many carbohydrates and sugar because they’re still buying a lot, because of the ease and the convenience of buying prepackaged things.

And so even if you are going on a gluten- and casein-free diet, just think about the overall dietary picture. Don’t just have this tunnel vision, “Okay, my child is not going to have any gluten and casein.” We also want to think about the other things that can be in food that can impact your child’s behavior such as food additives and things with dye in it and stuff like that.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. And I think it’s really important to understand it. Just because you’re going gluten-free, like I’m trying to go a gluten-free myself personally and it’s kind of hard sometimes, but you don’t want to just go into the aisle at Whole Foods where they have a whole aisle of all kinds of gluten-free stuff, but most of it is just packaged garbage. It’s processed garbage. A lot of it has MSG in it. You’ll see the ingredient called the ‘yeast extract’. That’s MSG. It’s just a food form that the food manufacturers have gotten around having to put the word MSG on the label because they know people don’t want that.

And so it’s not just about going gluten-free. You want to feed your child whole unprocessed foods. It’s very similar to a Paleo diet absolutely.

But if you want to find more specifics about the gluten-free, casein-free diet, you can find it on GFCFDiet.com. And I think another important point to make is I know it’s hard to cook without butter because that’s a dairy product and you really don’t want to be using any kind of inflammatory vegetables oils, so you can still eat ghee, which is clarified butter because that does not contain any casein. So ghee is still on the list and is a very helpful food to cook with to make eggs with or whatever.

Wendy Myers: But Shawna, are there any other dietary recommendations you can give a parent of an autistic child?

Shawna Kemp: Well, I think the less packaging, the less processing, the more farm-to-table type of eating you do, the better off your child is going to be and the better off you’re going to be. Eliminate fast food all together is what I would say. You want your child to be in a whole food diet. And yeah, it’s going to take time. It is not easy. And [inaudible 01:07:17] more success in working with changing a child’s diet in a school or someone who has the option to have their child be seen in private practice. We can work on those things.

And when you are changing your child’s diet, behavior is a big thing. You’re going to have to use behavior modification techniques, simple things such as ‘first… and then…’ You say, “First, I want yo to eat this. And then you can have that.” First, eat the non-preferred and then give them something that you have found on their diet that they would like after. That’s a big, big thing. They go hand-in-hand.

And I would say it’s not something that you’re going to see change overnight or in a week. You got to give it a good try for at least a month or a full month like any other diet.

I’m trying to think. Yeah, I think that’s pretty much it. Basically what a parent may want to consider is that the GAPS Diet — you’re familiar with that, right?

Wendy Myers: Yeah, yeah. The Gut and Psychology Syndrome from Natasha Campbell-McBride. Brilliant. Brilliant.

Shawna Kemp: Yeah, yeah. I think any parent that has a child on the autism spectrum disorder should consider reading it or if their child has ADD or learning disability. She goes into the specifics of how best to do the diet and the research behind it. And you can go on GAPSDiet.com for more information about that.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. It’s such an amazing book. When I first read that, I was just kind of interested, I just kept hearing about it. I thought, “Okay, I just got to read this book already” and I was just completely blown away. She was the first person to go into leaky gut syndrome, she’s the very first person to identify leaky gut syndrome and how it kind of have a simple description of “holes in our gut” and we have all these bacteria in our gut and it leaks out and gets into a child’s brain and causes dysfunctions that contributes to autism.

So she talks that how to heal that gut lining, your intestinal lining, prevent it from leaking and how this diet, how gluten and how dairy and other foods exactly affect your child, how they affect your child. It’s just an amazing book. And it’s a required reading for any parent with a child on the autism spectrum or any kind of developmental disorder.

Wendy Myers: And, so what about yeast? I heard some autistic kids that have candida problems, Candida albicans or also called yeast infections, which contribute to leaky gut and which in fact contributes to toxins that affect their brains. Can you go into a little bit about that?

Shawna Kemp: Yes. Dr. Williams Shaw in Kansas has found unusually high levels of a fungal metabolite, which is yeast waste product in the urine of several groups of what are considered abnormally or atypical functioning individuals including those with autism.

Early antibiotic use may actually be the triggering factor for children predisposed to autism. It has also been hypothesized that Candida might aggravate a condition of gut permeability, a.k.a. the leaky gut syndrome, which might let the gluten and casein protein into the blood sugar before they are broken down. So it may be in part responsible for autistic behaviors.

Many parents with children with ADD or ADHD as well as those with autism report that treatment for Candida does improve their children’s behavior and concentration. Dr. Shaw does urinary organic acid test and they’re performed by, I believe it’s Great Plains Laboratory. You can also get them done from Medametrics.com.

Wendy Myers: Yeah! I love MedaMetrics. They’re so amazing. There are tests from everything. I’ve been hearing their tests are the most advanced, just cutting-edge. Pretty much every podcast I listen to, all the practitioners are using all the test from MedaMetrics. So, definitely go check that out.

And in my research, I’ve also discovered that detoxing your child from heavy metals they pick up from mothers in their womb, the environment and vaccines is incredibly important to recover from autism. And you heard me say it, children do inherit their mother’s toxicity and nutrient deficiencies.

So if you have high mercury or aluminum or low zinc personally while you’re conceiving, your child will be born with these same toxicities and deficiencies. My child was on, is on a Mineral Power program to naturally and safely detox from any metals that could be contributing to her autism and correct any nutrient deficiencies. She’s low in zinc, which most children with any kind of speech delays or learning delays do have low zinc. It’s kind of across the board.

And I did a hair mineral analysis on her and found that she had high aluminum, which could be from the vaccines, which is toxic to the brain and she had low zinc, which is required for brain development and speech. She, of course, had other nutrient deficiencies even though she’s been eating a very healthy organic diet from birth. And these are common toxicity patterns, high mercury, lead, aluminium and nutritional deficiencies like low zinc and iron. These are very common in the autistic population, which pretty much separate from zinc deficiency across the board.

And this is also a common hair mineral pattern for children with any kind of delay. I just got my certification to Hair Mineral Analysis. I’ve been studying all these stuff and I’m really big on this program. That’s why I got certified. The more I learn about it, the more I’m just completely blown away by this protocol that can help to detox your child and get them healthy. And the program not only detoxes heavy metals, but hundreds of environmental chemicals as well. I even got you on the program, Shawna.

Wendy Myers: And so, what do you think about this method as a part of a treatment program for your child with autism?

Shawna Kemp: Personally, I say, why not? It’s only going to do good, not harm. The practicality of it may be difficult, but I can say personally for me and my experience of having my hair mineral analyzed and going through the rebalancing and detoxing, I see a significant improvement even for myself. So, I think this could definitely be a really good adjunct to the other things that parents can be doing for their child absolutely.

Wendy Myers: Yeah, and you can find more information about Mineral Power programs on my site, myersdetox.com™. There’s a blog post on there called the Mineral Power with Hair Mineral Analysis. I’ve done about three different podcast on Mineral Power with other practitioners and Dr. Lawrence Wilson who brought Mineral Power forward. He’s done tons of research on it. You can also find information on his website, Drlwilson.com.

There’s also something I want to mention, there’s a lot of people using zeolite and other chelators that chelate heavy metals to treat children with autism. It certainly sounds like a good idea. And children do get improvement when they take zeolite or other chelators that will bind heavy metals and take them out of the body. Chlorella is also another one that does that.

But an important thing to know is that while these chelators do remove heavy metals from their body, they also remove vital minerals and that’s a big problem with people kind of not really understanding that problem behind them because heavy metals and minerals tend to do the same things in the body. They’re doing the same functions, they’re in the same receptor side, the same enzymes. And when you just removed these heavy metals and there’s no minerals to take their place, they throw the body out of balance even further.

So, it’s very important and this is why I love Mineral Power science. It’s very important not to do any kind of detoxification from heavy metals unless you are also doing a targeted minerals supplementation program. It just can throw the body out of balance even further. So, it’s something to consider.

So what can one do if they suspect their child could be autistic? What are the options out there? We’ve already talked about some of the resources and support for parents. So, there’s options publicly and privately. What I’m talking about is I just want parents to be aware that they do have special education preschools out there. I didn’t know this. I was just trying to get my daughter into a preschool, which regular preschool wouldn’t have really been appropriate.

Wendy Myers: But can you talk a little bit about special education preschools?

Shawna Kemp: Yeah. So if you suspect not just given autism, if you suspect any delays in your child and say you went to a regional center, your local regional center, whatever they’re calling it — out here in Monterey County, they call it SARC, which is San Andreas Regional Center, but they’re all some sort of like a county program. I know because their funding has changed, it’s like you have to be 50% delayed to get services or whatever.

If you’re still suspecting delays in your child and they’re getting closed to three, you go to your — first, go to your pediatrician and get a referral for another specialist if that’s what is being necessary. And also, you can go to your local school district office and I would put it in my name saying that you have whatever specific concerns about your child and you would like him evaluated. You want a comprehensive evaluation done that would include the school psychologist evaluation and speech therapy evaluation and occupational therapy evaluation, et cetera, et cetera. And then, they’ll have, I believe it’s 10 to 15-day when they’re going to respond and then they’re going to generate an assessment plan. And like what you’re saying earlier, you want to start this earlier because it does take a couple of months for things to get into place because see, they have 60 days, two months to evaluate your child for school district services. So you want to get on all that as soon as possible.

And once they’re evaluated, they will provide your reports. You’ll have a meeting. And if you can and if it seems necessary, you can have someone advocate for you. They can help you understand the laws surrounding special education, the IDEA which is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to make sure that you are using the supports that you need for your child once the go to the educational system.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. I had to hire an advocate as well. My child was evaluated, we went through the whole process. She was evaluated by the LAUSD School District. I would take her to my local regional center, which provides additional services. It’s like they are two different things, they are two separate entities. One of them is the city and one is the county or something, I’m not sure.

And so they said, “Okay, here’s what we’re going to offer you.” I’m not happy with that. A lot of people don’t know that you can hire an advocate (they’re typically like $125 an hour) to advocate on your behalf, go to the meetings with you to try to get you more services, try to get you better services, someone that can advise you on private education placement where your child’s probably going to get much better services.

But because the city is just naturally overwhelmed, they’re underfunded, they’re going to try to do the least amount possible. They’re required to give you a free appropriate public education, which is woefully inadequate for many children including my daughter.

And then many of them do work pro bono. You can also get services from the city to use an advocate as well. You don’t always have to pay. And some of them, like the one I work with, she does pro bono work, she does work for free. So you got to just take responsibility and do all these research on your own. It’s kind of a little learning curve, but it’s still worth it.

Shawna Kemp: Yeah, I would be cautious about who you get as an advocate because you don’t want to create an adversarial relationship that’s contentious with the school district because it doesn’t have. There’s some really good ones out there, but there are some who just have no clue. There’s no sensibility about them because themselves don’t have children.

I would say if you go with an advocate, that he has had some experience personally with their only child. That would be the best avenue to go. They’re much more likely to be practical in terms of — yes, understanding with the laws and understanding what the rights are, but also knowing that to an extent, the school district’s hands are tied, they have budgetary constraint, et cetera.

And like I said earlier, the parents are 75% solution. They cannot rely entirely on the people working in the school, the people that are working with their child privately to “fix their child.” They’re going to give you the tools just like you give people the tools for living to 110. They’re going to give you the tools to help your child function to the best of their ability.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. And I think it’s important to note also that there’s options out there to even get the city to pay for a private school. And this is something that I had to dig and find out. I had to talk to a bunch of different people and find out this information. But as soon as I found out what was going on with my daughter, boom, the next day, she was in a private school. It’s called Smart Start in Los Angeles and it’s one of the best schools for speech delays in Los Angeles. Thankfully, Shawna, you recommended. But not everyone is able to get recommendations like that.

And so if you are looking for an advocate, like I asked the private school that my daughter goes to for a good advocate. So maybe you can call some of the private schools in your area and get the phone number referral for a really good advocate because there are going to be obviously a list there that they use on a regular basis. I was fortunate to find out the private school that she happened to be going to also gets three spots per year funded by the city if your child qualifies.

So there’s a lot of little research. You got to dig, dig, dig for this information.

Wendy Myers: So Shawna, what is an advisable treatment protocol for a child with autism? What are the research and anecdotal evidence showing are the best treatment, environment, et cetera for a child that’s battling this condition?

Shawna Kemp: Well, there’s no one protocol. Each child is different, but obviously, they’re going to need intense therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy. They’re going to need to be in a language-based program in the classroom. They may be in a special education class or they might actually be able to be in a general education class with more support.

And it’s just a combination of things. And on top of that, the parents involvement in terms of making the necessary changes with their day-to-day routine, their diet, when they go to sleep, how much exposure they have to technology. All of these things are going to come into play.

You can’t really compare one child to another. That’s the problem I see. Some parents, they’re like, “Well, Johnny, my friend’s child, Johnny gets XYZ and I’m only getting Y and Z. Why is that?” You can’t really make that kind of comparison.

And also, the thing is too, in the time that I worked in the school system, a lot of parents have this mindset that their child needs a lot of pullout services, one-on-one services and that is not the best approach. Collaboration between disciplines and between home and school is the best treatment protocol. That way, there’s continuity of skills being thought. I’m not a speech therapist, so it would behoove me not to work with or collaborate with the speech therapist. Their focus is on the communication aspect of the child’s disorder.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. And I find it really interesting that occupational therapy helps develop speech as well. Occupational therapy is like kind of where they’re doing physical things. They’re teaching them motor skills or whatever.

Wendy Myers: Can you explain what exactly is occupational therapy and how it develops speech? Why does the child with autism need occupational therapy?

Shawna Kemp: Well, by definition, occupational therapy is helping people with disability or impairment to be able to engage in their occupations. And then a child occupation from 3 to 22 is to be what? They’re in the role of the student. So we help them with the difficulties they’re having in order so that they can meet the challenges of being a student who’s in that mode of learning.

Everyone has their own bag of tricks and uses a variety of techniques. We are really known for dealing specifically with the sensory processing and modulation difficulties that children on the spectrum has. But most people I find, including myself, fall somewhere on the bell curve of having some sort of sensory difficulty whether it be processing or modulating. They go hand-in-hand. It’s not like communication occurs separately from sensory or motor. You know what I mean? They all go together.

A child with autism would certainly benefit from occupational therapy at least for a period of time. Like I said earlier, you can’t compare what Johnny is getting to so and so. It’s very case-

When I do my evaluation and when I make recommendations, it’s not because of budget constraints. I look at the whole picture. I look at where that child is functioning, what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are. I look at what placements they’re going to be in. That’s the biggest thing, what’s the place they’re going to be in. What type of learning environment are they going to be in? That guides what kind of services I’m going to be providing.

And there’s usually a period of time when I’m working with children in the spectrum that I’m going to initially maybe work with them one-on-one, pull out as I’m getting to know them and build a rapport and a relationship with them and kind of tease out what’s going on for them specifically, what’s really impacting them and impairing their ability to meet the demands in the school environment whether they be socially or motorically or both.

And then, as soon as possible, I start trying to integrate my services back into the natural environment and where those difficulties are showing up, which is in the classroom, which is why I say pullout of therapy is okay for a period of time, but at some point, you need to be able to reintegrate that back into the natural environment.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. And that’s what I love about the school my daughter is going to. She’s in a classroom with her peers, there’s other children there with special education needs, but there’s also normal children or normally functioning children as well, so she gets the exposure with her peers that helps her to motivate her to develop her language, so that she can communicate with her peers.

Wendy Myers: But anyways, how important is early intervention? How early can a child begin being treated for autism?

Shawna Kemp: Within months. The earlier they did check autism, the better. When I did regional center, which was the birth of two population, I would work in home with parents. It really helped provide that foundation to prepare them for when they would go into the school setting. So, I’ve worked with kids as young as six months old.

Wendy Myers: Wow.

Shawna Kemp: Yeah. And in terms of the consequences, well, it’s hard to say. You can’t really know what would’ve happened had you started earlier. I think the longer you wait, the longer it’s going to take to perhaps get your child to be more functioning in society.

And also, however many months or years that you waited, whether it’d be changing their diet, moving those toxins and dealing with the digestive issues they had. And then, children, they come to have certain expectation whether it’d be you how you deal with their behavior or how you deal with their diet. The longer you wait, the longer it’s going to take to reverse that. I mean, that’s just common sense. And how much will that be? Well, there really is no way of knowing that. But obviously, there’s going to be consequences awaiting.

Wendy Myers: Yeah, that window from 0 to 3 years, even 0 to 5 years are just so critical for their development. You got to get your child diagnosed and in treatment as quickly as possible because for me, I wasted a whole year. That was just a tremendous window of development that my child could have been experiencing had I got on the ball a little earlier and snapped out of my denial that things weren’t quite on track.

And also, I’ve read that the language development, that window kind of closes at five years old. That’s when the brain has been pruned or changes to where language acquisition after 5 years old is very difficult. And so that’s why you don’t want to wait because I’ve heard of some parents, they’re just not really paying attention and they wait to get the child treated after five. And unfortunately, it’s not impossible, but a little bit late.

Shawna Kemp: Yeah. But in terms of neuroplasticity, research has shown up to 10 or 12 years of age. But I think of any point you can make or…

Wendy Myers: Is that for language?

Shawna Kemp: [Inaudible 01:33:35] neuroplasticity. So I think at any point that you start is better than not at all. But I’ve certainly seen the impact. I’ve gone in-home to do evaluation of 5- and 6-years old children because they had over time had just confined their child to being just in the home because it became so difficult. You see a dramatic difference.

It’s really sad. It’s really, really sad and it’s not helping anyone. Parents, they want to make sure that their child is not crying or uncomfortable. And so, they think by creating this surreal environment that that’s what’s best for the child. But in the big picture is not. What if something happens, then you want your child to be able to function around other people, strangers. And the only way it’s going to happen is if you put them in the situation.

Wendy Myers: Yeah.

Shawna Kemp: Social isolation is the worst thing that you can do for your child who is on the spectrum.

Wendy Myers: And is there hope? Can your child recover from autism?

Shawna Kemp: That’s a hard question to answer.

Wendy Myers: And then [inaudible 01:35:12] severity.

Shawna Kemp: I know Jenny McCarthy thinks you can. I think that you can definitely improve the condition and I’ve seen that personally with my own nephew, even with your daughter and then the years that I’ve worked in that setting. But can you cure it? I think that that’s not really a question that I could answer.

Wendy Myers: Yeah.

Shawna Kemp: I have a clinic here, but I think that there are very good treatment approaches for children given that diagnosis.

Wendy Myers: Yeah, I had heard about a lot of mothers that have done really intensive therapy, done lots of home stuff, carrying over what they’re doing in the school in the home and getting them detoxed and their children are able to integrate in the normal public schools. So I think to a degree, your child can improve tremendously to where he could be considered you know normal. I hate to use that word, but just be considered average, your average, everyday child.

Shawna Kemp: Absolutely. But it’s also important that you advocate for your child. Do everything you can. Give them all those opportunities, but also be realistic. Be realistic. A lot of parents get angry, they’re in denial, they think it’s other people’s fault and they want to make them pay and it’s like, that’s not helping anyone. Because there are a percentage that do have some sort of cognitive impairment, we cannot change that. If there is some sort of permanent cognitive impairment, that’s not something we can override.

When I do an evaluation, that’s a big part of it that I take into consideration. This is not just when I evaluate children with autism or suspected autism spectrum disorder. I look at what their cognitive abilities are and I look at what their skill sets are. Are they commensurate? If they’re commensurate, then there may not be a whole lot I can do directly anymore at that point where it’s like, “Okay. Well, this is what we can expect and this is the skills they’re showing.” If those things are congruent, then I’ve done everything that I can.

Wendy Myers: Where can someone find more information how to treat autism effectively?

Shawna Kemp: There’s a lot of resources. I really like NaturalNews.com. Mercola.com is great. I actually get daily newsletters from him. And in fact, I think the one that I just got today was an article about the link between farm range famine and autism and ADHD. There’s GAPSDiet.com, which I think we’ve mentioned before. The Nvic.org, which is you’ve mentioned which have up-to-date vaccine information, AutismSpeaks.org. There’s also GreenDivaMom.com. That was founded by woman who has a child with autism.

So yeah, there’s a ton of resources out there. And if you do go to the route of contacting your local school district, because it’s so prevalent, most of them will have that information available to you as well.

Wendy Myers: That’s great. Well Shawna, thank you so much for being on the show. We did a lot of talking. Talk about a very long show, but there’s a lot of information that I wanted to convey to the listeners because this is such an important topic. It’s such a huge issue today with our children and I wanted to give the listeners as much information about possible detection and treating the disorder as possible. So thank you so much for being on the show. It was really amazing.

Shawna Kemp: Absolutely! Any time. And I do know that it’s very overwhelming. I think it’s pretty been said that first care, when we first come to the realization that your child may not be developing normally — I mean, it’s an overwhelming task just as me as a parent of a “typically developing child.” It’s still overwhelming to keep up in the research to make sure that I’m doing everything I can to ensure my child’s growth and development.

So, I would say don’t get discouraged and there are people who are out there who will help you. Just make educated decisions. There’s no one thing that’s going to work. It’s usually going to be a combination of things. I wish this type of information have been available when I first got into my field. And so, I think it’s really great that you’re doing this and hopefully it will impact even just one person.

Wendy Myers: All right. Thank you so much, Shawna. That was just amazing. I value your opinion on this so much. That’s why I wanted to have you on the show. But again, thank you so much.

Shawna Kemp: Anytime, anytime.

Wendy Myers: Okay! Well, everyone, great show. Thank you so much for listening. If you want some more information about autism, I don’t have any blog posts on autism, but I have lots of information on detoxification, vaccinations on the website on myersdetox.com™. So definitely go check that out and thank you so much for listening.