I recently read a very fascinating article by Clare La Plante in the Massage Therapy Journal entitled “Nurturing Touch: Massage Therapy Helps Calm & Center Children on the Autism Spectrum”.
The number of cases of children being diagnosed with autism is continually on the rise, climbing at a rate of approximately 10 to 17 percent annually (MTJ, Fall 2009, p. 44). The Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami School of Medicine has done a number of studies on the effects of touch on autistic children.
Tiffany Field points out that moderate pressure applied during massage stimulates the vagus nerve, which is one of the 12 cranial nerves in the brain. The vagus nerve is a nerve that underperforms in people with autism. Stimulating the vagus nerve in children with autism helps to slow the heart rate, which leads to an increase in the ability to focus. Problems with sleep can also be aided by stimulation of the vagus nerve as well as an ability to screen out background noise, thus increasing the capacity to speak and listen in autistic children.
A particularly interesting part of this article was a discussion on how autistic children can actually be touch-averse. The author explains that autistic children can find typical social touch, like a slap on the shoulder or a quick hug, to be unpredictable and stressful and therefore can shy away from the idea of a massage. Massage therapists working with autistic children typically start very slowly. They might simply place their hand on the hand of the autistic child or rub the back of their mother or father while the child watches. Some of the massage therapists interviewed explained that you need to have a lot of patience, but that the reward is indescribable when a child decides to trust you and let down their guard.
What I particularly enjoyed about this article was how countless the benefits of this work seemed to be. Not only were the autistic children benefiting from the bodywork, but the parents were moved at times to tears by seeing their child be able to relax and trust another person’s touch, and the massage therapists were learning so much about the power of touch by understanding what calms the children and learning how to meet them halfway.
