Frequently Asked Questions

Mendability® for Autism is a completely new, cost-effective, clinically-validated therapy for autism.

Mendability uses Sensory Enrichment Therapy™ to activate brain plasticity in kids with autism and help them overcome the core symptoms of autism. The therapy involves parents or therapists administering non-pharmaceutical, carefully constructed sensorimotor exercises. Mendability’s specific protocols of Sensory Enrichment maximize neuroplasticity and neurogenesis.

In clinical trials, following six months of therapy, 42% of the children in the enrichment group significantly improved in behaviors such as relating to people and responding to sights and sounds, compared to 7% of the standard care group, according to the study.

The children in the enrichment group also improved on scores for cognitive function, which covers aspects of perception and reasoning, whereas the average scores for the children in the standard care group decreased.

“Sensory enrichment may well be an effective therapy for the treatment of autism, particularly in children much past the toddler stage,” said study co-author Michael Leon, PhD, a professor of neurobiology and behavior with the University of California Irvine.

No. There is no cure for autism.

But...

What Mendability can do is build up the brain to be stronger, healthier, faster, etc. and help it compensate as much as possible.

In many cases, this is enough to live a happy independent adult life.

We also have anecdotal examples of teenagers and young adults who received sensory enrichment therapy during the early development of the program years ago and who have completely recovered and are now successful teenagers. One of them is Leya Aronoff who at 16 gave this TED talk:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttCRvgYMrgE

Yes, because Mendability prompts natural healing in the brain, it can impact all the areas of life that the brain controls, like:

- Behavior

- Mood

- Sleep

- Eating

- Learning

- Communication

- Social Interaction

- etc.

The good thing is that any brain is capable of this natural healing process, which makes Mendability effective for kids of all ages and diagnoses.

Mendability’s program will put together exercises that match your child’s current abilities, which means that Mendability works for kids as young as 2 years old all the way up to teenagers and young adults.

Mendability is also effective in addressing a wide range of learning, behavior and language issues experienced by children with ADD/ADHD, PDD, Dyslexia, Asperger’s, the list goes on.

At the end of the day, you will get out what you put into Mendability.

Parents and caregivers who follow their customized protocol and perform the exercises with their child every day generally notice the greatest improvement. And that is definitely achievable, since the therapy is administered through a few short, non-invasive sensory enrichment exercises, sort of like playing games.

And it is non-pharmaceutical, so there really is no downside to trying out Mendability.

Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of the protocols. Mendability is a serious therapy with "pharmaceutical strength" results.

This is what a parent recently had to say about the "silly" games:

"My child started speaking after 3 weeks of Sensory Enrichment. He is 5 and never said a word until last week in the store. I tried everything to help my child, nothing seemed to work. So, thank you Mendability and bring me the 'goofy' exercises!"

Mendability has taken the principles of Environmental Enrichment and developed a program that adapts as your child improves. Most autism treatments only take your child’s brain strengths and weaknesses into consideration.

Mendability goes a step further and also considers where the child is responding to therapy and when he is ready for more difficult exercises.

Our proprietary software is based on the same mathematical structure used in Artificial Intelligence, re-engineered specifically for use in the selection of Sensory Enrichment exercises.

In many ways the Mendability therapy is similar to a workout program. Just as a few key exercises done throughout the week help to build up muscle, a few well-placed and well-designed Sensory Enrichment exercises help build up the brain.

The clinical trials were specifically conducted on children up to 18.

The only clinical trial conducted on adults was with dementia.

And indeed we have anecdotal examples of teenagers and young adults who have improved while using Sensory Enrichment therapy.

No. Mendability is completely non-invasive.

Sensory Enrichment Therapy for autism provides simple, natural sensory experiences.

It does not involve any pharmaceutical products or any other kind of compound.

However, the children who participate in Mendability are going through changes in their brains. In particular, during the first few weeks of therapy some children experience what many parents describe as “emotional storms.” This is normal.

Then, a couple of months into the therapy, some parents describe their child as challenging them more. Many children with autism did not go through “terrible twos” in their early life. Now, as they are becoming more aware of their surroundings and of the rules of society, they challenge those rules to understand how boundaries work. This too is a normal and welcome process.

Mendability is built on a vast body of research done on animals and humans in the areas of brain plasticity and environmental enrichment over the past few decades.

What we have done is to gather that work and adapt it for human implementation.

For example, pleasurable visual stimulation on cats can be applied with simple flashing lights. For human implementation we adapted the pleasurable visual stimulation to include engaging photographs and fine art.

In other cases, such as olfactory stimulation, presenting a scent to an animal or to a human being is exactly the same procedure.

Each of the exercises is designed to stimulate specific brain functions and collectively create a complete workout.

The results have been validated in clinical trials.