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Multiple Diagnoses Although the method's reflective network and its mirror neuron system exercises clearly help children in many diagnostic categories, our studies to date are statistically weighted for mild to moderately autistic and traumatized children. These two categories of early childhood disorders (autism and posttraumatic disorders) probably continue to be on the increase in the general population as they are among children referred to services using Reflective Network Therapy. Current estimates of the general population incidence of autism may even be low due to under-reporting and inconsistencies in screening practices. Over the past four decades, Reflective Network Therapy's combination of education and therapy has resulted in substantial clinical and cognitive progress among children suffering from: Adjustment reaction disorders, such as reactions to sexual molestation, foster care placements, and domestic violence Asperger’s Syndrome, including Asperger’s children with overly aggressive behavior Attention deficit disorders, with and without hyperactivity Autism Spectrum Disorders Behavior disorders Combinations of developmental and emotional disorders Combinations of overanxious and aggressive behaviors Conduct disorders Early childhood depression Early childhood psychoses Elective and selective mutism Emotional effects of life-threatening illnesses in the child or close relative Foster children whose placements are failing Oppositional defiant disorders Overanxious disorders of childhood Parent-child relationship problems Pathological bereavement reactions Pervasive developmental disorder Physical disorders that are worsened by emotional stress, such as psychogenic aggravation of asthma Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Reactive attachment disorders School phobia Traumatized children IQ rise is greatest among those children who would be ordinarily be the hardest to treat, those with multiple psychiatric disorders, such as combinations of pervasive developmental disorder with a major depressive or post-traumatic disorder. (Zelman 1996).
This form of therapy and education is clinically effective compared to control and comparison groups when measured by standardized global mental health scores (The Children's Global Assessment Score) Reflective Network Therapy can regularly produce cognitive improvements for seriously ill children and at the same time raise objectively measured intelligence of the treated children. The data which comes from testing this hypothesis shows that IQ rise is very substantial and does not occur among controls and comparison children. (Zelman 1996, Diaz- Hope 1999, Kliman 2006)
Among foster children treated with Reflective Network Therapy. one can objectively test a psychoanalytic concept called the “repetition compulsion” −a tendency to actively repeat traumas. We demonstrated that Reflective Network Therapy in-classroom treatment reduces the repetition compulsion as measured by transfer rates among foster homes. −Reflective Network Therapy in the Preschool Classroom, Gilbert Kliman, MD © 2010
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