I've heard of it, purchased it, and have used it in my clinical practice (child psychiatry). I lend it out to the patients so I can't be 100% confident that they actually follow through with the course of treatment. Only tried it with a few patients because of this.

I tried to get my own two boys with ASD to try it. (They were 10 and 12 at the time). I couldn't get them to do it at home. (They found playing Minecraft much more intriguing.)

I did a 5 day course myself as I didn't want to lend it to patients without knowing exactly what was on the mp3 player. Experienced mild headache (but that might have been in my mind).

Is the OT wanting to do it in the office or have you take it home & do it at home?

Also, for anyone interested, I finally got a good layperson’s explanation of the SSP program. I’ll do my best to pass on that explanation below.

Okay, so humans have evolved to interpret especially high and low frequency sounds as fight or flight triggers. It’s a survival mechanism. Think sirens, stampedes, etc. So the SSP recordings emphasize mid frequency sounds, which are associated with safety and comfort. Emphasizing the mid frequency sounds helps to increase a persons sense of security and increases the nervous system’s tolerance of the higher and lower frequencies. Apparently this sometimes results in fewer, less severe, meltdowns because the nervous system can sort of level out its baseline more easily.

So, it IS desensitization therapy in the sense that it desensitizes folks to the high and low frequencies that can trigger fight or flight, but it is NOT exposure therapy in that it does not expose kids to fight or flight frequencies likely to trigger them.

Anyway, we’re going to try it for the first time next week and I’ll update then. Fingers crossed! 🤞🏼

@A MyAutismTeam Member I just looked up the dream pad pillow and... so cool!! Wow! I kind of want one now. :D

I think the SSP need to be administered by the therapist while a person is conscious but I get how the dream pad could be really comforting to a lot of folks. (Me included.)

@A MyAutismTeam Member Thank you!

We’re meeting virtually with the OT later this week. Probably won’t start the program till next week. Will keep you all posted on how it goes.

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