Autism Coaches

Why we "join in" with autistic behaviors when a child withdraws into their own world

See this youtube video, click on this embedded video (see notes below):

We join autistic kids: 1- To demonstrate love and acceptance of a child while they are not wanting to interact, in a way that is soothing, supportive, sets the stage for greater desire of the child to interact with us when they're ready. If you accept and do what they love without interfering with them, they like you more and want to interact more, which equates to spending more time interacting and withdrawing less. 2- We give the kids a chance to control the pacing without even having to speak. It's like we're controlled by marionette strings while they withdraw. They can relax and feel like they can have you around without having to protect themselves from you overwhelming them or being hard to control around them. 3- We may be assisting in the regrowing of "mirror neurons", a system of second neurons that "shadow" the neurons that fire when we do things, indicating to us that someone is doing something like us and helping us check how we'd feel or what we'd want in that situation. The result is increased empathy. Just my theory.

Autism Coaches - Our Son-Rise Program Trainees' Training Modules Online

Welcome!!

Me and my daughter, mid 2015

I have run a Son-Rise® program to help my daughter recover from autism, patterned after the Son-Rise Program, since the summer of 2007 (that's something like 8 years).  She has made dramatic progress and now feels and acts at least as normal as autistic, and I think is actually past the tipping point toward more normal than autistic.  Along the way I too have shifted and become way more normal (I had previously undiagnosed adult ADD or Asperger's, a high-functioning form of autism), happier and more functional by absorbing and putting into action the philosophy and techniques of working with kids with autism based on that philosophy.  Along the way to achieving my goals with her and myself, along the way it also feels good to be with her and she loves me too and often says so!  This is the gift of the Son-Rise Program:  everyone involved - including you and the autistic child - is happier and you can recover your child from autism along the way.  

I'm holding Anna in our playroom.  Her pale color was because she was anemic at the time. 

The Son-Rise Program was created by two parents for their severely autistic son, Raun Kaufman, around 40 years ago, whom they wished most of all to love and connect with. It turned out this was such a powerful strategy they were able to see changes toward more interaction and swiftly add a hopeful, "let's go for it" approach to challenging their son without holding back or talking themselves down from their most ambitious goals.  His recovery was spectacular, and many videos abound on the internet of him speaking to crowds about his recovery (and book), and you can even take classes or do consultations with him at the Autism Treatment Center of America, home of the Son-Rise Program, in Sheffield, MA. People hoping to work with their child should bee-line it up to that program and take the classes I have and do consultations with Barry Neil Kaufman, Samahria Lyte Kaufman, co-creators of the original Son-Rise Program, and those they have trained.  

Some of my biggest innovations in my own program have been:

• creating my program as a for-credit internship for college students, making it possible to fully staff our program with responsible, high-quality participants, something I offer to attempt to do (it's never guaranteed) for other families for a modest hourly charge (contact me if you want help setting yours up).  Our program was a for-credit internship at 4 Texas colleges when we lived there, and is now a for-credit internship at 1 Milwaukee college and in the creation process at a second school now.  I have helped several other families "inherit" our Texas interns as well as set up other programs in other states.  Contact me for more information on this service.
• I also have created a "Developmental Model" for our trainees, which I currently call the "Participant Progress Pyramid".  I noticed that waves of trainees at the beginning of semesters needed training in a similar order and found myself repeating those trainings in a similar order.  I also wanted to streamline training since people didn't stay that long - perhaps averaging 5 months.  I'm posting videos to here for them and others, to make self-study tutorials and also feedback streamlined.  If you have questions call or email.  
• I've created a variety of other forms and documents I'll be attaching here, such as our policy documents, log in sheets, etc. for our team and others.   

Thanks for visiting and happy viewing, learning and recovering!