About 3 years and a hundred milestones ago....in the month of May, 2007 at the Children's hospital in Oakland, we anxiously awaited a couple of neurologists and other experts to reach a consensus regarding our son's development. And there started our lonesome journey into the unknown world of Autism.. Lonesome, not for lack of support from friends or fellow parents, family or well-wishers, but from the system itself!
When the much awaited results were out, we were baffled.. We were handed a "Provisional" diagnosis of Autism, a bunch of flyers and a couple of forms. We accepted all the services that they offered in an attempt to help fix the problem: ABA, ST, OT. Naive first-time parents! Naive, not in our ability to sense something different in our child, but for putting all our faith in the "expert" recommendations, with the hope of our curing our son.
Thus began the journey that would teach us more over a few years than we had learnt in almost 30 years of life. Dealing with doctors, coordinating with the regional center, working with therapists, battling the school district, trying out regular preschool settings..
We attended talks, seminars, joined parent support groups, looking for the perfect therapy for cure. All along, we just kept working with him, trying to support him. But one thing we were sceptical about was just handing him over to a host of professionals.
We tried ABA, OT, ST, PRT, social groups. We tried working with him using one or more of these at home. Almost all these approaches placed demands on him ... the poor fellow was so robotic, it broke our hearts. We'd spend days reading, browsing, sleepless nights thinking what could be done better, to be more effective. Somewhere deep within, we knew that all of this would take him just so far! How could we help this gifted child RELATE to us?
During these readings, we stumbled upon "Son-Rise: the miracle continues", by Barry Neil Kauffman. In the first reading, the book gave rise to a lot of questions. Skeptical as I am, I did not think of Son-Rise any more. But my husband persisted and kept researching. He found "Intensive interaction", used in the UK, similar to Son-Rise and backed by research. We decided to try it out, an hour a day. Dad and son had a gala time, and mom began seeing results!
All these above mentioned mainstream behavioral approaches tried to teach us and him, that the unconventional repetitive behaviors he had, were undesirable and needed to be dealt with. But was that really it? How could a 3 year old, hypersensitive to sound, sit still without fulfilling his need to take care of himself? How could a task master therapist encourage him to form social relationships?
The Son-Rise Program® recognises autism as a social interactivity disorder. They place an emphasis on building a relationship with the child by joining him in his repetitious activities. The biggest for us: It puts the parent in charge of the program. Nobody knows our son the way we do!
Thank you Son-Rise and the Kauffmans for showing us the way!
(For more info about the Son-Rise program go to http://www.autismtreatmentcenter.org/)
