When I first encountered the son-rise program, I thought, “What a crazy type of autism therapy!”
A unique quality of the son-rise program is joining a child’s “isms” (autistic, exclusive repetitive behavior). I thought, “Why would I want to copy the exact behavior that I want to eradicate?” I mean if today you were to watch my son-rise sessions with Nathan, you would see Nathan tapping a Lego on his face and I would do the same and see how that would feel. If he spins the wheels on a car, I would follow. Then you might ask, “Ok, which one was autistic again?”
Luckily, it didn’t feel bad about joining Nathan’s verbal isms. If he said the craziest thing like “alimtayao”, I copied him. Hey, what did I have to lose? To my surprise, he smiled at me. I kept on copying his crazy language and I got more laughs and good eye-contact in no time. In about a month Nathan started social referencing. Something he has never done before. He would go do something mischievous but right before doing it, he would turn around to check if I was looking, then he would do it and laugh knowing that I was paying attention. What a delight for me. Eye-contact and social referencing, giant steps after just a month of copying Nathan’s crazy language. How could I not want to learn more about son-rise?
We asked for the son-rise starter’s kit. As I read through many of their books and listened and watched their CDs, everything was making sense…and making me cry. I was crying that something so wonderful as a possible cure to autism was out there! Nathan was 5 and it took me that long to discover it.
Attending the son-rise start up got us embarked on a wonderful journey through autism. My world changed from worrying what would be of my son’s future when my husband and I pass away (would his siblings take care of him?) to knowing that Nathan would do just great!
The results of joining an autistic child’s “isms” are immediately evident. Autistic kids start to crave for social attention. Plus they will give us so much more because we have not demanded anything from them. Work on social skills and everything else follows.
Seven months after I attended the son-rise start-up, my husband also attended. Nathan’s autism recovery changed from being just my sole responsibility to a family endeavor. Another big burden taken off my back. The road ahead made easier. And the thing is, my husband enjoys son-rising Nathan.
Does son-rise take away time from other kids? Quantity-wise maybe, but it actually enriches relationships with them. Because we have learned to be fully attentive to Nathan and his needs during son-rise, we know to do the same for the other kids. Traditional, I would brush them aside like, “hey, you’re smart enough, go do that by yourself.” Now, we learn to pay more attention to their needs and figure out quality time for them.
Loving our son-rise journey through autism!