Haven’t been updating much but here’s a summary of all the improvements I can recall:

– He calls us, and all his Son-Rise volunteers, by name before requesting for anything.
– He verbalizes all his wants and needs (food, water, blanket, toys, music, adjust volume of music, even if he wants us to go away, etc.).
– His persistence is amazing. If for some reason he cannot get what he wants from one parent, he will turn to the other parent and ask again. He will even turn to nanny and ask a 3rd time to get what he wants. This is an amazing development, since we all know that persistence is key to anyone’s success in life.
– He has a very good way of letting people, even new volunteers, understand his needs. If his voice is unheard, he makes extra effort to increase his volume. If new volunteers do not know what he is asking for, he will use other words/concepts to describe the object that he is asking for. He tries again and again, changing or adding to the description of what he wants until the new volunteer understands him.
– His attention span is much longer. We started with zero attention span. He now averages 5 – 9 minutes, but on some occasions has maintained up to 40 minutes of interactive attention.
– He is not as rigid. He is more compliant and will not tantrum if he does not get what he wants. Waiting (for school bus to arrive, in a public que, etc.) always led to major tantrums before. Today, he simply verbalizes, “I want to wait for the school bus.” or “I want to wait for Mr. Ng (the driver),” and he will wait patiently.
– He is a lot calmer. He no longer has the need to be aggressive towards others, or even bite other people, when he feels agitated or if he has hearing sensitivity.
– His happy and cheerful personality is shining through his smiles all the time.

This list of improvements continues to grow as we continue our SRP.

This was a boy who at age 4 got the autism diagnosis. His Developmental Neurologist assessed his cognitive age to be equivalent to a one year old. At age 5, his cognitive age was 1 year 2 months. He only gained 2 months despite 12 months of conventional therapy. At that time, he had no intentional speech, he could take a toy, put it in his mouth and sit in one corner of the house, oblivious to anybody around him. He could do that one thing, all day, if we let him and he would only cry to indicate that he was hungry or that he needed something. At the time my greatest fear was who would take care of him when my husband and I pass away. Following those projections, at age 20, my son’s cognitive skill would only be equivalent to that of a 4 year old.

Nathan is currently 8 years old. We started our home based SRP 3 years ago at age 5.