It’s always so good to see Ryan.  

He is waiting for school to start in April and said he was thinking of getting a job. I asked him what he was interested in. After a lengthy discussion it was clear to him that he wanted a job with lots is social interaction. He wanted to be a hotel receptionist at Universal Studios.

It’s amazing that this boy, who has stepped out of autism, continues to go against all odds towards a career that I’m sure his Mother couldn’t even dream of when he was 4 years old, unable to talk, and spending hours and hours staring out of the window.

Thank You Ryan. I know God speaks to me through you. 

Nanny was folding clothes on our bed and asked Nathan to scoot to make space for her. This mischievous boy kept on swinging his legs to kick the folded clothes and kept on checking Nanny’s reaction and laughing each time he was reminded to keep his feet out of the clothes.
How amazing it that! Nathan used to be so withdrawn, he wouldn’t care less about anyone next to him. Today he’s acting like a regular naughty kid! How fantastic!

Parents who want vaccinate their kids and those who choose not to vaccine, really have just one thing in common: to protect our children from sickness.
Instead of arguing our differences, we can draft up our common goals and action plan, and in the end we can still decide which road we want to take.
Maybe we can agree in some of these?
1. Boost your baby’s immune system by breastfeeding. Our digestive system is lined with a balance of “good” and “bad” microbes that are responsible for protecting the lining, digesting food, making vitamins and minerals bioavailable, protecting our health, nourishing body and brain, etc. Breastfeeding baby 100% in the beginning ensures that the “good” microbes take charge and won’t easily be offset by the “bad” microbes or diseases that can overpower the “good” microbes. Formula milk, especially with the way milk is mass manufactured today, encourages more “bad” microbes.
2. Use antibiotics only when absolutely necessary. Some Doctors are quick to call in antibiotics for simple ear infections without looking for natural remedies like use of probiotics instead or simply waiting out for the child’s immune system to fight it. As a result, all the microbes “good” and “bad” are eradicated from the digestive track. With equal footing on an empty slate, the stronger “bad” microbes in a sick child can easily overpopulate the “good” microbes.
3. Nourish the child and nourish his health. We can’t be say we want our children to be healthy and protected from diseases and feed our kids sugars, preservatives and artificial food colouring. Even baby cereals has sugars to make sure baby keeps wanting and Mommy keeps buying. Eat food that look like they can from the ground or farms and not food that look like they grow in boxes, cans and factories.
4. Pick the healthy options: run and sweat, vitamin D from the sun and fresh air at the playground, instead of coached in front of the TV or iPad.
The nice thing about picking healthy options is that it boosts the child’s immune system again ALL diseases.
Each parent is free to pick and choose to vaccinate of course. But one vaccination “prevents” only one disease. So big Pharma keep pushing for more vaccines to cover all possible diseases. And since you’re injecting one disease after another, hoping your child will fight against it, at one point, you can over do it an just make your child’s immune system collapse.
It happened to me. I brought my kids to their pedia every month, without fail, taking all the vaccines they recommended. Until my smart boy, spelling genius and singing nursery rhymes before age 2, regressed so deep into autism that he lost all his words and his singing became word-less chants.
It took this autism journey for me to realise how to make my kids healthy. Hopefully new moms discover the true secrets of health early without compromising the health of their kids.

During my morning walk, I encountered a teenage boy with autism and his helper. Being a mother of a boy with autism myself, I really wanted to interact with the young man.

I asked him what his name was. He responded and whispered his name. I then confirmed it with his helper. She also told me, “He cannot communicate.”

The boy said, “Eggs and porridge.” I replied with excitement, “Yes! I love eggs and porridge for breakfast.” His kind and loving helper told me again, “He cannot communicate.” I told her I was enjoying interacting with the young man and I shared my story about Nathan, who started with severe autism with no intentional speech.

The young man stopped at a gate, looked towards the trees and said, “No monkeys.” I replied eagerly, “You’re right there are no monkeys this morning.” We live near a nature reserve and we do get funny little neighbours coming to our homes once in a while. His kind helper, who only wanted me to be more understanding of his current condition, reminded me again, “He cannot answer.”

We continued to walk, he kept glancing at my direction and I kept telling him how much I appreciated the way he looked at me. Looking at people is a challenge that kids/adults with autism have a hard time doing, and yet he tried his best.

As we approached the gate of the condominium where he lived, he looked at me and said “Bye-Bye!” I said my good byes thinking, I wish I had more time interacting with this boy. His helper once again made an apology that he could not respond.

While his helper believed that he could not communicate with anyone, I saw a young man who kept reaching out to communicate with me.

I was once there, unable to see my Nathan capable of doing anything. Four years ago, I believed my 5-year-old Nathan would never be able to say meaningful words…for the rest of his life. Praise God, I was led to The Son-Rise Program®. That changed the way I saw my son and autism. Instead of seeing what Nathan could not do, I began to see so much of his potentials! It is working with that new mindset that keeps us going on our road to recovery.

Today Nathan can speak spontaneous and meaningful sentences. He can be persistent (instead of violent) if he wants his needs met.   

Our kids have so much potential, just using the Son-Rise lens makes a big difference.

In the photo: Nathan uses his strong eye-contact to ask me to play with him.

Sometimes we complain about what life brings to us:”My child is too noisy” complains a Mother, 

“City people don’t care for community” sighs the taxi driver.

“They don’t understand my child,” cries a parent with a special needs child.

I have learned that instead of asking people around me to change, I can BE who I want community to be.

When my special needs daughter, Amor, is at the playground, she could look like a spoiled, irritable child who does not know how to borrow toys, cannot take “no” for an answer and flings toys around or hits just to irritate other children.
I don’t try to change my daughter, because I know that if wasn’t for her sensory processing issues, she would be the sweetest, kindest princess. Instead, I BE who I hope my daughter would want to follow by example.

Amor shouts at other kids to get out of “her” swings…yes, all 4 swings at the playground belongs to her, she says. I tell her in a calm but eager voice, “Hey Amor, let’s practice asking with a soft voice.” She usually puts down her sensory defences and tries her very best to ask the kids to get off and even ends her sentence with a “please.” I congratulate her for her fantastic effort to overpower her sensory issues! I then ask her to take her flexibility to the next level and suggest, “Hey, when the kids say ‘no’, it’s ok right?” She happily nodes and runs off without bothering the kids on the swing.

Amor could easily be bullied or be the bully at the playground. But I’m there to support her, BEING what I hope she would want to be.

In time I’m realising that I’m making friends with other parents and helpers at the playground and they too are being super supportive and understanding towards Amor and modelling the kind of support needed from their kids. Now I have a community around me, helping me the way I would want to be helped. There is nothing to complain about but everything to be grateful for!

This all started with empowering myself to BE the community I want for my kids, and not just to complain and hope things will change for me.
In the photo is Amor at the playground, enjoying the squeaking sound that the swing makes as she tosses it in all directions.

“Joining” a child’s autistic, repetitive behaviours, works wonders!  
When Nathan was unable to say meaningful words (in 2012), I joined in his crazy language and he gave me so much meaningful eye contact, smiles and laughter! Prior to that, he couldn’t communicate but would tantrum to get his needs met, he wouldn’t even look at me or respond to his name.

Joining was an important key. Nathan soon gained meaningful speech with Son-Rise(r) and easily and spontaneously expressed his wants and needs. 

The joining changed as Nathan progressed. At one point he started scripting TV lines like “Visit Sesame Street on the web at www dot Sesame Street dot com.” I loved joining him because his sense of humour came out as we changed some words, melody, volume, or tone as scripted the lines. He would burst into laughter whenever he approved of my alteration, or whenever I would be able to say his alteration as exactly as he said it.

The joining continued to help me reach Nathan and bring his communication to higher levels. Last year I started asking Nathan questions like “Do you remember Lola Dolly?” That soon became a game of simple question and answer. Without teaching his grammar, our Q&A game helped him master the ability to return the question in perfect answer form like, “I remember Lola Dolly.” I asked many questions and he would answer back perfectly. In the beginning I wasn’t sure if he was simply practicing grammar and sentence construction while answering back. But that didn’t matter. I was having fun “joining” him the way he wanted me to join him in his semi-exclusive game. That is, the Q&A had to go his way, otherwise he would stop talking to me. “Joining” was very much needed still.

Sometimes “Joining” could look less like joining and more like actually interactions. I would ask him a questions and be ready for a back and forth, rigid Q&A session. But at times I would ask him a question like, “Do you remember (Son-Rise Teacher) Kim?”. Nathan would actually pause for a while, process the question and reply, “Kim gave me rice cakes.” Celebration!!! Nathan actually answered my question!!!

Thought those spontaneous answers are not as consistent as I wish. I am mesmerised with the power of “joining”.

“Joining” helped Nathan gain intentional speech, it nurtured his sense of humour, it helped him construct his sentences into perfect question and answer form, and now it’s helping him move forward to having conversations!

God created us perfect! I know He wants us to have a fruitful and easy life. For Nathan who started with severe autism, it only took something as simple, fun and easy, as “Joining” to be able to go towards meaning communication.

Learn more from the Autism Treatment Center of America.

www.AutismTreatment.org

Or reach out to Son-Rise Parents in Singapore through Embrace Autism.

www.EmbraceAutism.sg