Tag Archives: autism recovery

Nathan my Mr. Incredible

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There was a time when Nathan wouldn’t respond to his name. He wouldn’t even look at me. I didn’t even know if he knew that I was his mother. I used to sing songs about how much I loved him and it felt like it was falling on deaf ears. Nathan would hum his chants and look at all directions as I sang my songs to him.

Thanks to the Son-Rise Program(r), I can “reach” Nathan again. He can play with me for extended periods of time, even up to an hour, with strong interactive attention, looking at my eyes, smiling and laughing, with games that he initiates.

We have been blessed mightly!

More responsive 

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Last Christmas, when Grandfather came to visit, he was worried and would always ask me, “Why is Nathan not responding?”
This year, he’s back for Christmas and to his surprise, Nathan keeps asking him for everything and anything like:

– Lolo (Grandfather) push the wheelchair please (That’s a Nathan’s wheelchair, when we go out).

– Lolo, blow [fart kisses] on Nathan’s tummy please.

– Lolo, play jump around please (Nathan’s favourite music).

– Lolo, make the music louder please.

– Lolo, piggy back ride please (Nathan’s probably just testing if Lolo’s back is just as strong as his fathers 😉)

– Lolo, sleep next to him (that’s “me”. Nathan still needs to work on his pronouns) please.

– Lolo, lie down in bed please (so Nathan can sleep next to him).

– Lolo, take of your shirt please…

…and my most favourite of all…

– Lolo, lift your shirt please. Nathan wants to rub your tummy (see photo of Nathan rubbing/tapping Lolo’s jelly belly 😆).
Well, Lolo Hermie, you were asking for Nathan to be more responsive, and so you have it! 😉 See you again next Christmas! I’m excited to find out what will change then 😄

  

Homeopathy

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My consultation with my homeopathic doctor:
Dr: Did you give Nathan the MMR (Measles Mumps and Rubella).

Me: In Japan they give MR so I went looking for the separate M (Mumps). Is it helpful that it’s separated like what they do in Japan?

Dr: I think the measles vaccine in itself is an issue. Did your give chickenpox vaccine?

Me: Yes. I didn’t know that had issues.

Dr: I have doubts on that one. Did you give the flu vaccine?

Me: Yes, twice…you can shoot me now!

Dr: (smiles) it’s ok you didn’t know back then.

We’re going to undo Nathan’s #VaccineInjury that caused #RegressiveAutism.

While Nathan was talking in sentences at age 2, he lost all his words by age 4.

It’s only been a month with few homeopathic remedies and it’s amazing how I can feel old circuits waking up. Like Nathan recalled all the signs for banana, water, milk, bread, monkey, rhino, giraffe…stuff I taught him when he was a toddler! He has also started to make spontaneous comments… something he was already doing at age 2 before he regressed into autism and lost all his speech.

Son-Rise Program support in Singapore

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REWARDS of being a SON-RISE PARENT:
– our kids with Autism look at us with a sparkle in their eyes.
– strong eye-contact soon follows.
– our pre-verbal ASD kids speak for the first time.
– verbal ASD kids start to converse.
– speech explodes.
– our kids come closer to hug us spontaneously.
– our kids express their desire to play with us.
– we hear our kids say “I love you” for the first time.
– our kids become spontaneous.
– or kids become persistent.
– we discover our kids have a great sense of humor.
– our kids crave social interaction.
– as social skills is developed, the foundation for learning is created.

Learn more about it. Several Son-Rise Program® families will be sharing their experiences. They are all at various stages of their Home-Based Son-Rise Programs and implementing it at various intensities (i.e. from no fixed hours/lifestyle application only, part-time program to full-time program). All are seeing amazing progress in their children with autism! Can I just say, two of the Son-Rise moms who will be sharing, are medical doctors!

Come join us:
The Son-Rise Program Question and Answer Forum
April 11, 2015
3:00 to 5:00pm
SCWO, 96 Waterloo St., (S) 187967

Register for this FREE event at:
http://embraceautism.sg/events.htm

In the photo are Son-Rise Program® families in Singapore with Raun K. Kaufman

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Next stop Osteopathy

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Next stop in our healing journey is Osteopathy. I was amazed at how much information the Osteopath Doctor got from simply placing her hands on Nathan. She got that his gut was not moving (always constipated), his neck muscle was tight, his hips was misaligned, he wasn’t breathing with his diaphragm but his upper chest (all probably connected to his CP but aggravates his autism). She made some adjustments and send me home with few exercises. Nathan as seen her about 3 times one or two weeks apart.

I must say I am seeing good stuff like Nathan sweats more consistently. He has spoken in sentences before, but these days more consistent. Some games that were very repetitive before are now gaining variations and he’s paying more attention as I ask him questions for the game. After she released his neck muscle, Nathan finally allowed me to hold his nape area to do a JSJ relax hold. He never let me close before.

Amor on the other hand is not responding as “fast” as Nathan. In fact, she seems a little more irritable. Things getting worse before they get better, is also an expected result.

Excited as we go on this path of alternative healing!

Helping communicate his wants to other people

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Helping Nathan communicate his wants to other people:

I know Nathan loves it when I echo what he says. Sometimes I think he believes all he as to do is look at me or touch my mouth/chin and automatically, I know to echo him to his delight.

But always doing what he wants me to, will not teach him to communicate his needs to other people. So this is what I have been doing:

1. Get into the game:
I don’t challenge him right away. He looks/gestures then I do what he wants you to: echo his crazy language, like “Do it Tita Ika”…Don’t ask me what that means. It’s the equivalent of our tongue twisters. I’ll do this about 3 times until he’s laughing so loud.

2. Build a step at a time:
Before the 4the round, I model “Say ‘do it Tita Ika please.’ ” Then pause to give him time to respond.

3. Reward any attempt.
Sometimes he will just answer ” ‘Ika’ please.” Without the “say ‘Ika’ please”. Nevertheless, I give him the pleasure of listening to my echo.
This keeps him on the game and prolongs attention span instead of making him turned off at the challenge.

4. Try again.
Remember to keep being in the fun game. I continue to model a longer request, “Mama say ‘Ika’ please.”

5. Celebrate every step
When he does achieve the biggest request “Mama say … please” I echo his words in a bigger and funnier way than thank him for asking Mama.

6. Let go of the outcome
If in the end he did not achieve saying the whole request, at least the bigger priority was done: building the relationship!

Have fun son-rising!

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Surprises everyday

Nathan never stops to surprise his teachers.  His therapist called me just to tell me what happened in school. 

Nathan asked for “put your left foot in …put your left foot out”.

“Oh,” said his therapist, “Let me look for that song on my iPhone.”  But Nathan did not seem to want what he offered and moved away.

After a minute, Nathan gathered his persistence again and asked, “I want it to load.”  Nathan did his best to describe what he wanted, “I want…put your left foot in, left foot out…in the orange hat.”

“Ok.” replied his therapist, as he went to check if that song was on his VLC player.  To his surprise, he saw that the VLC player showed an orange traffic cone that looked like a hat 🙂  “This is it for sure,” the therapist thought.  When he turned on the Hokey Pokey music, Nathan started laughing and requested further, “Ok, I want to swing now.”  That’s his favorite place to be, when listening to music.

A child with autism, being so persistent, asking someone to get what he wants and spontaneously picking his own words to communicate!  That doesn’t happen everyday.

The orange hat gave the clue

The orange hat gave the clue

Crying and whining tips for volunteers

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Last Monday, Nathan was crying in his session with Tita Aldhel. Aldhel handled the crying very well:
1. She was really calm thus, not rewarding/reinforcing the crying.
2. She was a good detective, based on what preceded the crying, her best guess was that Nathan wanted to share an experience about riding the air plane, smilie faces in the mirror, etc. but cried when he could not express more.
3. She presented many alternatives to Nathan like sensory squeezes, toys or a glass water.

To add to the list, we were given more tips on crying and whining at the SR Intensive:
1. Move SLOWLY. Just as Aldhel was very clam, don’t make the crying/whining move you.
2. Yet, maintain the “YES” attitude. We always want to be user-friendly in order to continuously build the relationship. For example, you can express, “I really want to help you but you know what? I cannot understand you want when you whine. If you use your words I can understand you better and I can get you what you need right away!”
3. ACT LIKE A DUMMY. Example, you can offer “Nathan when you’re whining, I can’t understand what you want. I really want to help. Is it a glass of water that you want?… Maybe you want to squeeze?…”
4. Use a lot of EXPLANATIONS and PAUSE to give Nathan time to process what you said. Explain and believe that Nathan can understand what kids his age are told. I believe he can. The child facilitators noticed that it took 8 seconds before Nathan responded to their requests.
5. As soon as Nathan uses words or shows a good attempt, move FAST! Let him know that his words are very effective and can get him his needs fast while whining is less effective.

Be “facinated”

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When the Kaufman’s first “joined” Raun, they did so not aiming for autism recovery. They simply wanted to connect with Raun, let him know he was loved and make him happy. Recovery was a bonus.

They understood that for kids with autism, the world is very unpredictable. These kids feel that they have no control of their surroundings. Their ism is the only thing they have that feels predictable and safe.

So it’s important not only to join their isms but to fall in love with their isms.

One son-rise tip is to be “fascinated”. Here’s a exercise to help us learn to be fascinated with the little things. It’s probably a good exercise that we can do with our own kids or other people on our lives:

After spending time with Nathan:
1. Make a list about what you love about Nathan,
2. Make a list about what you love about Nathan, while he is isming.

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