The Power of Joining

Of all the strategies for helping autism, I love joining the most. This week the power of joining was brought to my attention yet again. We have a wonderful little boy who is here for his 2nd intensive. While I was joining him he would whisper words and at first I would celebrate and begin to build a game. Then he would say "stop it!" I would immediately give control and happily go back to joining. After this happened a few times I realized that his whispering was part of his ism. I gave him a little bit more space and sank deeper into joining.

I focused my energy on loving this boy and giving him this time to do fully whatever it was he was doing and having fun with him by doing the same. After about 5 more minutes of joining by whispering and looking through books, I heard him say "broken" in his normal voice. I came over to him and offered to kiss the "broken" book. He turned to me and smiled. He then said "tickle tummy" and fell into my lap. I had a really connected game with him where he was talking and looking and playing with me. I really believe that by giving him control and the time to organize himself while I joined him, he was able to connect with me on his own terms in a much fuller, brighter way.

Then to top it off, when my session was over he came over gave me a hug and said "Thank you for helping me Katrina." I love the Son Rise program because of the immense respect we have for each individual and the total acceptance of each moment.