FROM KIM: Celebrate with Actions

Let me share the ways we can CELEBRATE using ACTIONS in The Son-Rise Program PLAYROOM!!!!

HAVE FUN trying these out!

Jump around the playroom
Cheer silently using your whole body to express your love and excitement
Spin around the playroom
Run around playroom
Sing a song about the child you're with
Dance and wiggle your body
Open your eyes wide with excitement and animation
Drawing a picture for your child
Do a cartwheel across the room
Offer your child a kiss
Offer your child a hug or big body squeeze
Throw your arms up in the air
Grab a puppet and have them cheer for your child
Throw the object you have in your hands up in the air to express your excitement
Jump on a trampoline and try to touch the ceiling
Bounce on a therapy ball
Roll across the room on a therapy ball
Do a disco dance or other fun dance for your child
Grab something to drum on and drum using your hands- you can even drum with your feet!
Wave a blanket up and down as you cheer for them
Do a hand stand as you cheer!!
SMILE SMILE SMILE-!!!

Let your love shine through each ACTION & have so much fun being with the children you LOVE!!!

Games Games Games!

Good Morning all you playful parents out there!

Its Friday, the weekend is a head of us and The Autism Treatment Center of America is sending you another game to try with your children on the Autism Spectrum.





This game is designed to help your child expand their use of language and have conversations.
For those of you who would like to learn more about how to design interesting games that center around your child's specific motivations and goals come to our advanced Son-Rise Program, New Frontiers November 15th - 19th.

Also -  we have just created a new playlist on youtube where all our game video blogs are. Click on the link below to view over 50 different game ideas.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=4953F4E66A5B78CA

Enjoy your time with your children this weekend.

with much lvoe

Kate

More on Being Present!

FROM BECKY: Hi Everyone! This blog is inspired by a wonderful Son-Rise parent that I have been working with for the past year and a half. It's about being present. He asked if there are any ways that he can help himself be more present when he is in the playroom with his child. Here are some things that helped me to really practice the art of being present and stick to it.

1) Look for patterns! Become more aware of when exactly you find yourself "Checking out" and what you are thinking about instead. For example, is it always when my child does the ism when he/she is looking through books?, is it in the last 30 minutes of my session? Is it when my child is asking for the same old game of me singing "Row Your Boat"? If you can become a detective of yourself you may see that there is a familiar theme. Once you find that theme, explore why during those times you are having a challenge staying present when at other times you are not. My past experience has been that it's the belief I hold about the thing I am doing that causes me to check out. For example, if I am believing that what I'm doing isn't useful then I will think of other things to try and distract myself away from a possible discomfort or something I don't want to look at. Changing this belief will be the key to changing your own behavior of checking out.

2) Are you a multi tasker? Often life can get busy pulling us in different directions and ending up with us thinking about or doing 5 things at once. If you are seeing your playroom session as another thing on the list to get done, as opposed to choosing to really be there with your child then you will treat it as such. Practice the art of leaving your "to do" list at the playroom door and deciding to really "arrive"!

3) Practice practice practice! Take time throughout the day to really practice being present doing each task that you do. If you are eating, really focus on how it feels to chew and swallow your food, how it feels in your belly and the taste of each bite. If you are walking to your car, notice the temperature and the ground underneath your feet. If you are having a conversation, stop what you are doing and really take a moment to be with that person in your entirety. The more you practice, the more you will perfect this art.

Please let me know what helps you stay present so we can add it to the list!

Love Becky

Express Your Opinion

The Autism Treatment of america brings you the game of the week - Express your Opinion!!





This game is designed to help your child express their own thoughts and opinions.

"Answers simple questions requiring his/her opinion within the answer" is a stage 4 verbal communication goal from The Son-Rise Program Developmental Model.

Have fun finding out what your beautiful child thinks about all sorts of things!!!!

Much love to you
Kate

Being Present!

FROM BECKY: I just returned from the most wonderful three week trip away from The Autism Treatment Center of America. During that time I travelled to my home land of England and visited my parents in Portugal, ending with an amazing last week away on vacation with my husband.

While in England I caught up with old friends, met new babies, spent time with my Brother and his new wife. I also worked on outreaches with families doing The Son-Rise Program. Then in Portugal I took long walks beside the ocean, sang and played guitar with my Dad's band, ate fresh fish on the beach, spent lazy days in the sun, swam in the pool, had long and meaningful conversations with my parents (who I hadn't seen for 2 years), spent time listening to and supporting them while my Mom faces health challenges, cherished moments with my husband over cups of coffee to a beautiful scenic backdrop. I loved every moment of it!

And now I am back at The Autism Treatment Center of America. Working alongside the most amazing team of dedicated and loving individuals, Helping a wonderful Son-Rise Mom to change herself profoundly in order to inspire her Autistic son. Being part of the Maximum Impact program here on campus this week and doing consultations with parents and guiding them in their programs, working with a beautiful eight year old boy in our Son-Rise Intensive Program, and the list goes on.

Something that really helps me to embrace life and to have a good day every single day is to be present with each moment that life brings! To enjoy each task and activity I do one by one, with each parent I love and guide, with each staff member I interact with, with each email I type.

When I was away with friends, family, my husband, relaxing, resting, traveling, etc I was incredibly present with what was going on, loving the moment and not even thinking about what I was going to do next week or the bills I had to pay, the moving house that was coming up. There was nothing that the future or past could offer me that the present moment couldn't.

Now I am back at work, there is nowhere else I would rather be. Helping families and children, learning and growing as a teacher and student, there is still nothing that the future or past could offer me that the present moment can't.

All we have is now!

Lots of love,

Becky

AN OPEN WINDOW

FROM JAMIE: AN OPEN WINDOW and a Red Head Girl ..... Every morning without a day missed you can see Tyler, a 16 year old red head girl, standing at the window of her playroom looking outside. The neighbors wave and say hello to her as they leave for work to begin their day. She has become a part of their day most every day.

Yes, its true – Tyler wakes up in the morning between 5:30am and 7:00 am and goes straight upstairs into her playroom, OPENS THE WINDOW and greets the world! One neighbor has moved and gone back to their home town in Missouri and no longer to be seen. I imagine Tyler misses their dogs that she liked to watch play out in their yard every morning. Not to fret though, they have been replaced with construction workers across the street – lol! The school buses drive by and pick up neighborhood kids and head to school. She stands at the window and watches for anything and everything that is going on in that moment. She doesn’t want to miss a thing. She loves to watch the trees and the wind so peacefully moving the branches. She greets the world when the sun is shining bright and when the morning is cloudy or rainy. Its just an OPEN WINDOW and she decides what she wants to see….

This daily routine of Tyler’s mornings has taught me a few things. Wouldn’t it be great if every single morning when we awoke we OPENED A WINDOW. We saw the world just as it is in that moment. We weren’t stressed about the day ahead. We dropped all worries. And just enjoyed the scenery and everything around us and felt the peacefulness that surrounds us. We could know that change is continuous, leaving room for new experiences. We could greet the world with a smile, a wave, a hello, a hug, an I love you, and so on ~ each and every day and not miss a day.
That, to me, is the best part of waking up .................

Love, Jamie

Taking Action!

From Kim:
Hello wonderful friends of The Son-Rise Program! I am very excited to share with you part of my daily playroom process :)

One thing that I decide to do before I enter the playroom is set an intention for myself! One of the most powerful intentions that I set is deciding to TAKE ACTION. When I decide to take action I can use the first thing that comes to my mind and decide to go for it 100%!

Through the intention of taking action I am able to clearly decide that what I am doing is the absolute most POWERFUL and VALUABLE action I can take in the playroom with this child. The power of a decisive mind, the power of saying YES to myself and following through, and the power of WANTING to be a force of nature in each moment, allows me the clarity within myself to be a present powerhouse in that playroom-AWESOME! Yes, we all have the opportunity to take each moment of our day, our playroom times, and our lives to be POWERFUL, LOVING BEINGS OF ACTION!

When I'm in the playroom and I decide to TAKE ACTION, I am also giving a beautiful gift to the child that I am working with- I am helping them by giving them the opportunity to make clearer decisions for themselves as well as expressing themselves more fully. They can use their language to tell me "no" if it is something that they are not wanting and instead they can tell me or show me they are looking for something else... When joining as a way of taking action I join with every 3E (energy, excitement, enthusiasm) in my body -wanting to discover this child fully. Again, giving them the opportunity and clarity of giving a strong green light (e.g. looks, sounds, words, gestures) to share their readiness to interact.

Taking action is also a huge tool in my decision making in building games when a child gives me a green light. When I decide to take action I can use the first silly idea, playful voice, or action that comes to my mind and decide to go for it 100% to create a game!

Now you may be asking yourself is this some playroom secret that Kim is revealing to us... :) Well the truth is, it is something that we all have within ourselves and it is up to us to decide to use it!! Have fun taking action, have fun playing games, and have incredible moments of being the powerhouses that you are with the children you love!

Warmest smiles,
Kim

inspirational meetings

From Gaby
Son-Rise meetings are essential. It's when we all come together as a group and decide how to help the one inspirational person that brought us together. After each meeting I always feel blessed. Blessed that I have this great team of players. Wonderful people who always are willing to help out. At the moment we have 12 players but at the last meeting we were with 15 as two old players decided to sit in on a meeting again because they want to keep in contact. Just imagine how wonderful that is to see all this warmth.
Because attitude is so important I decided to give the teams some homework for the last two meetings . The week before the meeting they had to listen to some Option cd’s. We started with fearless and last Friday we talked about radical authenticity. We spend about an hour per meeting on the option principals. Because it’s fun to play a game I made some cards for the first meeting. On them were written the words belief, attitude and feeling. Depending on which card they got they had to talk about a situation and highlight the belief, attitude or feeling behind the moment. I then did dialogues with them about it. We had an inspirational evening as the volunteers shared private moments and it was as if we were at the institute. The group just came together as never before. Since then our Son-Rise program has surged forward and two of my volunteers have enrolled as volunteers at the Option Institute which ultimately will help us even more. They will be number four and five of my team going so far. It’s amazing how many miles my son has moved so many people, all the way across the Atlantic thanks to his autism. He has changed just as many life’s as they the volunteers have changed our’s.

Lived Happily Ever After!

FROM WILLIAM: Over the last month or so I have been facilitating joint consultation sessions between parents. This is where husband and wife or partners sit down to specifically focus on their relationship – what is working/not working; what they would like more of or less of from their partner. It is a wonderful process to be involved in and for some partners it is the first time that they have ever done anything quite like this. Always the couples leave the consultation with a greater understanding of their partner and a deeper appreciation that their partner is just like them doing the best they can in their perfect and in-perfect way. It is through this understanding that their relationship improves, for most of them love one another and want to make their relationship work.

My wife (Bryn) and I have done numerous joint consultations over the 20 yrs of our marriage and they have been such a great tool in helping us move beyond places we are stuck; disagreements we seem unable to go beyond or work out; neediness for the other person to change before we can relax and fully open up to loving them again; etc. Our relationship today is the best it has ever been – it continues to get richer and more intimate. In part that is because of these joint consultations and the part the Option Process plays in them.

There is a line that appears in fairytales (and for some a truth they hold when the first get married) – “and they lived happily ever after!” This line should be changed to include “and they worked happily and committedly on their relationship for all the years they were together – then they lived happily ever after!”

Note: When mom and dad are getting on then their Son-Rise Program with their child is stronger for it.

Love and smiles

William

Hoop Games

Good Morning Everyone!

The Autism Treatment Center of America sends you your Friday game!




Enjoy trying these different hoop ideas with your children. These ideas are great to help your child look at you more, talk to you more and start to play imagination games.

With much love to you
Kate

Anticipation

From Amanda:

Do you remember a time when you were bursting with excitement and curiosity? Maybe it was when you were a child, and your Mom and Dad told you to close your eyes as you waited for your Birthday present. Or maybe it was when you were on your favorite roller coaster, just before you go roaring down the tracks in a steep fall. This sense of excitement, curiosity, and sometimes an adrenalin rush, is known as anticipation; An extrmely useful and effective technique to use in the playroom.

While working with a beautiful four year old boy for his Intensive week here at the Autism Treament Center of America, I often use anticiaption to help him tell me what he wants. One of the ways I used this technique was in a ride game, in which he climbed insdie a plastic box, and I pulled him all around the room. My intention was to help him tell me what he wanted by saying "ride" and then, "I want ride." First, I gave him a few amazing and fun rides around the playroom to build up his motivation for the game, and then I decided it was time to invite him to ask for the ride. I drove the box to the top of the slide and waited. I celebrated all of his amazing looks and then asked him to say ride. He said ride clearly, so he plumeted down the slide and I continued to drive him on a crazy adventure. I once again, drove my friend to the top of the slide, and this time, I waited. I said "Whoa , as I took a deep breath in and held it with a smile on my face. I moved the box as if it was going to race down the sldie, but then, I brought it back to the top. He said "ride" once again, so I celebrated and explained that I wanted to help him say "I want ride." This sweet boy yelled "RIDE" really loud, so I moved the box as if it was going to go down the slide, but I didn't let go. I whispered, "Maybe if you say 'I want ride,' this will help the box go down the slide." We looked at eachother for sveral more seconds, so I smiled at him and continued to pretend I was going to let the ride box go. He then let out a giant "I wnat ride!" so I shouted a "WOOHOO" celebration and quickly let the ride box go down the slide. I so loved hearing his laughter as he went down the slide, but most of all, I loved seeing the look in his eyes. A look that said "I did it!" We played this game for a long time!

Anticipation adds excitemnt and energy to our interactions with children in the playroom. This technique will inspire the child to want to see "What happens next?" They will search inside themselves to use the word, or give the look that will make "it" happen.

Have fun experimenting! Oh, and I have one more useful technique to share with you.....but will have to wait until the next time:) ANTICIPATION!

Love,Amanda

Outreach Moments

From: Kim


Recently I was on a Son Rise Program Outreach working with an amazing boy! I walked into his playroom with the intention of absolutely loving and discovering who this new friend was and what he loved to do! On the first day of this outreach he shared with me so many wonderful and different ways in which he communicated with the world- through his looks, his cheeky smiles, and his amazing use of different sounds for communicating through language! Wow, I was so excited to be the person there with him joyfully taking these moment in! I felt pure delight in celebrating him for the many ways in which he continually exercised himself, and shared with me the world around him!

On the first day of the outreach I celebrated his sounds with every three E in my body- varying my energy and discovering what he responded to best. I built on his use of language and created games from the sounds he was making! We had so much fun learning about each other... and as we built this rapport of play back and forth, I learned more and more about what motivated him! I began to understand his use of language, and he began to use more sounds to express himself.

By the second day of the outreach it became clearer and clearer to me exactly what he was saying! Ahhh!!! This was an amazing moment for me! As if someone flipped a switch and the "clear language light" was turned on! As I responded to each new word that I heard, he too celebrated me! He looked at me, leaned over and kissed me very gently.

Our time together that second day continued this way, I responded to what he would say and he would celebrate and show me his appreciation and love through kisses. I believe that what helped us create such a rapport in communicating that weekend was my WANT to understand him. In my mind I knew I would do WHATEVER it took to find out more about him and to understand what he was saying- and because of this DESIRE going in to play with him, I was able to take each of his new sounds as opportunities... ones to try out something new and stretch myself creatively.

I was so present in the playroom, and my ATTITUDE and WANT to UNDERSTAND helped bring this to life!!

Cant wait to hear about what you learned in your next playroom session!!!

The Importance of Being Present

FROM SIMONE - I am not just trying to sound like Oscar Wilde, this blog title is absolutely true.

As I have recently found out being present is not just a shortcut to happiness but it can be crucial to your survival.

Apart from the obvious fact that if you are not present while doing tasks such as driving, operating machinery or even using a kitchen knife, it will be dangerous, it can also be dangerous not being present in many other ways.

I have in a previous blog discussed the dangers of stress, how it can lead to all sort of diseases and conditions and an excellent place you can be to avoid stress is in the present.

The present has no guilt, that is normally an attribute of the past, the present has no worries, that is normally an attribute of the future. Apart from that, the present is the only workable place to be. You can not go back to the past and change it and to change your future you will have to work on it while it hasn't happened yet, in the Present!

After a wonderful day volunteering at Raun's Lectures in the UK this Saturday, my Mother called me and told me my Dad was in a coma in hospital since Friday. My first reaction was to panic and immediately worry about the future. I could have there and then chosen an attitude of hope that he would recover, but instead I chose to be sick, feel cold, shaky, cry and worry about the future. That is the attitude my whole family chose to have, but not my Mum and my Brother. My Mum chose first of all to be present and arrange for immediate help for my Dad, then she arranged to tell us, waiting for my work at Raun's Lecture to be over, she then followed my Dad every step of the way and now he is on the path to recovery, still in intensive care but recovering.

When I saw my Mum's attitude I composed myself and realised I was despairing because I was telling myself if I didn't, I did not care about my Dad. So I chose then that the best way to care about my Dad was to gather as many prayers as I could from all my friends all over the world and send him a big chain of positive healing thoughts which I am sure are helping him tremendously in his recovery, I became present and pro-active for him and I set up times in the day to spend talking to my Mum supporting her in what she is going through. I could not have done any of these actions if I had chosen to be where I first chose to be when I heard he was ill, somewhere in a made up future when he wasn't with us. By choosing to be present he is alive and where there is life there is hope and hope is an energy that transforms and creates miracles.

Thank you so much for all of you who are praying for him.

With love,

Simone

Flexiblity-It's for Everyone!

From Amanda: Have you ever planned on waking up in the morning and having everything run smoothly. You set your alarm for 6:15am and start the coffee. While the coffee is brewing you might take a shower and get ready for your day. You plan on leaving the house no later than 8:30am as you have a 9:00am doctors appointment, or possibly some errands to run. Yes! You get into your car on time and you are on your way without delay.

But wait, what is that in the distance? It's traffic as far as the eye can see. Road construction. This isn't what you planned. Your morning was supposed to be perfect. It was planned that way. What are you going to do now?! There are choices here- You can either get yourself really upset because things didn't go as planned, or you can sit back, turn on your favorite radio station, sing, and enjoy life. This is an example of flexibilty.

As parents, volunteers, and child facilitators, we often prepare a theme to bring into the room in hopes our child will go for it.Sometimes, a great deal of time goes into preparing the theme, and other times it may involve a simple prop. We might have a specific idea in our heads as to the way the game will be played, so we present this idea to our little friends ,"just the way we imagined".

Let's pretend the idea you brought into the playroom was a birthday party. You built a cake out of cardboard boxes, made a Happy Birthday banner, and printed out invitations for all of your imaginary guests. As you present this to your child, he/she suddenly takes the cake apart and puts the boxes on their head as a hat, shreds the sign in an ism, or begins to use the invitations as plates for their favorite dollies. Wait a minute! That wasn't the plan!

Just as we have choices in a traffic jam, we also have choices in the playroom. Practice being flexible when things don't go the way you hd planned. Love yourself for trying! Be flexible with your childs ideas and learn not to be attached to your own. Go with what your child is motivated for. Love what your child is motivated for. Have fun with what your child is motivated for. Our children can often sence when we are uncomfortable and rigid, so if you are flexible, you will inspire your child to become flexible.

Some of the best times we have in life are the ones we least expect!

Love,Amanda

Games Games Games!

From Kate Wilde:

This is your Friday Morning theme sent from The Autism Treatment Center of America.




This is a complex theme that is designed for a child who is in stage 4 or 5 of  The Son-Rise Program Developmental Model. It can help your child with their academic skills, as well as goals such as, "Continuously interacts", "Combines complex sentences", "Is spontaneous within another's activity."

What is fabulous about this game is that it has many mnay different parts to it which means that there is no end to how long you can play it for.

Would love to hear what kind of world you create together.

With much love
Kate

10 Fun Games with a Blanket!

FROM JACK: Howdy fellow Son-Risers! Blankets are wonderful things to have in your playrooms. They are so versatile and lend themselves to so many different games.

At the Autism Treatment Center of America we nearly always put blankets in our playrooms, and I often recommend them to the families I do in-home outreaches with here in the UK.

Here's a tip - if you are putting a blanket in the playroom, try to find one that is a very loose knit so that even if your child hides under it, you can still see their eyes and notice their "Green Lights". You could also try using sari fabric, since it is very strong and durable, and generally fairly see-through.

Now, here are 10 of my tried and tested playroom games using blankets:

1. Magic Carpet Rides: To work on Clear Single Words, Longer Sentences. Encourage your child to sit on the blanket and give them fun rides around the playroom. Once they are highly motivated, ask them to say the word "Ride" to continue the game. For a fun variation, or for a child with more language, pretend that the Magic Carpet flies to different countries and have a silly activity to do in each country (e.g. in Australia you have to go upside down, in Iceland you shiver in a big way). Invite your child to tell you which country they want to fly to.
2. Playroom Hot Dog! To work on Verbal Participation. Invite your child to lay in the middle of the blanket and tell them you're going to turn them into a giant hot dog! Ask your child to tell you what condiments they want on the hot dog and act out putting each of these on in a funny way (e.g. big slurping sounds for the ketchup, tickles for the pickles). When everything is on the hot dog, wrap your child up in the blanket and pretend to eat them!!
3. Down Down Down! To work on Clear Single Words and Eye Contact. A lot of children love the feeling of fabric being lightly brushed over their bodies. When your child is lying down, grab the blanket and slowly drape it down over their bodies, modeling the word "Down" as you do so. Then, pull the blanket back up and start again. Once your child is motivated, you could either encourage them to look at you to get the blanket to come down again, or help them say the word, down.
4. What's Under the Blanket? To work on Verbal Participation, Asking and Answering Simple Questions. Pick a character that you know your child loves. Hide under the blanket and tell your child that you have turned into someone new underneath there. You could even make funny noises or animal sounds if they are appropriate for who you have turned into. Encourage your child to ask you questions to find out who you have turned into (e.g. "Do you have fur?" "Are you from Toy Story?") - you may have to model some questions for them first. When they work it out, burst out from under the blanket and have fun acting out your character for your child. Continue the game by taking turns to hide under the blanket.
5. Silly Sneezes. To work on Eye Contact, Physical Participation. Stuff the blanket down your t-shirt! Every time your child looks at you, celebrate them and sneeze in a big way, at the same time, pulling some of the blanket out of your t-shirt. Continue doing so every time your child looks until you sneeze out the entire blanket and throw it across the room! As an added element, you could ask your child to go and get the blanket and bring it back to you so you can start the game again!
6. Playroom Rocket! To work on Physical Participation. Lay out the blanket on the floor and tell your child that it is a Space Rocket that needs fixing so you can fly to the moon! Have a couple of wings cut out of paper (or ask your child to help you make them) and invite your child to stick them onto the rocket so it can fly. Use a small watering can and tell your child that the rocket also needs fuel and ask them to fill it up using the (empty!) watering can. You can now fly to the moon! Get your child to lie in the middle of the blanket, wrap them up tightly, hold onto the end by their feet and swing them round in a circle, fast! (This works easier with smaller children, although you can spin older children around on the floor if they like it)
7. Animal Peek-a-boo! To work on Physical Participation. Hide under the blanket and encourage your child to come over lift it up. When they do, pop out from underneath and make a big animal sound! Repeat the game, popping out as a different animal every time your child lifts up the blanket.
8. Super Body Squeezes. To work on Clear Single Words. Many children love having deep pressure exerted over their entire body, and the blanket is a great way to give them this! When your child gives you a "Green Light", offer to wrap them up in the blanket. Try to wrap their bodies up as tightly as possible (if they like that sensation) - a bit like swaddling a baby! Once you have done so, use the blanket to squeeze their entire body! Once your child is really motivated for this, encourage them to say the word "Squeeze" to get more squeezes.
9. Create a Scene. To work on Verbal Participation. Print out characters from your child's favourite book/show. Lay the blanket out on the floor and use it as the background on which to create your very own scene, using the pictures you have printed out! Excitedly tell your child that you get to make up your own story and start putting a couple of characters in place on the blanket, making up your story as you do so. Encourage your child to join in and share their ideas for the story as together you build up this fun scene!
10. Picnic Time! To work on Attention Span, Physical Participation. Before your child comes into the playroom, hide various pieces of a toy tea-set around the room. Lay the blanket out on the floor and tell your child that you are going to have a picnic with all your playroom friends! Together, you and your child and gather all their favourite toys and teddies to come and sit on the blanket when suddenly you realize that the cheeky ants have stolen all your food! Together you and your child have to search the playroom to find all the pieces of the tea-set so that you can all enjoy your picnic together.

Have lots and lots of fun trying out these games! Remember, the key thing is that YOU enjoy yourself while playing them!

Smiles

Jack

No 3e's!

FROM WILLIAM: So you have been to the Son-Rise Program Start-Up (and maybe other training programs) and have a solid foundation of what to do in the playroom with your child. Even with all that knowledge you may find at times that you don’t have the 3e’s or join when your child is isming or celebrate interaction, etc. It is at these times that you want to acknowledge to yourself that you are “busy doing something else”. Maybe you are not present because you are thinking about what to cook for dinner; or maybe you are uncomfortable judging yourself for not being as creative as you want to be; etc.

First and foremost acknowledge and be easy with the fact you are busy doing something else. Next step is to ask yourself why you are busy doing something else rather than fully facilitating with your child. Understanding why will help you in the process of deciding to be more present. Another way to help yourself be more present and effective is to fill yourself with gratitude for something your child is doing right now. You could also bring your full attention to your child by being super curious about what they are doing by fully doing it yourself. Essentially the idea is to set your mind to focus on your child and being present with them versus doing something else. For some of us, being present is like working a muscle, the more we do it the stronger we become at it.

Enjoy working that muscle - it will help you have more 3e's, join when it's time to join, celebrate all the wonderful interaction, etc.

Love and smiles

William

Feeling Comfortable with Crying

From Amanda: Often times, when a parent hears a child cry, there is an instant assuption of how the child may be feeling. Suddenly, you might believe the child is unhappy, sad, or angry because the child is whining or crying- You may be more inclined to make these assumptions especially with Autistic children, as communicaiton can be a real challenge for them to begin with. At the Autism Treatment Center of America, we believe that when a child cries, they are using this as a form of communication yet we want to give them new and more effective means of communication. We do not strive to "get the child to stop crying", as we believe this is how they are taking care of themselves in this moment. We also do not assume we know why the child is crying. Instead we move quickly to a)offering the child alternate ways to communicate and b)lowering our energy and slowing down so the child will notice that crying isn't really the most effective way to move people or the world around them. We want to inspire the child to want to find other ways to tell us what they want.

While in a session with a beautiful six year old boy during his Intensive program at the Autism Treatment Center of America, he suddenly began to cry during one of our games. As he cried, I remained non-reactive and really comfortable, as I slowly and easily moved to see that his body was okay. I then lowered my energy and offered to help him while giving an explanation-"Hmm, It's hard to know what you want when you cry, maybe you want some squeezes. You can always say squeeze." When I offered the squeezes, he pushed my hand away, and continued to cry. As he cried, I continued to be non-reactive and offered to help him communicate in a more effective way. I slowly walked to the shelf and offered this sweet child some food "Maybe you are hungry. You can also say eat and I will get it for you really fast." He took the food and continued to cry while saying "Mummy." I celebrated this child quietly for using his words to tell me what he wanted and proceeded to explain,in a calm and loving voice, that his mummy was in class and would return at 5:00pm. He cried louder and harder and said "I want mummy." At this point, I wanted to help him know that even if he cried, it did not mean his mummy was going to come any sooner. Again, he continud to cry. I always made it my priority to love this boy while also loving his crying and wanting his words.

While he cried, I felt completely comfortable and kept my energy low. When I offered to help him, I moved slowly as I still wanted to show him that crying really wasn't the most effective way to communicate. As he continued to cry, I took my energy off of him and decided, he wanted this time to cry and when he was ready he would let me know. This amazing child cried for nearly thrity minutes and then, he decided he was through. He looked at me and said (without crying) "I want a hug." At this moment, I jumped up and clebrated him for telling me what he wanted so clearly and gave him a gigantic hug. The child then proceeded to list nearly six different things he wanted-WITHOUT CRYING!

I believe this boy learned that crying really slows down the process of getting what he wants from people and from the rest of the world-He was given a huge reaction and celebration when he spoke using his words, and when he cried, there was no reaction.
I believe he became inspired to use his words.

So sit back and experiment with feeling really essy with crying

Have fun!
Love, Amanda

Do it Yourself!

FROM SIMONE - There are several recurrent themes in Parents discussions in terms of difficulties they encounter in running a Son-Rise Program or any lifestyle change for their children. The most popular ones are "My child does not eat vegetables", "I can't find volunteers for my Program" and many others.

One thing I have asked myself and made a world of difference was how much of the things my child was not willing to try or other people were not willing to do I was willing to try or do myself?

I took the principle of joining, checking for myself how my child felt doing what he did, doing it for myself and expanded it to all aspects of my life. I noticed perhaps he wasn't trying the new healthy toothpaste because it tasted gross, I was still using my ordinary toothpaste, how would I know? I changed to another still natural one but that tasted so much better and all of a sudden the tooth brushing issues disappeared.

I started the Specific Carbohydrate diet myself and apart from being able to troubleshoot when something is difficult to digest, has a texture that is hard to munch or simply doesn't taste nice I also gave my son an example that those foods must be nice as I was eating them too. I also lost weight, got more energy and solved lots of health issues I took for granted.

Volunteers! I was driving them away and never noticed. I was treating working with my son as a favour they were doing to me while I was giving them nothing in return. When I volunteered myself I realised how fun and rewarding it was and our relationship reached a totally different level.

In short, for everything you expect other people to do, specially your child, do it yourself first, and you feel first hand if what you are asking is feasible, if needs adjusting or discarding.

I'll never forget when I had my first English Teacher training course (I taught English to Brazilians), instead of our Teacher, a Japanese guy entered the classroom speaking Japanese for half an hour, no translations, he just carried on and we couldn't follow a thing. After half an hour the real Teacher came in and said to us, "I just wanted you to feel like your students will do in their first class". I have never forgotten that lesson and I carry that teaching throughout my life in everything I do, I do it myself.

A Poem for Sydney : A Chapter from the Son-Rise Program

From : Brandi Davis

Your love set fire to the sky
like a dove trailing flames in the wind.
Like an angel striking her torch in the morning
so that the sun may find its way in.

Like evening kissing the noon
while shaking hands with the yawning night.
Her hands sprouted roots to the moon
while beneath her fingertips the stars did ignite.

And I knew her lessons would guide me
far beyond my wisdom and time.
I was sure that her words would speak to me
loud and clear through her beautiful mind.

Because possibilities are born every moment
like jewels being dropped at our feet.
She smashed rocks with a smile just to show me
that diamonds shine beneath our streets of concrete.

ISMS

 From Kate Wilde:

This week we have the most wonderful 6 year old boy with Autism attending The Son-Rise Program Intensive.

He is so smart! I watched him this morning ism away. He was sitting on a green therapy ball looking at himself in the mirror as he ever so gently bounced up and down. With each bounce he would move a shoulder up and down. All the time admiring his beauty, giving himself the biggest most delicious smiles, with the occasional chuckle.

I couldn't help but think how wonderful it would be if each of us spent a few minutes each day admiring ourselves in this way, offering ourselves our own smiles and laughter.  I think our inner world would become a happier place.

Sending you smiles, chuckles and gentle bounces.
With love
Kate

Letting Go

FROM WILLIAM: When people say “Just let go” what exactly are they talking about. When I say to myself whilst in the middle of a challenging or difficult situation “just let go” what am I telling myself to do?

I normally say this to myself when I am tense, anxious, upset etc. I am encouraging myself to be relaxed and at ease with the situation I am currently getting myself unhappy about. I am asking myself to let go of my unhappiness. It’s interesting, the phrase “just let go – relax, be easy” suggests that in some way I am holding on, attaching myself to my unhappiness. I believe I choose how I feel. I also believe that when I become aware that I am unhappy that I can choose to let go of (discard, shed, etc.) my unhappiness. So letting go is definitely an option for me.

If I continue to stay unhappy (anxious, sad, frustrated, etc.) then I am doing the opposite of letting go, I am holding on. In fact I must want to hold on to my unhappiness. During those times I must have a greater trust in being unhappy as a way to solve my challenges and difficulties, hence the continuing to hold on and not letting go.

In order to let go I have to dig a little deep in helping myself – now I remind myself of what occurs when I am unhappy – my body is tense, my blood pressure increases, I am less creative, the emotion does not feel good, I am less loving to others, I am less inviting to be with, etc. I also remind myself about why being happy is more useful – my body is relaxed, I am more open, I am more creative and flexible, I am more loving with the people around me, I am more inviting to others, I may not get what I want be I can still be happy (easy, at peace, enthusiastic, joyful, etc). Being clear about the impact of unhappiness and happiness on my life helps me in my decision to let go.

Think of an unhappiness you have and let go of it and trust that being happy will be more useful to you and everyone around you. It also feels good to not hold on to unhappiness.

Love and smiles

William

Time Travel Game

From Kate Wilde:

The Autism Treatment Center of America brings you yet another great game to play with your child.Travel back in time to dance with Dinosaurs, or talk with King Arther. Fly into the future and see who is running the country in 2050, or whether we still exist in the year 4 thousand.

This fun game will help your child not only with their imagination skills, and the concept of past, present and future, but will also encourage them to physically participate.

Have fun!!!!