A 5-day group training program for parents, relatives and professionals looking to facilitate meaningful progress or recovery in their children challenged by Autism, Autism Spectrum Disorders, PDD, Asperger's Syndrome and other related developmental difficulties.

This initial training course is a prerequisite to The Son-Rise Program® Intensive and will provide you with the skills you need in 5 overall areas:

• Creating a warm, playful rapport and connection between you and your child, and with other family members, friends and teachers.
• Building your child's communication, social interaction and enjoyment of people.
• Increasing your child's motivation and cooperation.
• Utilizing effective teaching techniques to enable your child to achieve specific educational goals.
• Being the most effective facilitator and/or program director that you can be by creating and sustaining an attitude of hope and optimism, staying focused and inspired, and taking care of yourself.

The Son-Rise Program® Start-Up is designed to help those with children of varying ages, from 18 months through 60 years, with a wide range of diagnoses and challenges.

Exciting, inspiring and diverse presentations by a group of seasoned and dedicated teachers, will deliver to you the skills, motivation and knowledge honed through years of working with thousands of families and children.

Among this program's instructors are senior teachers, Bryn and William Hogan, who had their own daughter on the Autism Spectrum. Through The Son-Rise Program®, they enabled her to recover from her former condition.

• Cherished for who they are rather than judged or pitied for who they are not.
• Joined in their world first, instead of being forced to conform to a world they don't yet understand.
• Provided with a learning environment where they feel safe and secure, where they feel a sense of control, and where they are free from distraction and over-stimulation.
• Motivated to learn, even when that learning entails stretching to do something that might seem difficult or uncomfortable.
• Involved in a program that prioritizes the enjoyment of parents, friends, and teachers as people over the repetitive completion of tasks.
• Taught with educational methods that capitalize on their interests and abilities while focusing on their deficits and challenges. Taught by people who feel comfortable, inspired, focused and hopeful—and who possess an unflagging belief in their child's capabilities for growth and change.

The Son-Rise Program® Start-Up is recommended for:

• Parents currently running a home-based program that they feel isn't working or has stopped working (i.e., their child's progress has stopped or slowed, or their child has begun to rebel against their program, become more aggressive, etc.).
• Parents who feel stressed out or burned out and are looking to be rejuvenated, revitalized and inspired.
• Parents interested in beginning a full or part-time home-based program.
• Parents who want to work with their child at home after school.
• Family members and volunteers who are supporting parents in their program and want to increase their ability to help these parents and their children.
• Family members and volunteers who are interested in providing support for a parent or a child but aren't sure how to do so.
• Professionals working with children with special needs who want to gain additional powerful tools to incorporate into their school or place of work.

• Helping your child relate to others.
  No matter what level of development your child is at, this program can help you to connect deeply with your child and to build meaningful social interaction. We will show you how to generate within your child a sincere delight in human interaction so that your child initiates communication and interaction. You will learn how to help your child move beyond repetitive “stimming” behaviors without fighting these behaviors (it's easier than you might think). We will give you strategies for increasing eye contact, a pivotal step for learning and interaction. We believe that your child is capable of sincere affection and expressions of joy and caring, and we will show you how to encourage this on an ongoing basis.
  
• Motivating and teaching your child.
  Every child has a right to be educated by someone that believes in him or her. Every parent wants their child to be able to say what he wants, express love and take care of himself. We believe with a certainty that your child can learn if he is highly motivated. In this program, you will learn how to find your child's motivations and interests. You will learn how to turn these into dynamic, customized learning experiences so that your child can learn and acquire the skills necessary for success in school and in life—from using the toilet or increasing attention span to reading a book or cooperating with others.
  
• Speech and language development.
  Regardless of whether your child is using language or not, there are ways we can help you to help your child increase his/her communication skills. You'll learn to implement functional strategies for increasing verbal communication that will help your child interact, make requests and express himself. Whether your “child” is 3 or 23, we do not believe it is ever “too late” for your child to learn to communicate.
  
• Capable leadership of your program.
  If you're like most parents we work with, your life is a juggling act. Having ongoing assistance helps you (by covering hours with your child) and your child (by varying who is teaching your child). In this program, you'll learn how to recruit and train a support team—with confidence. We can help you to utilize continual education, training and community support to maintain your program's effectiveness and success. We will also address everyday issues such as how many hours to run your program, how to vary your child's day and how to adapt your program to meet your family's needs.
  
• Creating an optimal learning environment.
  Your child is capable of great learning in an environment that is comfortable, safe and free from over-stimulation. In this program, we'll show you how to construct an ideal educational environment. We can help you find and filter out nearly all of the most common distractions, many of which you may not even realize are affecting your child's learning. Also, you will learn how to eliminate the push-pull control battles that inhibit useful interactions. We'll show you how to use this special learning environment to maximize your child's development and participation while making your life easier and less chaotic.
  
• Decisive and useful handling of challenging behaviors.
  Every parent and teacher struggles with certain things that their child does. We will teach you how to help your child to find different behaviors and more useful ways of communicating. In addition, you will learn practical techniques for preventing these behaviors before they happen. This makes day-to-day life a lot easier—for you and your child.
  
• Capitalize on day-to-day learning opportunities.
  We can help you to become very effective at teaching your child during everyday activities. Meals, bath time, car rides, bedtime and trips present many opportunities to help your child to learn and grow without taking away from the trip or activity. You'll learn to utilize these experiences for your child's maximum benefit.
  
• Attitudinal training and empowerment.
  For many, having a child with developmental difficulties and running a program to help him/her can feel very challenging. However, we believe that you are the most important force in your child's life. That makes taking care of you—and helping you take care of yourself—a major priority for us. You will have specialized, ongoing instruction in an attitude that feels peaceful, nonjudgmental, optimistic and hopeful. We will inspire you to overcome obstacles that may sometimes feel insurmountable. You will have opportunities to talk through your concerns and find answers. Whether it is stress management or time management, we can help you to care for yourself so that you can best care for your child.

• You will receive a take-home implementation manual as part of the program.
• You will have opportunities to brainstorm and network with other parents and professionals facing similar challenges and walking a similar path.
• Dynamic lectures will give you perspectives and strategies you may never before have considered.
• Interactive activities will give you the chance to practice what you learn, as well as to get to know your classmates.
• You'll watch an eye-opening slide presentation that demystifies your child's seemingly random or confusing behavior.
• Our question and answer sessions will give you the opportunity to get clear answers to your specific questions and to make sure your concerns are addressed.
• You will see The Son-Rise Program® in action through videos of The Son-Rise Program® staff which will both inform and inspire.
• With humor, creativity, multimedia, interactive learning and practical, “real world” instruction, we will provide you with a learning experience like no other—inspiring, energizing and information-packed, yet fun and relaxing.
• You will be truly cared for, listened to, respected and believed in by our teachers.