Autism Treatment Center of America Forum

[MacaNocquet]

Hi! I am sonrise volunteer in Argentina. I wanna ask you about my godson Santiago, who have six years old and lives here. Santy has down syndrome and he is not autistic. He doesn't say so much words and he isn't very flexible with the meals. He is very sweet and lovely, and he really wants to comunicate with other people. He already created he's own lenguage. He doesn't have isms or repetitive activities, so i don't know how join him.

My question is: How can we apply the sonrise program with Santi? There is something specific we have to know or to have in count to do the program with him?


With Love!

[BeckyDamgaard]

Hello,

We are excited to offer you support! How wonderful that you are a a volunteer and are now also looking to help your God Son!

Yes, you can absolutely apply The Son-Rise Program attitude and techniques to Santiago. You have already expressed that he has challenges in language and flexibility and these areboth very important social skills. You can use his motivations to help him with these things. Spending time one on one with him for a couple of hours at time will be the way to also track how he uses his eye contact, non verbal communication and how he plays. Perhaps here are other things to help him with that will present themselves once you start playing his games or introducing your own games.

Once you have played with him a couple of times, please write back to us and let us know how it goes. Once you are clear of his challenges then we can help even further.

Warm regards,