Autism Treatment Center of America Forum

[Benjaminady]

This week our SonRise team has the most amazingly brilliant time at our team meeting. We had planned to watch some video of ourselves and do some group feedback. At the last minute, however, the hard drive with the digital video on it refused to boot up. So mom and dad, super awesome team leaders that they are, improvised something else.

They got out a box of toys, and had us each choose a partner, and then we took turns with our partner either being autistic or being the child facilitator. The facilitator was to choose a toy from a box of toys, and see if they could think of different crazy things the toy could be, games to play with it, etc--to be as interesting as possible with the toy. We went for two minutes and then switched roles.

A couple of us, when doing the role of autistic child, got a little carried away completely ignoring our facilitator and isming with gusto and joy. We were (of course) using the actual isms of our awesome little autistic guy. He happened to actually be there in the room, and he was looking on with great fascination and then he got really excited and starting joining *us* as we were isming. It was amazing, and we all ended up laughing together uproariously. Afterwards we had a talk about it, and the general concensus was how amazingly free and lovely it felt to just ism.

We all agreed it rocked that the hard drive had broken, as we had enjoyed the team meeting *so* much.

[CarolinaKaiser]

Wow - what a wonderful story! This sounds like such a special night for all of you. I love your willingness to improvise, your playfulness in creating your activities, and your passion for the ism. Hooray, hooray, hooray! It's so special to hear that you gained such a deep appreciation for the ism - and I'm sure that your son will be feeling the awesome impact of your joining in the weeks to come. It's amazing how whenever you enjoy the ism with all of your heart and soul, children take notice and want to interact. We see it happen again and again and again. We're all cheering you on - have fun enjoying the ism!

Warmest wishes,
Carolina