Autism Treatment Center of America Forum

[Patricia Logan]

Hi to all SonRise parents everywhere!

My name is Patricia Logan and I have been running my SonRise programme for my son Oscar for the last five and half years. When Oscar was diagnosed with severe autism at the age of two, I didn't know what to do, who to turn to for help, or how I would ever cope with Oscar and all his aggressive behaviours, isms and many other autistic traits, including no speech and rocking all day long. By complete luck I saw Raun Kaufman on a tv show and, completely blown away by the remarkable story of his recovery from autism, I immediately phoned the autism treatment centre of america and signed up to the startup programme in UK in January 2005. This five day course was to change my life profoundly. After the starup programme I not only knew this was how I wanted to help Oscar, I had the most important tool of all - HOPE.

Seven months later I returned to England to attend maximum impact - wow! I now not only had the knowledge of how to help Oscar, I also had the ATTITUDE! SonRise taught me to just have fun with Oscar, join him in his world, let go of any judgements or feelings of frustration when he ismed, and to be in the present instead of worrying about what Oscar may or may not be able to do. Now, I know you have all heard this stuff before and this is why I am writing to encourage you all, whereever you and your child are on your programme. As I mentioned before, I have been sonrising Oscar for over five years. He is doing AMAZING - more on that later. I was so excited to get my programme up and running, to find volunteers, to go in the room and get Oscar better just the way Bears and Samahria had done years before with Raun! well! as you will know, finding volunteers isn't always easy - some stay, some go, some don't understand the importance of joining etc;. I think it's 35 people who have worked for varying lengths of time on our programme. There were days on my programme that I had no helpers, days that I was so, so tired from the intensity of joining Oscar with his isms, which included running up and down for 30min intervals, rocking on the floor for hours, reading him the same story with enery and excitment for the 13th time in a row, playing dinosaurs for hours and hours every day for months and years! boy, Oscar was making progress in all areas but some days I just worried that maybe he would always be autistic, maybe he would never play with anything other than dinosaurs, maybe he would always have to talk about dinosaurs and not ever be interested in me or his dad or sister, maybe he would only ever eat 4 foods, maybe he would end up in a special home if he kept biting people - maybe, maybe, maybe. Have you done this? My wonderful SonRise teacher Gerd kept me sane with my telephone consultations throughout the past five years. I was taught to love and accept Oscar and to be with him in that moment, to stop judging anything he did as good or bad and to "enjoy what is" in the room. Do you know that when you can sincerely do this, you have sooo much fun! Because you don't feel you have to go into the room to get your child to do something you feel they should do, it takes the pressure completely away! There should be no feeling of being under pressure in the playroom! Your child will know if you are chilled and really accepting them and having a great time. They will also know when you are pretending to be o.k with their ism or "TRAIN", "DINOSAUR", "DR WHO" game. In the last five years, I have cried, laughed, worried but most of all my hope for Oscar has kept my programme alive. Oscar has become the most amazing kid! He is starting school (mainstream) in September. He is the most incredible chatterbox, he talks to us about the most incredible subjects, he is interested in everything. The dinosaurs are hardly ever played with now. He loves to be with other kids, adores funfairs and the cinema, has birthday parties at those huge indoor kids' clubs, and adores the Christmas pantomime. We had our first family holiday to London in May this year. He loved the airport and plane, was fascinated by the underground tubes, and even visited his dream place - the natural history museum. We are so excited by Gerd's recent outreach that we just know that Oscar can go the whole way! it's now up to him.

Nothing is impossible when you have hope. Just go for what you want with your child, believe in them and please remember to celebrate yourself as well.

Lots of love to you all.
Patricia xxxxx

[SimoneTaylorLoosh]

Hi Patricia I was in the same Start-Up and Maximum Impact as you were and have also been running our Program for 5 and 1/2 years, lovely to hear your story thanks for sharing!

Love,
Simone

[Patricia Logan]

Hi Patricia I was in the same Start-Up and Maximum Impact as you were and have also been running our Program for 5 and 1/2 years, lovely to hear your story thanks for sharing!

Love,
Simone

Simone, lovely to hear from you. I hope your programme is going well. Where does the time go?
We've made a 20 minute video showing Oscar's progress on his programme. Please see:
http://www.xconsultants.com/SonRise/SonRise.html

Thanks,
Patricia

[Son-Rise4Wales]

Hi Patricia,

I met you at the Start-Up in Enfield and Max Impact in Coventry. We are still running our programme for our son Philip (nearly 9).

I found your video upsetting to watch, and I felt deeply hurt for several days. I am so delighted for you for Oscar's recovery, but we had hoped to be in the same place with Philip by now.

I have many regrets: we were afraid to spend any money, so we didn't use any outreaches or phone consults, and consequently, we really spent the first couple of years 'doing it wrong' - I didn't understand joining, and I didn't even know there were such things as building and requesting. We struggled for the first 3 years trying to recruit and train volunteers, but they kept leaving, and we rarely managed to give Philip even 10 hours a week in the playroom.

In 2007, we went to Tribunal with our LEA to try to get funding for Philip's programme, so that we could afford to pay people to play with him. We lost on the grounds that 'if parents are making suitable arrangements, the LEA is relieved of its duty to arrange the provision in the statement'. Our expenses in hiring a lawyer, educational psychologist, speech and language therapist and occupational therapist, amounted to £15,000. It was everything we had, and we nearly lost our home.

In October 2008, our daughter, Sophie, was born. She has been an endless source of joy to us, and the best decision I ever made in my life. When she was born, my key worker at social services decided I needed more help, and increased my Direct Payments benefit. For the first time, we had regular income coming in which we could spend on Philip's programme. I hired and trained 2 people in the summer of 2009, 2 in early 2010, and have just finished training 2 others. We also have Barbara Balla (Son-Rise child facilitator) come and work with Philip every 3 months for 2 days. For the past 3 months, we have finally (after 5 1/2 years) been able to give Philip 40 hours a week in the playroom, and we have truly been able to see measurable progress. My benefit covers around a 3rd of the cost of this; we are remortgaging our home to pay for the rest.

When we started our programme, Philip had no eye contact; he couldn't speak; he couldn't feed himself; he didn't play with toys - he didn't know toys existed; he couldn't hold an object in his hands for any length of time; he couldn't communicate and had no desire to communicate. He was likely an empty shell.

Today, he can dress himself; he is potty trained; during interactions, his eye contact is indistinguishable from a neurotypical child. He offers us and his play workers kisses. He can interact for up to an hour. He uses speech-like sounds to communicate and is learning some gestures. Remarkably, most of this progress, he has achieved in the past 3 months while we have been able to give him 40 hours a week.

Your video was upsetting to me because if Philip had recovered by now, I could be spending my time helping the other autistic children that my LEA has dumped in a terrible autism unit where, for example, some children (who can walk) are strapped to wheel chairs to stop them from moving about. I don't mind if we still have to run our programme for Philip for another 5 years. I know he can recover; I still have that conviction (even though I love him just the way he is, of course). But, I want the world to know that Son-Rise is amazing and that it works. I just wish that I had Philip's recovery so that I could convince my LEA to let me run Son-Rise Programs for all those other kids.

Patricia, I'd love to know how you managed to sustain a 40 hour a week programme for 5 1/2 years and if you did any other interventions for Oscar. We've been doing biomed for around 3 years, the GAPS diet for the last 12 months and are just starting homeopathy and osteopathy with him.

Finally, thank you so much for posting Oscar's recovery. I can 'dialogue' my pain, and instead I feel full of hope all over again.

Your journey with Oscar's programme has come to an end; ours with Philip is really just beginning, but we will get there, and we will love journey.

much love,
Anna

[Elisa]

Hi Patricia, I just wanted to let you know that Oscar's recovery video is such an inspiration to me. I have shown it to all my volunteers and friends and they have all been amazed by his progress.
Hats off to you and your amazing team but most of all to your incredible boy who has truly taken the road less traveled on his wonderful journey.