Posted By A Son-Rise Message Board Participant on October 15, 1999 at 00:42:38:
I want to thank all of you for the wonderful input you gave me on how I should handle my feelings about my meeting with the hostile professor. Your thoughts really made such a difference. After much thought about the input, I decided to take this as a message that I should begin recruiting a younger crowd. Our current desire for additions to Curtis' program is energetic people who can help him continue to expand his play skills and ability to hold conversations with people closer to his age. Who better to help with that than teenagers? I plan to talk to various high schools, scouting groups and church youth groups. I have even discovered some funding assistance for this should I decide to pay. Thank you so much for the input which led me in this direction!
Although I have decided not to continue recruiting students from that particular university for the time being, I still felt the desire to leave the hostile professor with my thoughts. The rough draft of the letter I plan to send him is below for anyone curious. If anyone has any thoughts on this or suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Thanks again for all of your great ideas and thoughts! Gaylen
I want to thank you for taking the time a few weeks ago to share your views about autism treatments with me. Although I was surprised and confused by the hostile manner in which you chose to share your beliefs, I do appreciate your honesty. I feel that I now have a clearer understanding of at least part of the background UTA psychology students are being given. If I choose to continue offering my program to UTA students, this knowledge will allow me to be more effective with the training I provide them.
I would also like to apologize for any confusion that may have arisen from the line on the flyer that stated "college credit is possible." This statement was in no way trying to over-ride your authority or mislead any students. In the four years that I have been running a program, I have always left it up to the students to get approval for such credit through their universities and then cooperate in providing the necessary paperwork and evaluations. I have worked with numerous universities in this way and have never had an occasion where a student was denied credit. Given your discomfort with this line and the fact that most of my best volunteers do not participate for college credit, I will leave this off of flyers I post at your university in the future.
Finally, I would like to end our communication on a positive note and offer my services to any of your students who wish to learn more about autism. Over the past five years, I have spent nearly 10,000 hours working one-on-one with my child and other autistic children, training therapists and helping families of special-needs children determine the most effective methods of helping their children. In addition, I have spent countless hours researching various treatments, theories and therapies. My knowledge and experience includes the National Academy of Child Development's Neurodevelopmental Program, Applied Behavioral Analysis, Behavior Modification, the Options Son-Rise program, Stanley Greenspan's Play Therapy, Sensory Integration Therapy, Music Therapy, Brain Gym, Occupational Therapy and various Biomedical Treatments. All of these therapies have their merits and can be very effective depending on the individual child's challenges and needs.
Given your experience with autism, I'm sure you are aware that all of the research and progress in this field is still very new and limited. We are in an exciting time as more children are emerging, yet at a time where so many questions still go unanswered and needed research does not have proper funding. My hope is that one day parents and professionals will have a very clear idea of how to blend therapies to form the most effective programming for each different manifestation of autism. We can see this already beginning as some of the most effective ABA programs are now bringing play therapy into the mix. I have enclosed a listing of the resources I have found the most helpful in my search to help my son. I wish you all the best in your effort to train those who will one day help our special children.
Sincerely,
Gaylen A. Tharp
Son-Rise
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