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Our Son-Rise Journey

Why We Are Grateful

14/11/29 at 3.57pm   /   by sdcarlson   /   0 Comment

Grateful Image

In the spirit of the holiday, I thought this quote represented so much of our family’s journey with autism and specifically what Son-Rise has taught us about our life with our special child.  To see the beauty in our son and to celebrate him for who he is and what he brings to our life and the lives of those around us has been the most unexpected blessing of this whole journey.  It has enlightened us two-fold:  one in the overall beauty of our relationship with our child and two with the realization of the love and support we have from family and friends.

So point one:  The amount of weight lifted off of us when we were able to just breathe and realize that we COULD and SHOULD first and foremost just enjoy and celebrate our sweet boy was amazing.  Just that alone immediately enriched the quality of our time spent with him.  Instead of focusing so much energy and time into, “How do we fix this?”, we are able to see the beauty of him as he is.  As a result of just this realization, we have witnessed so much growth in our son and in turn our acceptance and love alone has enriched our closeness and bond with him as well.

Point two:  Opening ourselves up to needing others or even just admitting the need for other’s help was the most difficult part of this Son-Rise journey for us.  It’s a vulnerability that we really struggled with sharing.  The most beautiful part of allowing this to happen though was the fact that so many friends and family not only helped us financially, but we also received so many cards, beautiful encouraging notes, prayer and support in our journey with our son.  So many people have also shared with us countless stories of how Lucas has touched their lives (stories of which we would’ve been completely unaware of had we not taken this path).  It is also something else entirely to be able to see the beauty of your child through other people’s eyes.

So, above all, our sweet boy has taught us so much more about life, love and acceptance than I think we are ever going to be able to teach him. He has taught us how to see the world through love and to be thankful for each and every moment that love brings.  We are thankful for each one of you and for our volunteers who put their own valuable time into loving and accepting our child.  We couldn’t do it without all of you!

What a learning experience!

14/11/23 at 9.27pm   /   by sdcarlson   /   0 Comment

This week we were fortunate enough to have a Son-Rise child facilitator come and play with Lucas!  These are people who have been trained at the Autism Treatment Center of America (logging thousands of playtime hours with children from the U.S. and across the world) to “play” with your child and show/share with you techniques, games, and ideas to add more value to your time in the playroom.  This in turn will help your child connect more.  More connections mean more opportunities for them to grow socially.

It was truly inspiring to watch the awesome interactions that took place with Lucas and our facilitator.  She was so fluid and easy in her movement and interactions, it was truly humbling……but so very exciting!!  We were able to tape the sessions to share with our volunteers and this will definitely help take our program to another level with him.

We know that we have a long way to go to be at our facilitator’s level of engagement but this alone made us so much more inspired by the power of this program.  If Lucas has been meeting the goals and engaging with us the way he has in our learning stages, we know that there is no limit to what will be accomplished as we get stronger as a team.

So here is a video of Susan, our child facilitator, working on a goal that we had been working on for the second week.  The goal was to encourage Lucas to make simple gestures upon request (nodding head yes or no, shrugging shoulders, clapping, etc.).  We were particularly having a hard time getting Lucas to nod yes (up and down).  Until Lucas began pointing while communicating last month (this emerged without it even being a goal I might happily add), gestures were not even on the radar for him.  Yes was particularly difficult for us as a team though.  We had tried physically moving his head up and down to show him the movement, doing just an up movement then a down movement, modeling the movement, etc.  So I asked Susan to attempt it for us so we could try some other avenues.  Ha!  Joke was on me…Susan went right in there and got like 8 yes nods in 10 minutes so effortlessly.  Very cool to see and such a great experience to watch.  So enjoy!

http://sonrisewithlucas.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Susan-nod-head.wmv

 

 

 

So Many Developments!

14/11/17 at 12.13am   /   by sdcarlson   /   0 Comment

photo

Our volunteers are now running full 2-hour sessions on their own!  They are doing fabulously, and there have been so many developments as a result of Lucas getting so much QUALITY time in the playroom.  I’m just going to talk about one of them today.

So regarding the picture above:

This is our daughter’s playroom.  Lucas has never had any interest in being in this room or any room like it…unless it had electronics of course (a wonderful way for our kids to tune out the outside world).  Lately, we keep finding him there exploring the toys.  Some pretext..Lucas has never had an interest in toys in general outside of chewing on them or lining them up.   Another challenge is that he has always seen an object for what it was…a block was a block, a chair was a chair, etc.  There was absolutely no imagination in what an object “could be.”

So I’m cleaning in the kitchen and I hear noise out of my daughter’s playroom and look to my right and my daughter is next to me.  Of course curious what Lucas is getting into now,  I walk toward the playroom and see him standing like he is in the picture.  He looks up at me so proud of himself and says, “I built a tower!”  Not only is he playing, of his own volition I might add, but using nonconventional items to build a tower.

I was in complete awe and disbelief.  In the Sonrise playroom, all the toys promote imagination, and “we” the team are the ones who make these toys so many different things to show Lucas that we can have so much fun with pretty much any object.  This is such a HUGE development that he is doing this on his own.  I don’t even know how to convey to you how big this is for our Lucas or any child on the spectrum for that matter.

I can’t tell you how many countless hours I spent in ABA the last 2 years trying to do this very same thing (create an interest in playing, using imagination, etc.) to no avail.  It was so robotic and scripted.  I want to remind you that we have been playing for only 2 months and we have social accomplishments coming at us left and right…..Things we aren’t even working on.  I can tell you from experience….this DOES NOT HAPPEN naturally with a child on the spectrum….at least not in our previous experiences.  IT IS happening though through the Sonrise program and for the first time it is fun and so effortless.  The awesome thing is that my son is connecting and loving being in that Sonrise room.  He asks to be in there.

So, I could write a book on all of our accomplishments this past week, but I really wanted to appropriately convey to you all what a difference this program is making in our lives and the life of our very special child.  These are huge changes that we are seeing and we just feel so blessed to have had all of your support!

 

Not Just a Quote

14/11/10 at 1.14am   /   by sdcarlson   /   0 Comment

“When our children are with someone who is uncomfortable or agitated, they perceive it as a threat.  As a result, they either become more withdrawn or behave with more aggressiveness and tantrums.  When, on the other hand, our children are in the presence of someone who is relaxed, comfortable, welcoming, and truly nonjudgmental, they perceive this as safe and inviting.  They respond more, engage more, display more flexibility, and connect more.”

-From “Autism Breakthrough” by Raun K. Kaufman CEO of Autism Treatment Center of America

 

So how does this relate to our Lucas?  Well, at our last team meeting Lucas not only hung out with the crowd (our volunteers), he loved being the center of attention!  Keep in mind this is the same Lucas who has never enjoyed any of his birthday gatherings, which all seemed too overwhelming to him.  Yet when surrounded by people he’s gotten to know and trust, he sat in the middle of everyone on the couch and just smiled for most of our team meeting, with a little holding of the hand with one of his volunteers for a good portion of the time.

As he continues to make significant progress, Luke is gaining more skills along with trust from each and every one of his volunteers!  Thanks guys and gals.  I can now happily say “guys and gals” as we welcome our newest volunteer Carter, who seems like a natural with Lucas!  Also at our last team meeting we discussed what’s been working for each person and swapped best practices.  Everyone brought different ideas to the table and I can truly say we are all learning from one another and our most important teacher….Lucas!

 

Continuing to make connections and having fun in the process!

14/11/03 at 12.11am   /   by sdcarlson   /   0 Comment
http://sonrisewithlucas.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Jenny-fun-bounce.wmv

So I just love this video of this volunteer and Lucas having a blast!  He is truly just enjoying himself and loving interacting, which has always been such a struggle in the past.  With all of Lucas’ medical issues on top of his autism, it is such a blessing for us to see him day after day, hour after hour feeling so carefree and joyful when he is playing in this room.  And as I have said before, we are seeing this also carry and spill over into his life outside of our Sonrise playroom.

Our Sonrise family is continually growing and so is Lucas’ social connections with each person that walks into this room.  They all give him their nonjudgmental, open, loving, and accepting attitudes in just “being” and playing with our sweet boy.  Lucas is beginning to see the value of human relationships and friendships and this program and the people in it have been such a gift to us and to him.  A gift we can’t put into words or repay.

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  • Featured Post -The Dreamers and the Doers (Our 18-month Son-rise Progress Update)
  • Why Son-Rise?
  • What is the Son-Rise Program?
  • What’s it all about (A Video Presentation)
  • History of Son-Rise
  • Fox News Interview with Raun Kaufman – CEO
  • Stories of Recovery
  • Pictures of Lucas
  • Meet Our Team
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