The Son-Rise Program is the most EFFECTIVE, respectful, fulfilling, and LOVING "therapy" we know of period! We are so blessed to have found this program and the Option Institute. It has changed our lives 1000% for the better!
The Son-Rise Program®
"Son-Rise is a powerful, effective and totally unique treatment for children and adults challenged by Autism, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD), Asperger’s Syndrome and other developmental difficulties. It offers highly effective educational techniques, strategies and principles for designing, implementing and maintaining a stimulating one-on-one, home-based, child-centered program. The Son-Rise Program enables dramatic improvement in all areas of learning, development, communication and skill acquisition through gentle, caring and child-centered activities." (Gerd Winkler, Son-Rise Program Senior Teacher ~ Kauai, Hawaii)
We would love for you to hear it directly from the source. Please watch this video introduction to The Son-Rise Program, narrated by Bears and Samahria Kaufman, co-founders of the Option Institute and creators of The Son-Rise Program.
(If the video is too small to watch, you can zoom in with your Internet Explorer browser by selecting Page>Zoom>200%, but don't forget to set the Zoom back to 100% after the video ends.)
For more information, please visit the Autism Treatment Center of America website or call (877)766-7473 to schedule a free consultation where you can ask specific questions about your child.
**Note: If you are interested in taking the Son-Rise Program Start-Up class, you can receive an immediate $350 scholarship by mentioning we referred you. After you complete your Start-Up training class, we will also get a partial scholarship to an advanced course for referring you. Yay for all of us!
We would love for you to hear it directly from the source. Please watch this video introduction to The Son-Rise Program, narrated by Bears and Samahria Kaufman, co-founders of the Option Institute and creators of The Son-Rise Program.
(If the video is too small to watch, you can zoom in with your Internet Explorer browser by selecting Page>Zoom>200%, but don't forget to set the Zoom back to 100% after the video ends.)
For more information, please visit the Autism Treatment Center of America website or call (877)766-7473 to schedule a free consultation where you can ask specific questions about your child.
**Note: If you are interested in taking the Son-Rise Program Start-Up class, you can receive an immediate $350 scholarship by mentioning we referred you. After you complete your Start-Up training class, we will also get a partial scholarship to an advanced course for referring you. Yay for all of us!
WHAT MAKES SON-RISE UNIQUE AND EFFECTIVE?
The People Who Empowered Us - The Incredible Creators and Teachers of the Son-Rise Program at the ATCA
The Son-Rise Program is based on a really different way of working with kids. It is very child-centered and different from many traditional ways we learn to help our children on the autism spectrum.
One of the ways we start is, our children show us the way IN and we show them the way OUT. Everyone is usually focused on the second part, but we really believe it is essential to cross the bridge into their world first. Rather than trying to force our children to conform to a world that they don’t understand, we want to start by understanding their world to see what they find fascinating, by entering their universe, so we can create a relationship with them. We do this because we see autism, not as a behavioral disorder, but as a relational-social disorder, which is really, a difficulty in creating relationships and interactions with other people.
We want to help our children form a relationship with us, and we want them to want to form a relationship, not just because they have to do it, to get us “out of their face”. So we start by joining them in their world. This is best accomplished by genuinely joining our children when they are doing their “stims” or “isms”. These "isms" can be defined by any activity or behavior our child is doing that is exclusive and repetitive, (i.e. running back and forth, spinning objects, talking about a subject in circles, repeating lines from a movie).
For example from our home: our son often picks up his crayons, holds them above his head and sprinkles them to the ground through his fingertips while watching them fall, over and over again. When we are with him, we will sit at a comfortable distance to him, within his view, at or below his eye level, and begin to sprinkle our own crayons in front of our eyes. We will join him like this, loving him, accepting him, and not judging him for as long as it takes, until he decides to begin to make a connection with us.
This is often thought of as imitating or mimicking our child’s behaviors, but really a better word is joining them because we are genuinely enjoying the activity and focusing on seeing what he sees, accepting him, and truly understanding his interests and his world -- in essence he becomes our teacher.
This is in stark contrast to artificially imitating or mimicking him where the intention might be that we are just doing this in order to get him to stop and finally do what we want him to do.
- A joining thought might be, “wow, this is fascinating, look how the crayons are blurred as I drop them and stare straight
out, far beyond, the actual crayons, it’s actually quite beautiful.”
- An imitating or mimicking thought might be, “okay, I’m doing what you’re doing, I feel silly doing it but I’m doing it so now you
should pay attention to me and do what I want you to do…this is ridiculous…”
One of the ways we start is, our children show us the way IN and we show them the way OUT. Everyone is usually focused on the second part, but we really believe it is essential to cross the bridge into their world first. Rather than trying to force our children to conform to a world that they don’t understand, we want to start by understanding their world to see what they find fascinating, by entering their universe, so we can create a relationship with them. We do this because we see autism, not as a behavioral disorder, but as a relational-social disorder, which is really, a difficulty in creating relationships and interactions with other people.
We want to help our children form a relationship with us, and we want them to want to form a relationship, not just because they have to do it, to get us “out of their face”. So we start by joining them in their world. This is best accomplished by genuinely joining our children when they are doing their “stims” or “isms”. These "isms" can be defined by any activity or behavior our child is doing that is exclusive and repetitive, (i.e. running back and forth, spinning objects, talking about a subject in circles, repeating lines from a movie).
For example from our home: our son often picks up his crayons, holds them above his head and sprinkles them to the ground through his fingertips while watching them fall, over and over again. When we are with him, we will sit at a comfortable distance to him, within his view, at or below his eye level, and begin to sprinkle our own crayons in front of our eyes. We will join him like this, loving him, accepting him, and not judging him for as long as it takes, until he decides to begin to make a connection with us.
This is often thought of as imitating or mimicking our child’s behaviors, but really a better word is joining them because we are genuinely enjoying the activity and focusing on seeing what he sees, accepting him, and truly understanding his interests and his world -- in essence he becomes our teacher.
This is in stark contrast to artificially imitating or mimicking him where the intention might be that we are just doing this in order to get him to stop and finally do what we want him to do.
- A joining thought might be, “wow, this is fascinating, look how the crayons are blurred as I drop them and stare straight
out, far beyond, the actual crayons, it’s actually quite beautiful.”
- An imitating or mimicking thought might be, “okay, I’m doing what you’re doing, I feel silly doing it but I’m doing it so now you
should pay attention to me and do what I want you to do…this is ridiculous…”
Incredible time spent with Raun Kaufman at the AutismOne/Generation Rescue Conference in Chicago 2011
Bears Kaufman, Raun Kaufman, Samahria Kaufman with Jackie !
