Pieces of Us: Cha, Cha, Cha, Changes!!!!

I am currently in Massachusetts at the Autism Treatment Center of America. I am receiving training on the Son-Rise program. I have a lot of people as me what the Son-Rise program is. Well the Son-Rise program was developed by two loving parents in the late 1970's to help their autistic son. The therapy is loving and respectful to the child that has meaning and purpose that is NOT academically based. The focus is on communication and social skills. You join your child is his world and then run with it. For instance Hayden likes to shake his cars by his ear and look at the car with his peripheral vision. I then get a car and do the same motion to engage him. Then you work with him from there. I don't have the energy to go into every detail at this moment :)

We are in the process of converting our sun room into a therapy room for Hayden. The therapy room will be a non-distracting environment so it is easy for Hayden to want to focus on who is working with him. It will have a mirror, therapy ball, trampoline, and a table in chairs. There will be shelves high up on the walls that will contain work and snacks that Hayden is interested in. The purpose of them being out of Hayden's reach is so that he has to communicate with us to get what he wants.

The plan is to be in the therapy room as much as possible. I would like for Hayden to be in the therapy room for at least 8 hours a day and when possible 12 hours a day. That means we are going to need help!!! I already have some amazing people that have stepped up and offered to help with Hayden or watch Ruby so we can work with Hayden. We need more volunteers!!!! If yourself or know of someone that would be interested in working with Hayden or watching Ruby please let me know ASAP!! Unfortunately we can not afford to pay anyone at this time.

The requirements are to have an open mind, be a positive person, and have energy. You also can not have any cigarette smoke on you (Hayden is allergic). I will teach you how to provide therapy to Hayden and you truly need to stick with what I teach you for it to work. There will be an observation window into the therapy room so that I can observe and others can observe me to provide feedback. You can volunteer for an hour a week or several hours a week. This person can be 10 years of age to 100 years of age.

If I am hopeful that we can start an 80 hour week therapy program for Hayden!!! I am going to be taking Hayden out of school.....wow I said it. I firmly believe that this is what needs to be done at this time. We need to use every opportunity of the day to work with Hayden. We can't do that when we are wasting 2 hours driving to school and 3 hours at school.