2080 S. Undermountain Road, Sheffield, MA 01257 1-877-SON-RISE (413)-229-2100

www.autismtreatment.com

•Severe autism

My Diagnosis

• Tested I.Q. of less than 30

• Mute/non-verbal

• No eye contact

• Moved away from any physical contact

• Spent my days performing repetitive behaviors: Spinning plates (and other objects) Rocking back and forth Flapping my hands Moving my fingers in front of my face

•My autism was an irreversible, lifelong condition

My Prognosis

• I would occupy my own separate world for the rest of my life

• Learn to speak• Prefer people over objects• Learn to read or write• Go to a typical school• Laugh at a joke• Go on a date• Have a circle of friends• Drive a car• Have a career• Live on my own• Recover and live a “normal” life

• I would never:

Eventual institutionalization

The Recommendation

In My Own World

•Defied the doomsday prognoses

• Developed their own home-based, child-centered program:

• Worked with me for over 3 years

What Did My Parents Do?

The Son-Rise Program®

The First Son-Rise Program

• Full recovery from autism

The Results

• No trace whatsoever of my former condition

• Went on to live a “typical” life

• Graduated from Brown University with a degree in Biomedical Ethics

Our story was recounted in an NBC

TV movie seen by over 300 million people

worldwide.

My father, Barry Neil Kaufman, wrote the book, Son-Rise

(recently expanded as Son-Rise: The Miracle Continues) documenting our story.

After My Recovery

The Autism Treatment Center of America

A division of The Option Institute, a non-profit, charitable organization Located in Sheffield, Massachusetts

TM

• Our methodology: The Son-Rise Program®

The Autism Treatment Center of America

A division of The Option Institute, a non-profit, charitable organization Located in Sheffield, Massachusetts

TM

• Our children: Challenged by autism, autism spectrum disorders, Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Asperger’s Syndrome, and other developmental difficulties.

• Our program: A system of treatment and education designed to help families and caregivers enable their children to dramatically improve in all areas of learning, development, communication, and skill acquisition.

Professional TRAINING and CERTIFICATION

Child Facilitator CertificationTeaches students to work directly

with children and adults with varying diagnoses

Teacher CertificationTrains students to teach all

aspects of The Son-Rise Program® to parents and

professionals

Facilitate interaction

Jump-start speech and language

development

Deal effectively with tantrums and repetitive “stimming” behaviors

WE TEACH PARENTS AND PROFESSIONALS TO:WE TEACH PARENTS AND PROFESSIONALS TO:

Recruit and train volunteers

Create a special work/playroom for optimal learning

Apply our practical strategies to everyday “real world” situations Create and sustain an attitude of hope and optimism about your

child

The Son-Rise Program START-UPA week-long training program for parents and

professionals

New Coding System Results for Child 1 Applying the new coding protocol illuminated other changes.

Two outcome measures were used. Presented here are data derived from the ADOS (Lord et al, 2002) only. This is a semi-structured series of highly standardised opportunities for interaction designed to elicit social gestures from children. The current published coding protocol is not designed to support the use of the ADOS as an outcome measure. Thus sessions were video recorded and later subjected to an additional coding protocol measuring the child’s social and communicative behaviours to allow for more fine-grained analysis than the diagnostic coding system.

Method16 children with autism whose parents had already chosen to use the Son-Rise Program (and opted to travel to the USA for intensive training) were selected. Children were age 7 or younger, did not have additional diagnoses and were assessed as Module 1 on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) (the lowest functioning level). A mixed between and within-subjects design was employed as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Experimental Design

New Coding System Results for Child 3Child 3 used more varied and frequent types of

communication than Child 1 and so provided greater scope for more in-depth analysis.

Function of Communicative ActsAll communicative acts used by the child were coded as

being one of four possible functions (from Prizant et al, 1993):

Responsive vs. Initiated Communicative ActsWhen the above data were further separated based on

whether the communicative act was either in response to an adult or was spontaneously initiated by the child we see the following:

Interventions for children with Autism:Investigating the Son-Rise Program.

Kat Houghton, Charlie Lewis (Lancaster University, UK) and Cynthia Thompson (Northwestern University, USA)

Background The Son-Rise Program is an autism intervention used in the UK and the US that, in spite of abundant anecdotal data attesting to its efficacy, has not been tested scientifically. Although created without exploiting a specific theoretical model, the program is consistent with “coactive” theories of autism. The social-orienting model of autism (Mundy, 1995) assumes a disturbance in the predilection to spontaneously orient to (and process) social information. This lack of bias to social information impacts how an infant participates in the social environment and subsequent social learning and understanding, including the ability to develop skills of joint attention. Elevated measures of social-orienting and joint attention have been seen to relate to increased language acquisition (Dawson, et al, 2004), social and cognitive outcomes (Sigman & Ruskin, 1999) and processing of social-affective non-verbal information (Diassanyake, Sigman & Kassari, 1996). The Son-Rise Program aims to remediate autism by directly increasing a child’s preference for social engagement.

HypothesisFollowing this theory it was hypothesised that, following an intensive period of Son-Rise Program intervention, children with autism will show an increased preference for social orienting (and possibly joint attention).

To fund one of our 3 studies, e-mail: KatHoughton@taconic.net

DiscussionThese preliminary results suggest that the Son-Rise

Program intervention, as hypothesised, leads to an increase in social orienting and joint attention skills in children with autism. Continued analysis is underway.

ResultsPresented here are the preliminary results from two children only.

ADOS as an Outcome Measure using published Coding System and Diagnostic Algorithms for two study participants.

0

7

12

Child 3

Child 3 showed a positive change in diagnostic classification when sessions were coded with the ADOS coding system. Time 1 (pre-intervention) = 13Time 3 (post-intervention) = 9

Child 1 changed from a score of 20 to19.

Time 1 Time 35-day BASELINE PHASE

Typically developing

ASD Classification

Autism Classification

Using the new coding system an increase in social behaviors can be seen for Child 1. This child used no other types of communication in either test.Child 1

Function Description

Behaviour Regulation (br)

Adult used as a tool to meet child’s demands

Social Interaction (si)

To maintain, or participate in a social routine

Joint Attention (ja)

To share attention about a object or event

Unclear (un) Appears to be a communication but purpose is unclear

Child 3 showed an increase in use of communicative acts for the purposes of behavior regulation and joint attention, and a decrease in use of communicative acts for social interaction or with an unclear purpose.

This shows that the observed increase in communicative acts for the purpose of behaviour regulation can be attributed to events where the child is responding to an adult.

The most obvious changes in initiated communicative acts are 1) a decrease in unclear acts, and 2) an increase in initiations of joint attention (2 increased to 16)ADOS

ADI-RVineland

Other Measures

ADOSOther

Measures

ADOSOther

Measures

Family arrives at intervention center

Family stays at intervention center but no intervention is provided

DAY 1 DAY 5 DAY 11

Family stays at intervention center and Son-Rise Program intervention is provided

Treatment Group

Control Group

ADOSADI-RVinelandOther Measures

ADOSOther Measures

Family stays at home, no professional intervention is provided. They travel to local university for the assessments.

BASELINE PHASE INTERVENTION PHASE

Time 2 5-day INTERVENTION PHASE

Child 1

and then we show them the way out.

The Son-Rise Program is based upon this simple idea:

The children show us the way

in,

JOINING

Participating in your child's repetitive &

exclusive behaviors

An important Son-Rise Program difference:

The focus of more traditional programs = change behavior

The focus of The Son-Rise Program = create relationship

Rather than forcing our children to conform to a world that they don’t understand,

we enter their world first.

• Repetitive

• Exclusive

• Useful to each child

• Can be curative or palliative

• The key which unlocks the door to your child’s world!

The “ism”

University of Washington 1984, 1990Geraldine Dawson (et al)

Journal of Abnormal Child PsychologyDevelopment and Child Psychopathology

Mothers imitated child for 20 minutes/day for 2 weeks Significant increases in duration of gaze at mothers’ faces and creative toy play

When facilitator engaged in imitative play with children More socially responsive, more eye contact, and played with toys in a less

perseveration manner__________________________________________________________________________

University of Miami 2001Tiffany Field (et al)

Autism

2 groups of children for 3 sessions: 1 group imitated, 1 group adults tried to play with them

2nd session: Imitation group More time than the other children looking at adult, vocalizing to adult, smiling at adult, and engaging in reciprocal play.

3rd session: Imitation group More time than the other children sitting closer to adult and touching the adult.

Backed By Published Studies

Customizing the presentation of curriculum to match your child’s highest areas of interest

Facilitating SKILL ACQUISITION By Capitalizing On Your Child’s Own

MOTIVATION

• On the one hand widely acknowledged (w/typical students, athletes, etc.)

• On the other Rarely, if ever, put into practice with children on the autism spectrum in a consistent manner

• Typical academic settings: the teacher decides what and how the class will learn The message: learn on my terms, not yours.

• However: this runs counter to the idea of creating rapport and building on motivation

• Often: the mode of learning and the child’s interests are not matched

Motivation is the Single Largest Factor for Growth

For children with autism spectrum disorders, traditional learning modalities

will rarely be motivating.

• Therefore customize the presentation of curriculum to match the child’s highest areas of motivation.

• How: locate the child’s primary areas of interest first, and then decide how to teach them.

• Thus: we use learning skills and interests our child already has instead of trying to “work against the grain”

Spontaneous, self-generated communication and action (instead of “programmed”, “robotic” responses)

Generalization of skills (instead of requiring a prompt or reward)

The Added Bonus

University of California 1998Robert Koegel (et al)

Seminars in Speech and Language

Game based upon child obsessional theme Increase in social interaction…

And generalized to non-obsessional themed games________________________________________________________

University of California 1987Robert Koegel (et al)

Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis

Activities chosen by adult Child more socially avoidantChild-preferred activities Child less socially avoidant

Backed By Published Studies

Teaching SOCIALIZATION Through INTERACTIVE PLAY

Utilizing dynamic relationship-building

techniques to accomplish developmental goals

Autistic Child / Adult

Eye Contact: Duration; Frequency; Quality

Communication: Vocabulary; Sentence Length; etc.

Flexibility: Rigidity; Activity Variations; Spontaneity; etc.

Interactive Attention Span: Duration; Frequency; etc.

Cognitive: Math; Reading; Reasoning; etc.

Self Help: Toileting; Feeding; Dressing; etc.

Gross Motor: Limb mobility & Coordination; Balance; etc.

Fine Motor: Hand/Eye Coordination; Sensory Perception; etc.

Friendship SkillsBasic IntermediateAdvanced

Conversation SkillsMechanicsThe Art of

Socially Adept

Child / Adult

SOCIALIZATION The Four Fundamentals

The Son-Rise Program® Developmental Model

2 Key Components of Your Child’s Learning Process:

Socialization goals BEFORE

academic goals

Prioritize interaction over

the goal

Case Western University in Ohio 1986-2006Gerald Mahoney (et al)

Topics in Early Childhood Special Education

Relationship-focused, responsive style of interaction where the child was given control precipitated increases in cognitive functioning, communication, and socio-emotional

functioning

Backed By Published Studies

A Non-Judgmental & Optimistic ATTITUDE is the CRITICAL ELEMENT

Not judging where our children are today

while believing they can go

anywhere tomorrow

“Could we kiss the ground that the others had cursed?” –

Barry Neil Kaufman, Son-Rise: The Miracle Continues

Discomfort + judgment = more withdrawal

Comfort + acceptance = more interaction

A non-judgmental, optimistic attitude interaction magnet.

The Key: Make you and your world attractive to your children.

Case Western University in Ohio 2005Gerald Mahoney (et al)

Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics

The facilitator’s (parent, other) having a visible affect of acceptance, enjoyment, expressiveness, and warmth Significantly related to increases in the child’s language, social competence, joint attention, and self-regulation.

Backed By Published Studies

Using The Son-Rise ProgramTo Enhance Biomedical Intervention

And Promote Sustained Physiological Repair

•Dr. Scott Faber: Found chronically high stress hormones (cortisol, adrenaline)•In perpetual “fight or flight” survival mode – NOT in Recovery Mode•Cannot engage in Sustained Physiological Repair (SPR)

•Supplementation (zinc, magnesium, etc.), probiotic treatment, anti-fungal treatment, dietary

intervention, chelation, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, secretin, anti-viral and anti-bacterial medications, the

Listening Program, and other sensory integration therapies…•Child’s body must absorb supplements, rebuild the gut, eliminate toxins, build the immune

system, etc.•The key: Shift your child from “fight or flight” survival mode to Recovery Mode

•Use The Son-Rise Program principles to: build trust, increase feelings of safety and control, reduce

over-stimulation, and increase satisfying social interaction and communication•Dr. Faber: Found that joining, giving control, creating an environment free from over-

stimulation, and providing “emotionally-attuned intervention” stress hormones dropped into normal

ranges

•Immune, digestive, neurological, and nervous system enters the Recovery Mode•Biomedical interventions implemented with our children’s cooperation instead of

resistance•Also: Isms are a coping mechanism

• Entering our children’s world and building trust enter social and emotional Recovery Mode opens the doorway to communication and socialization – with their permission and motivation

The Recovery Mode

Facilitate interaction

Jump-start speech and language

development

Deal effectively with tantrums and repetitive “stimming” behaviors

WE TEACH PARENTS AND PROFESSIONALS TO:WE TEACH PARENTS AND PROFESSIONALS TO:

Recruit and train volunteers

Create a special work/playroom for optimal learning

Apply our practical strategies to everyday “real world” situations Create and sustain an attitude of hope and optimism about your

child

The Son-Rise Program START-UPA week-long training program for parents and

professionals

The Son-Rise Program Sequence

• Maximum Impact: Take your program to the next level

• New Frontiers: Hone your program goals and curriculum

Other Services• Outreaches – with one of our Family Trainers in your home

• Video feedback – for you and others working with your child

• Consultations (in person or by phone) – to answer any questions and help you to overcome challenges

The First Step: Your Initial Call

• Talk to Kristin: Book phone appointment (no charge) with a Family Counselor

• Ask any questions you have

• Find out if the Start-Up is a good fit

• Find out how to apply for financial aid

Take-Home Resource

Provided for You Free of Charge

Want the 2-hour complete version of this lecture on

DVD?

• Buy it at our booth – from Kristin

• Pay conference price of $30 (includes tax)

Hope is the spark that ignites the human spirit!

Hope leads to action.

My recovery from autism is the product of hope.

There is no false hope, only false pessimism.

You don’t ever have to apologize for hoping for your child.

The Myth of “False” Hope

There is no “false” hope! Let’s give our children a chance!

2080 S. Undermountain Road, Sheffield, MA 012571-877-SON-RISE (413)-229-2100

www.autismtreatment.com