1. Autism is a social-relational challenge.
“This is a fundamental belief to hold if you are currently running a Son-Rise Program or are interested in learning more about this approach. It is thought by many, that Autism is a behavioral disorder. Autism can also be referred to as a learning disorder, a language deficit, or an intellectual disability among many other things. We see our children’s biggest challenge to be a social-relational challenge. Our children have difficulty connecting and relating to other people. Therefore, from this challenge, many other symptoms arise such as interacting with other people, eye contact and non-verbal communication, verbal communication, and flexibility. That is why one of the core techniques we empower parents to work on with their children is interactive attention span – the length of time they can engage with another person before breaking away and engaging in their repetitive activities again.
2. Our children’s repetitive activities (stims) are useful to them.
“All of our children on the Autism Spectrum engage in repetitive activities or stims. We call these repetitive activities isms in The Son-Rise Program. Whether it be running back and forth, jumping up and down, lining up objects, or telling the same story repeatedly, our children all have them to varying degrees. We see these isms (stims) to be hugely useful to our children and instead of seeing them as just self-stimulating; we see them be self-calming and self-soothing in actuality. Not only do our children live in a world that is hugely unpredictable and seemingly random at times but they also have many sensory challenges, causing them to become overloaded regularly. Retreating to their familiar, repetitive activities can be a haven for our children to be able to access more control and make sense of things. Holding this belief will accelerate your Son-Rise program and enable you to fully apply the fundamental attitude and technique of joining with your child.
3. Our children pick up on our attitudes.
“We are now aware that our children have a social-relational challenge. We know they are doing the best they can to take care of themselves by stimming, so let’s discuss one other belief that is going to make a difference in inspiring them to reach out and connect more. This is for our children to experience the best, most loving attitude we can muster up inside of ourselves. We are all attracted to people in our lives who love and accept us deeply. It is a secret wish we all have in the depth of our hearts – ‘just love me the way I am. We tend to move toward loving and comfortable people and away from people who seem uncomfortable and judgmental. We want to offer our children the greatest chance to want to connect and relate to us and we have found that our children, in particular, have a heightened attitudinal radar. That they can pick up on and notice when we are uncomfortable, impatient and stressed. We are all doing the best we can to take care of things but next time, you feel stressed and try to rush your child into getting dressed in the morning, or brushing their teeth before bed, notice how instead of moving toward you, they run in the opposite direction and head for the hills.
“Prioritizing and maintaining a loving and accepting attitude will empower you to create the most loving, nurturing connection with your very special child and will set an amazing foundation for their relationship with you, and ultimately all people. This is what we all want and is a complete game-changer.
“This is not about being perfect. The Son-Rise Program is a loving and non-judgmental program that allows us to be easy and kind to ourselves as well as our children. Let us help you get started with our Son-Rise Program Online Course. This will enable you to learn about this in a simple, digestible way.
“We are so excited for you to adopt these beliefs with your children and encourage you to learn more about our concrete educational techniques.”
If you would like to learn more about The Son-Rise Program Start-Up, please click here.
Written by a Son-Rise Program Teacher