• “Our children and adults on the Autism Spectrum have a huge challenge processing sensory stimulus and filtering out irrelevant information from the environment and the people around them. The world can seem very loud, chaotic, and disorganized for our children on the spectrum. This can lead to sensory-overload, or to our children being easily distracted by all the things around them. The Son-Rise Program playroom eliminates distractions and over-stimulation, helping our children to come out of flight or fight mode, and go into learning mode.
• “In The Son-Rise Program playroom, we are able to create an environment that has much less control battles than most of the other environments our children might be in. Think of all the ‘no’s’ you have to say when out in public with your child! ‘No don’t touch this thing!’ in the grocery store, ‘No don’t lay on the floor’ in the subway, ‘No don’t take off your seat belt’ when driving in the car, ‘No don’t touch this person’s cell phone’ in the park, and the list goes on and on. How could we teach new skills to our children when we are constantly setting boundaries and trying to keep them safe? The environment of The Son-Rise Program playroom is specially designed to eliminate those control battles, allowing us to become the ‘Yes’ people in our children’s lives. When we become the ‘Yes’ people, we become more attractive and interesting for our children. Therefore our children will want to spend more time with us, and learn more from us.
• “One of our children’s biggest challenges is social interaction. When we eliminate most of the distractions in our children’s environment, we – the people – become the center stage of our children’s attention, when they are finally able to engage and focus on us. In this specially designed environment, The Son-Rise Program facilitator also pays great attention to the importance of their attitude, while seeking to be calm, joyful, and positive. This piece (focusing on our attitude) plays a major role in promoting social interaction to our children on the Autism Spectrum, as the most fun and wonderful thing on the planet! We become fun, interesting, compassionate and all around easy to be with!
• “Using a Son-Rise Program playroom is not forever, it is only for a period of time, until our children reach certain milestones in their social-development, and until they are ready to be in a more stimulating environment without getting over-stimulated or easily distracted.”
Written by Camila Titone, Senior Son-Rise Program Teacher