Son-Rise Program at The Autism Treatment Center of America

Having just returned from the Start-Up program at the Autism Treatment Center of America (www.autismtreatmentcenter.org), I wanted to provide my own spin my fabulous week of Son-Rise training. 

This is not intended to be a comprehensive course on how to do the Son Rise Program (I'll call it the SRP).  For that, I strongly encourage you to get yourself to the Berkshires for the five-day program.  But why, why schlep to Sheffield, Mass., when you could just read some books and blogs instead?

That's because in part, as ATCA says, to do this program you must first change yourself, your attitudes and beliefs, and this cannot be accomplished in the mere glow of your computer screen. At the ATCA they have way which really defies clear description, of chopping up your brain and rearranging it to lay the emotional foundation for a strong home-based SRP. And there's another powerful reason to attend the program, the gift of spending five intense days with 70 or so other autism parents from around the globe who all share your past and your dreams. In much of life we autism parents feel quite isolated and apart from the hubbub of life, but at ATCA you are embraced by a community that really, really understands you. Many of these people will become your new best friends.

But Isn't it Expensive?

The Start Up costs $2,200 plus travel expenses, which in many cases is covered by donated frequent flyer miles. Let's think about these numbers. Just one clinical evaluation of my child cost me almost this much, and that eval may have delivered a diagnosis but hardly provided any meaningful direction and certainly didn't answer any questions about "what should I do now?" Not to mention "how do I survive this?" Or "is there any hope for my son?" So, $2,200 is an absolute bargain compared to the money you've been spending on evaluations that basically say, "you're kid's autistic, we don't know what it is, what causes it, or what to do about it, goodbye and good luck."

Or how about this. Isn't $2,200 what you've been spending for just about 2 weeks of ABA therapy, which, perhaps, hasn't been terribly effective for your child? Or a couple of months of therapy with your spouse because you believe your child is a tragedy? Or take another perspective. You need a vacation, a real vacation with no kids, no cooking, no laundry, no cleaning, no tv, none of the chaos that has dominated your life since your child sunk into autism. So, for about $440 a day you get lodging, meals, many very helpful classes, peace and quiet, and more. Considering ATCA's many expenses, this price seems very reasonable to me, perhaps even one of the biggest bargains in the uber expensive world of autism therapy.

And I must mention that ATCA regularly awards scholarships to the extent such funds are donated (sadly, due to the economy this has not been a good year for donations); I believe about one-third of the participants attending last week were on full or partial scholarships.

But Isn't it ... Weird ... a Cult?

We are creatures of the Enlightenment and understand our world through the powers of reason, logic and science, and really, thank goodness for that. However, it took a light sprinkling of colorful nonenlightenment thinking for ATCA's founders, the Kaufmans, to originate the SRP for their son Raun without reference to any studies, theories, position papers, and in spite of catastrophic prognoses provided by doctors. It was the early '70s and they decided to love and accept their son as he was, and work in intuitive ways to reach him inside his mysterious, silent, plate-spinning world. Their Option Institute offers a variety of self-help programs with which I am not familiar, but their programs, including ATCA, strike me as being no more cult-like than any other type of sit-on-the-couch-and-talk therapy.

In fact, in many ways, ATCA is less of a cult than, say, something like ABA, which can easily be viewed as a cult of Skinner and Lovaas. That's because behaviorists base their work on mere unproven theory that autism is a behavioral disorder best addressed with a series of behavior modifications. The SRP developed from parental intuition and astute observation, not from abstract ruminations of BF Skinner. So, what's the cult here, ATCA, or the legions of behaviorists who continue to base their work on unproven abstractions? ATCA believes what it sees; behaviorists see what they believe.

I Know You Have One Last Question

It's "If I attend an ATCA program, should I bring some Kleenex?" No, no Kleenex necessary! Don't worry! The program, just like all the others, never addresses the emotional dimensions at all. Ooops, what I meant to say is, don't bother bringing tissues because they have boxes parked next to every chair, on every desk, at every phone. You will need them.

What Is the Son Rise Program?

Again, a disclaimer. This is my own spin on the SRP, and to best learn it you should sign up for a program.  [Note: Because I have received so many queries from people about the SRP I started a mini-blog at www.sonriseforautism.blogspot.com to give some additional program basics to interested parents.  This blog, however, continues to contain SRP info, too.  --Jill.]  That said, the ATCA website has an astounding array of free webinars and information, and it offers a free start-up package with DVDs and literature. Other helpful books, DVDs and CDs can be purchased through their website. All of these will help you much more than this little blog. That said, here's my take.

The Social Gym

ATCA (1) sees autism as a disorder of social relatedness, and (2) believes the brain, given proper motivation and practice, can rewire itself to compensate for innate social deficits. ATCA believes the non distracting Son Rise playroom is like an oven in which you "cook" your child, and by cooking they mean the deliberate, persistent activation and branching of your child's weakened neural networks through an enthusiastic form of play.

They offer no magic potions, no shortcuts, and no miracle cures. The SRP is a long road taken step by step with incremental gains over time using fairly intense but happy methods. In most cases, they say, the kid is "cooked" in about two years, resulting in solid progress, and in many cases recovery. Because ATCA believes that other skills will naturally flow from improved socialization, the emphasis is on social connectedness, not on academic learning.

Son Rise Principles

In order to do the hard work of activating new neural pathways, the SRP operates on a few key principles (again, this is my own gloss, not the exact words from ATCA).

-- The parent/therapist approaches the child with an attitude of genuine love and acceptance.
-- All therapy is done with energy, excitement and enthusiasm!
-- Therapy occurs in a non-distracting environment, specifically, in a Son Rise playroom in your house
-- If the child is "stimming" (they call stims "isms"), you join the child to create an initial connection
-- Try to get eye contact
-- If the child makes a connection, for example, through eye contact, celebrate it
-- Challenge the child to take a step toward a preselected goal (from the SRP developmental model) by expanding on each connection, for example, by requesting or taking a new step in a game. Make sure each push relates to the child's own internal motivation. You cannot change your child's brain. Only your child has the power to do that.
-- Don't do the program alone; find volunteers and others who are enthused about the idea of helping an autistic child.

Again, for more info see autismtreatmentcenter.org.

What About Other Programs?

ATCA believes that other programs may be helpful for your child. For example:

-- Auditory Integration Training
-- Diet and Supplements. Actually, they're huge believers that in many kids the neurological problems in autism arise in part from problems in the gut such as food allergies, improper digestion and leaky gut syndrome.

As for other programs not really addressed by ATCA, here's what I think.

-- ABA
Clearly, the SRP is in direct odds with ABA. ABA aims to extinguish stims, SRP joins them in order to create a connection. ABA focuses on discrete skill building; SRP focuses on building the child's social interest. ABA is therapist-directed; SRP is parent-led. ABA uses external rewards like candy; SRP uses the internal motivation of the child. ABA is based on drills and programs; SRP is based on play. The list goes on. Nevertheless, some parents report good results from ABA and I was impressed in particular with the stories shown on the "Recovered" DVD published by CARD.

-- Floortime and RDI
These are two programs, often parent-led, that followed in the wake of the SRP and use some of the same principles, namely working 1:1 in a play-based manner. But some believe floortime too dilute and aimless to have a strong impact. RDI lacks the attitude and playroom components of the SRP, and also sees no value in developing eye contact. So far, I find RDI a little convoluted, vague and jargon-ridden for my taste, but I know it has been very useful for many high functioning kids, and I intend to keep trying to figure it out.

-- Video and Computer-Based Programs
TVs and computers are antithetical to SRP goals of creating bonded social relationships. That said, I have seen some higher functioning kids benefit from some video modeling.

-- Assistive Communication Devices
ATCA has seen so many nonverbal autistic kids and adults learn how to talk that it encourages parents to put the devices away and work on promoting language instead. (I know, easier said than done.)

-- School
To ATCA, our kids, clearly in danger of lifelong dependence and possible institutionalization, need a social gym, and not school. It seems pretty clear to me that an ideal SRP does away with school, not to mention other recreational pursuits, entirely, until the kid is "cooked" and those dormant social neurons have been activated to the degree they can be. I have to admit that does make some logical sense, but in reality I think many parents try to balance school with an SRP.

Well, this has been a long blog about a long week, and I shall return to it again soon.

Good night,
Jill Escher