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Autism Treatment Center of America, Son Rise Program
Autism Treatment Center of America, Son Rise Program
•Severe autism
• 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 Prognosis
Eventual
institutionalization
In My Own World
In My Own World
What Did My Parents Do?
America
A division of The Option Institute, a non-profit, charitable organization
Located in Sheffield, Massachusetts
The Autism Treatment Center of
TM
America
A division of The Option Institute, a non-profit, charitable organization
• Our methodology: The Son-Rise
Located in Sheffield, Massachusetts
Program®
Child Facilitator
Teaches studentsCertification
to work directly
with children and adults with
varying diagnoses
Teacher Certification
Trains students to teach all
aspects of The Son-Rise
Program® to parents and
professionals
The Autism Treatment Center of
TM
America
--- Son-Rise Program: Key Differences
• Was created by parents for parents
--- families from 75 countries
• Has helped more than 25,000
• Begins with the premise that children with autism are
capable of
limitless growth
• Sees parents as the #1 resource for their children, and
thus helps
them to recover their children in some cases and achieve
significant improvement in almost all cases
• Starts by joining children in their world rather than
forcing them
to conform to ours
• Utilizes children’s motivation, rather than repetition, as
the
doorway to learning and growth
•
The Son-Rise Program START-UP
A 5-day training program for parents and professionals
Background Two outcome measures were used. Presented here are data New Coding System Results for Child 3
The Son-Rise Program is an autism intervention used in the UK derived from the ADOS (Lord et al, 2002) only. This is a semi- Child 3 used more varied and frequent types of
and the US that, in spite of abundant anecdotal data attesting to structured series of highly standardised opportunities for communication than Child 1 and so provided greater scope
its efficacy, has not been tested scientifically. Although created interaction designed to elicit social gestures from children. The for more in-depth analysis.
without exploiting a specific theoretical model, the program is current published coding protocol is not designed to support the Function of Communicative Acts
consistent with “coactive” theories of autism. The social- use of the ADOS as an outcome measure. Thus sessions were All communicative acts used by the child were coded as
orienting model of autism (Mundy, 1995) assumes a disturbance video recorded and later subjected to an additional coding being one of four possible functions (from Prizant et al,
in the predilection to spontaneously orient to (and process) protocol measuring the child’s social and communicative 1993):
social information. This lack of bias to social information impacts Function Description
behaviours to allow for more fine-grained analysis than the
how an infant participates in the social environment and
diagnostic coding system. Behaviour Adult used as a tool to meet
subsequent social learning and understanding, including the Regulation (br) child’s demands
increased language acquisition (Dawson, et al, 2004), social and Results Joint Attention
cognitive outcomes (Sigman & Ruskin, 1999) and processing of
To share attention about a object
or event
Presented here are the preliminary results from two children (ja)
Kassari, 1996). The Son-Rise Program aims to remediate but purpose is unclear
autism by directly increasing a child’s preference for social Child 3 showed an increase in use of communicative
ADOS as an Outcome Measure using published Coding
engagement. acts for the purposes of behavior regulation and joint
System and Diagnostic Algorithms for two study
participants. attention, and a decrease in use of communicative acts
Responsive vs. Initiated Communicative Acts
Hypothesis for social interaction or with an unclear purpose.
When the above data were further separated based on
Following this theory it was hypothesised that, following an whether the communicative act was either in response to
intensive period of Son-Rise Program intervention, children with an adult or was spontaneously initiated by the child we see
Typically developing
autism will show an increased preference for social orienting (and 0 the following:
possibly joint attention).
ASD Classification Child 3
7
Method
16 children with autism whose parents had already chosen to Autism Classification
12 Child 1
use the Son-Rise Program (and opted to travel to the USA for
intensive training) were selected. Children were age 7 or
Time 1 5-day BASELINE Time 2 5-day INTERVENTION Time 3
younger, did not have additional diagnoses and were PHASE PHASE
assessed as Module 1 on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Child 3 showed a positive change in diagnostic classification
Schedule (ADOS) (the lowest functioning level). A mixed when sessions were coded with the ADOS coding system.
between and within-subjects design was employed as shown Time 1 (pre-intervention) = 13 This shows that the observed increase in communicative
in Figure 1. Time 3 (post-intervention) = 9 acts for the purpose of behaviour regulation can be
Child 1 changed from a score of 20 to19. attributed to events where the child is responding to an
Figure 1. Experimental Design adult.
Family stays at Family stays at
Family arrives
at intervention
intervention center but no
intervention is provided
intervention center and
Son-Rise Program
New Coding System Results for Child 1
center intervention is provided Applying the new coding protocol illuminated other changes. The most obvious changes in initiated communicative acts
Treatment DAY 1 DAY 5 DAY 11 are 1) a decrease in unclear acts, and 2) an increase in
Group ADOS Using the new
BASELINE PHASE INTERVENTION PHASE
coding system
initiations of joint attention (2 increased to 16)
ADI-R ADOS ADOS
Vineland Other Other an increase in Discussion
Other Measures Measures
Measures
social behaviors These preliminary results suggest that the Son-Rise
can be seen for
Family stays at home, no professional Child 1. This
Program intervention, as hypothesised, leads to an
ADOS
intervention is provided. They travel to
local university for the assessments. child used no increase in social orienting and joint attention skills in
Control ADI-R ADOS other types of children with autism. Continued analysis is underway.
Group Vineland Other
Other Measures communication
Measures Child 1 in either test.
To fund one of our 3 studies, e-mail: KatHoughton@taconic.net
The Son-Rise Program is
based upon this simple idea:
The children
show us the way
and then wein,show them
the way out.
JOINING
Participating
in your child's
repetitive &
exclusive
behaviors
An important Son-Rise Program
difference:
• Repetitive
• Exclusive
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.
3 session: Imitation group More time than the other children sitting closer to
rd
Generalization of skills
(instead of requiring a prompt or reward)
Backed By Published Studies
Socialization goals
BEFORE
academic goals
Prioritize
interaction over
the goal
Backed By Published Studies
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
•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
The Son-Rise Program START-UP
A 5-day training program for parents and professionals
• The Start-Up
Everything you need to begin your program
• New Frontiers
Create social curriculum and hone program
goals
• Maximum Impact
Take your program to the next level
Who To Talk To
• www.autismtreatment.org/research
• www.autismtreatment.org/fundraising
Take-Home Resource
You don’t ever have to apologize for hoping for your child.
There is no “false” hope! Let’s give our children a
chance!
2080 S. Undermountain Road, Sheffield, MA 01257
1-877-SON-RISE (413)-229-2100
www.autismtreatment.com