What Matters Most
8 years ago
Monday, November 29, 2010
Liam is enjoying the piano!
Thanks to Kenia's generosity, we have a piano!!!!!!!!! And, look who is the one who spent like 30 minutes sitting at the piano and playing with the keys! Kenia will also start piano lessons this Sunday! Thanks again, Kenia!
How to inspire Liam and Dusya to play with us more and more?
Inspiration ~ From Kate Wilde (SR senior teacher)
I often ponder the question:
"How do we inspire another person to do something they were not really intending to do?"
Because that is what we are trying to do when we work with our children with autism using The Son-Rise Program. Our childrens' challenge is being able to deeply connect and interact with the people in their lives. Often they are so busy taking care of their bodies and sensory systems doing their many and varied isms that it may not even occur to them to look at or talk to the people in their lives.
This is where the Son-Rise Program attitude comes into play - part of inspiring them to want to interact with us is:
1.Making ourselves so compelling and interesting that it is fairly impossible not to notice us.
2.To join in with their activity with such delight and passion and non- attachment that they are amazed at the idea that another person likes what they like as much as they do.
3.To join in with their activity with such passion and delight that our children think to themselves that they are just like us, that they have something in common with us- a friend that they might like to hang out with.
4.That we celebrate each time they interact with us with such intensity and sincerity that they want to do it one more time just to feel the warmth of our love.
We feel more, we love more, we make ourselves irresistible.
I often ponder the question:
"How do we inspire another person to do something they were not really intending to do?"
Because that is what we are trying to do when we work with our children with autism using The Son-Rise Program. Our childrens' challenge is being able to deeply connect and interact with the people in their lives. Often they are so busy taking care of their bodies and sensory systems doing their many and varied isms that it may not even occur to them to look at or talk to the people in their lives.
This is where the Son-Rise Program attitude comes into play - part of inspiring them to want to interact with us is:
1.Making ourselves so compelling and interesting that it is fairly impossible not to notice us.
2.To join in with their activity with such delight and passion and non- attachment that they are amazed at the idea that another person likes what they like as much as they do.
3.To join in with their activity with such passion and delight that our children think to themselves that they are just like us, that they have something in common with us- a friend that they might like to hang out with.
4.That we celebrate each time they interact with us with such intensity and sincerity that they want to do it one more time just to feel the warmth of our love.
We feel more, we love more, we make ourselves irresistible.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Some pictures of our last activities
Here are a few pictures of Tony with his cousins in Phoenix. Also, we had a great Thanksgiving this year. We actually had friends coming, which as you know is very rare in this house! :) Also, it was the first time Antonio cooks a whole turkey! Tony loved eating a turkey leg! We also went to the Thanksgiving Parade with Shelby, which was a success with the kids. Duch and Liam were very patient with the loud noises and the crowds. And, we went two times to the Pearland Natatorium, first with Shelby and Ashley, and the next time with Cari. Nobody was wearing floaties!! By the second time, Duch and Tony were already floating and doing their first little swims!! And, Liam was LOVING being in a pool again! Enjoy these few pictures.
Summary of Group meeting (November 20)
We had a great group meeting on November 20. This is the first time I bring a group activity to the meeting and it was a great success. Here is a summary of all we talked about during the meeting:
1. Group activity
We went through a creativity exercise. We separated in teams and I gave each team silly instructions to improvise (e.g., "you just went through a dental procedure, your mouth is numb, you just won $10M, share your big news!"). At the end, we reflected on the exercise. Everybody said they had fun and felt creative. The key question was, do you think you were more creative here than you typically are in the playroom? Several of you thought you were more creative in the team meeting because you were getting lines from me with instructions of what to do. In contrast, some of you felt that in the playroom, you have to create something out of nothing. The conclusion from our discussion was that we do have something to be creative on, and that is the kids and any thing they say or they do. If Liam says "boat", we pretend that the bed is a boat and that we are going to jump and splash in the water. If Dusya is playing with her spit, we pretend we are dragons and are spitting fire. Use the kids as your lines to create something out of anything they propose to you. Just allow yourself to be silly and don't plan what to do next every minute.
2. Liam
Megan's advice for Liam is to go “HEAVY ON PHYSICAL GAMES”
This is the way we can get his attention for the longest. Attention span is the most important of the SonRise goals, becuase it is the antecedent of the other goals. The longer the attention we get from him, the more he improves his eye contact and the more he learns about language. Here is a list of ideas for you to try in the next month:
- Pillows (the SonRise blog has a list of 10 games to play with pillows)
- Blankets (the SonRise blog has a list of 10 games to play with blankets)
- Trampoline (when he jumps, you could great different “animal jumps” for him to do – e.g., kangaroo jump, frog jump, monkey jump)
- Tent (Erin has been playing jack-in-the-box with the tent)
- Tunnel
- Twin air mattress
- Baby pool with beans in it
- “Flying gun”
- Balloons (if you get little balloons, you could hide them, put them in your body, put water in them, etc.)
- Helium jars for balloons
- Spinner
- Tricycle for riding toys with stop/go signs
- Musical chairs with 1 chair and stop/go with music
- Spin on office chairs
- Wheel barrow
- Crashing in big stuffed animals
- Balls
3. Dusya
3.1. With Duchis we need all be CONSISTENT with how we respond to those times when she does not say a complete sentences. She can definitely say a complete sentence. So, if she says “toy story memory game”, celebrate “great talking” and use non-verbal gestures to mean “yeeees, …...." Or, use the technique we have used in the past: She says "elmo book" and you respond literally: "Elmo books are great."
3.2. Duchis is so interested in themes and games. It is time to invite her more to play a role. When she is EXCITED with your production, use INDIRECT REQUESTS, “TALK TO THE AIR”.
Examples: You have two puppets talking to each other
a. “My hat fell off! Somebody bring my hat ….”
b. “I have to get the worms ….”
3.3. Communication of feelings. Talk to Duch about your feelings using the type of expressions we have in her signs in her bedroom. Examples:
- “Oh, my Gosh, I am SO excited it is Christmas”
- Shake her and tell her: “Aren’t you excited?”
- “How do you feel?”
- “You look so excited”
- Share YOUR feelings and tell her about HER feelings.
- Play a game with hats (dress up) and you can say: “I am a happy cowboy”, “I am a grumpy doctor”, etc.
4. Tony:
4.1. Show him how kids initiate play with each other:
“Hi, I am XXX, do you want to play?”
“Hi, let’s play”
“Hi, can I take a turn?”
4.2. Keep working on Tony's fine motor skills to get him ready for school for January. Correct him in a silly way if he does not take the pencil in the appropriate way.
Here are the pictures of our meeting. Cari and Erin left early so they are not in the picture. Thanks everybody for coming!!
1. Group activity
We went through a creativity exercise. We separated in teams and I gave each team silly instructions to improvise (e.g., "you just went through a dental procedure, your mouth is numb, you just won $10M, share your big news!"). At the end, we reflected on the exercise. Everybody said they had fun and felt creative. The key question was, do you think you were more creative here than you typically are in the playroom? Several of you thought you were more creative in the team meeting because you were getting lines from me with instructions of what to do. In contrast, some of you felt that in the playroom, you have to create something out of nothing. The conclusion from our discussion was that we do have something to be creative on, and that is the kids and any thing they say or they do. If Liam says "boat", we pretend that the bed is a boat and that we are going to jump and splash in the water. If Dusya is playing with her spit, we pretend we are dragons and are spitting fire. Use the kids as your lines to create something out of anything they propose to you. Just allow yourself to be silly and don't plan what to do next every minute.
2. Liam
Megan's advice for Liam is to go “HEAVY ON PHYSICAL GAMES”
This is the way we can get his attention for the longest. Attention span is the most important of the SonRise goals, becuase it is the antecedent of the other goals. The longer the attention we get from him, the more he improves his eye contact and the more he learns about language. Here is a list of ideas for you to try in the next month:
- Pillows (the SonRise blog has a list of 10 games to play with pillows)
- Blankets (the SonRise blog has a list of 10 games to play with blankets)
- Trampoline (when he jumps, you could great different “animal jumps” for him to do – e.g., kangaroo jump, frog jump, monkey jump)
- Tent (Erin has been playing jack-in-the-box with the tent)
- Tunnel
- Twin air mattress
- Baby pool with beans in it
- “Flying gun”
- Balloons (if you get little balloons, you could hide them, put them in your body, put water in them, etc.)
- Helium jars for balloons
- Spinner
- Tricycle for riding toys with stop/go signs
- Musical chairs with 1 chair and stop/go with music
- Spin on office chairs
- Wheel barrow
- Crashing in big stuffed animals
- Balls
3. Dusya
3.1. With Duchis we need all be CONSISTENT with how we respond to those times when she does not say a complete sentences. She can definitely say a complete sentence. So, if she says “toy story memory game”, celebrate “great talking” and use non-verbal gestures to mean “yeeees, …...." Or, use the technique we have used in the past: She says "elmo book" and you respond literally: "Elmo books are great."
3.2. Duchis is so interested in themes and games. It is time to invite her more to play a role. When she is EXCITED with your production, use INDIRECT REQUESTS, “TALK TO THE AIR”.
Examples: You have two puppets talking to each other
a. “My hat fell off! Somebody bring my hat ….”
b. “I have to get the worms ….”
3.3. Communication of feelings. Talk to Duch about your feelings using the type of expressions we have in her signs in her bedroom. Examples:
- “Oh, my Gosh, I am SO excited it is Christmas”
- Shake her and tell her: “Aren’t you excited?”
- “How do you feel?”
- “You look so excited”
- Share YOUR feelings and tell her about HER feelings.
- Play a game with hats (dress up) and you can say: “I am a happy cowboy”, “I am a grumpy doctor”, etc.
4. Tony:
4.1. Show him how kids initiate play with each other:
“Hi, I am XXX, do you want to play?”
“Hi, let’s play”
“Hi, can I take a turn?”
4.2. Keep working on Tony's fine motor skills to get him ready for school for January. Correct him in a silly way if he does not take the pencil in the appropriate way.
Here are the pictures of our meeting. Cari and Erin left early so they are not in the picture. Thanks everybody for coming!!
LOGISTICS of our SonRise program
We went through these logistics in our last group meeting, but for those of you who could not attend, here is an update of the logistics of running our 3 programs for our 3 kids. Please help us to continue running these programs without falling into too much chaos. If there is something you do not know about, please ask Antonio, Kaffie or me. Here are the details to remember:
1. Things to remember at the start of every session
- Start the session with an empty playroom so that you don’t have competition for the kids’ attention.
- Put cell phones, iPods, etc., away from the kids (e.g., in the closet) and avoid calls and texting. Also, don’t use games or videos from phones with the kids.
- Make sure Duchis has water to drink and make sure Liam has milk to drink.
- Brush the kids with the brushes that are hanging from the doors of the playrooms. This will increase their attention and calmness during the session. You will find a video of the brushing at: http://dusyaandliamsonrise.blogspot.com/2010/07/videos-of-dusya-and-liam-being-brushed.html
2. Activities for 8am and 2pm
8am and 2pm: Brain Balance exercises (5-10 minutes):
- Squeeze balls 50 times in two hands. Balls are hanging from the doors.
- Do abs, situps, wheelbarrow walk, bear walk, crab walk, snow angels, crawling, crawling on the back. For abs, you can use a tube that is in closet.
- Please mark the chart after you do the exercises.
8am and 2pm: Therapeutic listening (30 minutes):
- Instructions are in the playrooms. Check the volume of the headphones. Put the headphones on the kids. You can continue playing while they listen to the music.
- Please mark the chart after they listen to the music.
8am: Every bathroom has toothpaste and a toothbrush, so inspire the kids to brush their teeth.
3. Things to remember at the end of every session
- Finish your session 10-15 minutes early, so that you can:
- Clean up the room. Ask the kids for help in cleaning up. If they want to keep some toys on the floor (e.g., little people and sesame street), that’s ok, but try to clean up as much as possible.
- Write in the notebooks downstairs telling us a summary of your sessions with the kids. Tony's exercise notebook is in his room.
4. Self-help skills
- Meals: Motivate the kids to eat all their food. You can feed them the part that they don’t like too much (e.g., the vegetables), but try hard to inspire them to eat by themselves.
- Dressing: When they have to go to therapy and need to get dressed, take your time in the dressing process. Help them to the minimal degree.
- Potty: Our potty goal is to emphasize wiping (after both peepee and poopoo) and washing hands. Make it fun, show them, and help them. Play games in the playroom related to wiping and washing hands. The Animals can wipe, Sesame Street can wipe, the cars can wipe. Bring toilet paper and practice wiping with clothes on.
Various
- Remember to eat and drink your snacks outside of the playroom because the kids are on a special diet.
- After you play with play-doh with Dusya, please take the play-doh out of the room because she is getting access to it and eating it.
- Keep the shelves and closets organized. Rotate the toys from the different closets, but keep all pieces of toys together and in place.
1. Things to remember at the start of every session
- Start the session with an empty playroom so that you don’t have competition for the kids’ attention.
- Put cell phones, iPods, etc., away from the kids (e.g., in the closet) and avoid calls and texting. Also, don’t use games or videos from phones with the kids.
- Make sure Duchis has water to drink and make sure Liam has milk to drink.
- Brush the kids with the brushes that are hanging from the doors of the playrooms. This will increase their attention and calmness during the session. You will find a video of the brushing at: http://dusyaandliamsonrise.blogspot.com/2010/07/videos-of-dusya-and-liam-being-brushed.html
2. Activities for 8am and 2pm
8am and 2pm: Brain Balance exercises (5-10 minutes):
- Squeeze balls 50 times in two hands. Balls are hanging from the doors.
- Do abs, situps, wheelbarrow walk, bear walk, crab walk, snow angels, crawling, crawling on the back. For abs, you can use a tube that is in closet.
- Please mark the chart after you do the exercises.
8am and 2pm: Therapeutic listening (30 minutes):
- Instructions are in the playrooms. Check the volume of the headphones. Put the headphones on the kids. You can continue playing while they listen to the music.
- Please mark the chart after they listen to the music.
8am: Every bathroom has toothpaste and a toothbrush, so inspire the kids to brush their teeth.
3. Things to remember at the end of every session
- Finish your session 10-15 minutes early, so that you can:
- Clean up the room. Ask the kids for help in cleaning up. If they want to keep some toys on the floor (e.g., little people and sesame street), that’s ok, but try to clean up as much as possible.
- Write in the notebooks downstairs telling us a summary of your sessions with the kids. Tony's exercise notebook is in his room.
4. Self-help skills
- Meals: Motivate the kids to eat all their food. You can feed them the part that they don’t like too much (e.g., the vegetables), but try hard to inspire them to eat by themselves.
- Dressing: When they have to go to therapy and need to get dressed, take your time in the dressing process. Help them to the minimal degree.
- Potty: Our potty goal is to emphasize wiping (after both peepee and poopoo) and washing hands. Make it fun, show them, and help them. Play games in the playroom related to wiping and washing hands. The Animals can wipe, Sesame Street can wipe, the cars can wipe. Bring toilet paper and practice wiping with clothes on.
Various
- Remember to eat and drink your snacks outside of the playroom because the kids are on a special diet.
- After you play with play-doh with Dusya, please take the play-doh out of the room because she is getting access to it and eating it.
- Keep the shelves and closets organized. Rotate the toys from the different closets, but keep all pieces of toys together and in place.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
AMAZING inspiration - a mom who recovered 3 kids from autism!
This week I met through email a mom who recovered 3 kids from autism (all different ages). She works for Juice Plus now, and that is a supplement I am adding for the kids' diet. Her story is in this website of the Body Ecology Diet (the same diet we have). Every recovery story is different. Hers does not include SonRise but includes many other things we have done or do now. As she told me in her email: "Each story is a unique, precious miracle. I look forward to hearing your shout to the sky when recovery is accomplished in your house. :)"
Here is the link, I think you will LOVE this: http://www.bedrokcommunity.org/id106.html
Here is the link, I think you will LOVE this: http://www.bedrokcommunity.org/id106.html
Latest news from this house
We are happy Christmas is coming soon. The next months will be exciting for sure. My classes are almost done, so I look forward to being at home and working with you and the kids more intensely. Megan may be coming to Houston in January also, so we will have a chance to get her help again. Dusya and Liam will be done with an important part of their homeopathy clearings in December and we will be doing "mega-clears" next for several months. Hopefully we will get some new gains from there, specially from Liam, who has been reacting a lot to the homeopathy clears, in particular with his sound sensitivity, which has intensified in the last months. Everything is temporary, that I know for sure. Liam will also start to have sessions with Tony's chiropractor to support the healing of his nervous system even more. We have Tony now in two more hours of OT with a reflex integration program, so his exercises for reflex integration are changing (they don't need to be done everyday anymore), so I will keep you posted of that. Once the OT has more time availability in her schedule, we plan to add Duch and Liam to reflex integration, too. As you can see, we are always complementing our programs with new things that can help the kids' healing.
We are very happy with Tony's progress and will keep working with him to balance his vestibular system, integrate his reflexes and improve his fine and gross motor skills. Thanks for all of you who play with him and challenge him to talk more and to play more with others. He is attending a "planet class" once a week now to get him used to the school environment again. We are considering sending him to kindergarten in January. We will see. First, Antonio and I have to visit the public school and see if we like it for Tony.
Duch is doing awesome in all ways. She is speaking more, playing more, and learning to be more patient and to communicate what she wants without crying. Keep coming up with new themes for her and her puppets, because she LOVES themes. The highlight of today was she taking Ashley's hand when Ashley arrived and saying "Let's go play". Then, in the playroom, she looks at Ashley and says: "Let's play dressup with Sesame Street". Later, she asked specifically for the animal hats for the dress up.
Liam is using longer sentences more and more. He is very sensitive to sound lately and is focused on traffic signs a lot. He is definitely doing the best he can given all the things we are doing in his body. Liam is a star, he always starts last and finishes first in this house (ask anybody who was in the potty training team about Liam being our star in the potty months before Tony and Duch). He was also the first to learn all the academics in this house. Celebrate him for everything he does because he is very sweet and sensitive and he knows if people are stressed with him. Relax and you will see he will play more and more with you. The next months will bring great things for Liam's healing of his nervous and immune systems.
And now, some pictures of today, when Maddie, Tony and Liam were playing with dry leaves in teh backyard. Very sweet moments!!! They were having fun together!
We are very happy with Tony's progress and will keep working with him to balance his vestibular system, integrate his reflexes and improve his fine and gross motor skills. Thanks for all of you who play with him and challenge him to talk more and to play more with others. He is attending a "planet class" once a week now to get him used to the school environment again. We are considering sending him to kindergarten in January. We will see. First, Antonio and I have to visit the public school and see if we like it for Tony.
Duch is doing awesome in all ways. She is speaking more, playing more, and learning to be more patient and to communicate what she wants without crying. Keep coming up with new themes for her and her puppets, because she LOVES themes. The highlight of today was she taking Ashley's hand when Ashley arrived and saying "Let's go play". Then, in the playroom, she looks at Ashley and says: "Let's play dressup with Sesame Street". Later, she asked specifically for the animal hats for the dress up.
Liam is using longer sentences more and more. He is very sensitive to sound lately and is focused on traffic signs a lot. He is definitely doing the best he can given all the things we are doing in his body. Liam is a star, he always starts last and finishes first in this house (ask anybody who was in the potty training team about Liam being our star in the potty months before Tony and Duch). He was also the first to learn all the academics in this house. Celebrate him for everything he does because he is very sweet and sensitive and he knows if people are stressed with him. Relax and you will see he will play more and more with you. The next months will bring great things for Liam's healing of his nervous and immune systems.
And now, some pictures of today, when Maddie, Tony and Liam were playing with dry leaves in teh backyard. Very sweet moments!!! They were having fun together!
Planning the next group meeting for Saturday November 20
Hi everybody, it has almost been a month since our last group meeting, so it is time to regroup again and see where we are and were we will move next. I know Thanksgiving and exams are coming at the end of the month, and then in December some of you will be travelling and very busy, so I would like to have a meeting in November, which may be our last meeting for this year. I have checked with several of you and it seems Saturday Nov 20 works for many of you. The time is still open, but most of you seem to like the 4pm to 6pm idea. I will keep you posted of the time, but please mark your calendars.
A Note from SonRise About Shouting/Whining
I just saw this posting in the SonRise Blog and thought of many conversations we have had in the past about how to help the kids reduce their whining/crying. This is a good summary of the points we have agreed to implement consistently as a team:
FROM BECKY (Son-Rise Program Teacher): Do you have a child who sometimes shouts, whines or screams as they tell you what they want? I have worked with many children and adults using The Son-Rise Program, where this has been a way that they have communicated at times.
What to do when this happens is to simply explain or ask them to use their regular voice. Know that they are doing the best they can to communicate something in that moment, they also have learnt that using that voice has worked to get them what they want in the past and then sweetly and lovingly, help them to know that it's not helpful to them and they can use their regular non shouty/whiny/screamy/ voice instead.
As a contrast to this, celebrate and respond quickly when they do use their regular voice. Go for it! it works like a charm!
FROM BECKY (Son-Rise Program Teacher): Do you have a child who sometimes shouts, whines or screams as they tell you what they want? I have worked with many children and adults using The Son-Rise Program, where this has been a way that they have communicated at times.
What to do when this happens is to simply explain or ask them to use their regular voice. Know that they are doing the best they can to communicate something in that moment, they also have learnt that using that voice has worked to get them what they want in the past and then sweetly and lovingly, help them to know that it's not helpful to them and they can use their regular non shouty/whiny/screamy/ voice instead.
As a contrast to this, celebrate and respond quickly when they do use their regular voice. Go for it! it works like a charm!
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Tony's first "trick or treat"
Ladies, Tony's practice in our Halloween party paid off. He was great on Halloween night! He got lots of compliments! And, he was not even interested in the candy. His favorite part? A house with a crazy electric chair in the front!! He was not scared of it at all!
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