I understand that you recommend children with autism stay isolated in one room for much of the day. Why do you do this, and why is it a good idea?
Answer:
We have a specialized playroom that we teach parents to set up. Many of the children we work with have sensory integration issues, and are highly overstimulated - sights and sounds make them overstimulated, less interactive. We say, in the short term, the more time you can spend in the playroom the better. Of course, it's okay to leave [and some children in the Son-Rise program are even in school].
Many people wonder how children with autism can deal with the real world if they're never in it? The idea is that children on the spectrum can learn to digest sensory overload, but not if they're bombarded with too many inputs. We recommend no electronics, no TV, just a very simple playroom. We slowly start to introduce more and more sensory things. When a child is making a lot of progress, playroom becomes more typical. Then we get out into the real world.
We don't want to force a child to comply to a world he doesn't understand. When you do things too early (introduce peers, etc.), children don't have success - and it's not especially successful. We're "selling" our world to the child - don't want to set them up for failure.
Question:
What would you say to a parent who feels that Son-Rise is just too overwhelming and difficult?
Answer:
I think that at the end of the day it's not the specifics of what a person is doing that makes them happy. We ask parents what they want to do - part time or full time. Then we help them to get really excited about that - where they can do that and be happy. We're not saying "don't have a life," but we're trying to build around parents' needs to create a program. At the end, certain parents do things out of guilt. I've seen people do 2-3 hours after school, and it works very well.
When we don't place limits ahead of time, often kids go farther than we anticipate.
