Son-Rise Start Up Program

These are all pictures from last week during my trip to Massachusetts for the Son-Rise Program training. It was awesome. I'm so glad that I was able to do it. I really can't explain the whole concept in a paragraph, but basically the Son-Rise program is a parent-directed, child-centered program based on the principles of love, acceptance, and respect. If you know ABA...well, this is opposite. Instead of stopping Kyan from stimming, I join him when he's stimming. Instead of trying to get Kyan to do what I want him to do, I follow his lead. They helped me to have a more accepting and non-judgemental attitude toward him. It has really helped me to change my perspectives with lots of things...not just Kyan. This is also the only program that focuses on the entire family and not just the child. AND I finally was able to connect with 90 other people just like me...Proactive parents and volunteers who have hope for their special children.

Here we are at the airport saying goodbye. It was really hard being away from my boys for a whole week, but it was so worth it.

Here is what some of the cabins look like from the outside.
This is me with my roomie, Tanya. She is from Wichita and her son is only 10 days older than Kyan. We have a lot in common and really hit it off well.

This is the room we shared. I got to be on top!

We went hiking in the woods. Isn't this what people look like when they're hiking?

This is Saralee on a really huge wooden swing set.

The huge house on the top of the hill is where the offices are. What a beautiful place to work.

This is the view from the house on top of the hill. The area was gorgeous.

This is Saralee and Lydia, the two other girls who shared our cabin apartment. They are both volunteers who have already been running Son-Rise Programs.

This is a pond on the campus that has crystal clear water.

Everything was so pretty.

Thursday night everyone decided to go down the road for a little party off campus. (There was supposed to be a live band but it cancelled at the last minute). Did you know that 10 people can fit (uncomfortably) into a PT Cruiser? It looked like a clown car.

This is me, my roomie Tanya, Monique (from CA), and Gretchen (from Atlanta).

I love this picture because the four people (not including the half face girl) are all from different countries. The three people dancing all speak different languages, but they all got down together to some Funky Cold Medina (is that how you spell that song?). This is so descriptive of the entire week together.

In our class there were people from 11 different countries and 22 different states in the US. The people who couldn't speak English were given headsets, and translators sat in a booth during classes.

This is me with Brian, my family counselor. He talked to me numerous times on the phone before making the decision to go, and he gave me advice while I was there. He recovered his severely autistic son using the Son-Rise Program, and now he and his wife moved to Massachusetts to work for the Autism Treatment Center.

This is where we spent our days. You can see pictures of our children on the walls behind us. I sat in the front row almost every day! (that is so unlike me). Jewell on my right lives in St Louis, then me, Ursela, Monique, and Lydia.

This is me with Bryn, who taught several of the classes. She is Raun Kaufman's older sister and daughter of the founders of the treatment center. She also recovered her adopted daughter from autism.

Monique, Lydia, me, and Tanya.

Crazy timer shot with Saralee.

Here we are again. I'm holding Kyan's picture from the wall. I really met some amazing people there who are going through the same things. We all formed a big support group and plan on continuing to support each other in starting up our own Son-Rise programs. It was a great experience.

Happy Anniversary

Today is our 3 year anniversary. Wow, it seems like it's been so much longer...in a good way. I could not find our wedding pictures on the computer so this is Matt and I at our old house in OKC.
So for our anniversary (not really, but I like to pretend that I planned it this way) we officially became animal free! Our love for animals was initially one of the qualities that attracted us to each other, but with Kyan's allergy problems we have been so fortunate to find wonderful homes for all of them. Isabelle drove off with a new family last night and our house is (or soon will be) pet dander free. Welcome Halbert! Hopefully Matt and Kyan will notice a big difference soon.

Happy Anniversary, Matt...the greatest husband of all time!

ProCharger Party

Saturday afternoon we went to ProCharger's 15 year anniversary party. It was great. They had a bounce house, a big waterslide, and gigantic inflatable obstacle course....not to mention a clown, food, games, and prizes. Here is Kyan in the bounce house. He had lots of fun.
Kyan loves water and was obsessing over the big waterslide. These super nice girls offered to take him up and down the slide with them. He was in Heaven...hanging out with two older girls in bikinis. He had such a great time with them. They were so sweet to play with him.

He was devastated when the girls had to leave. I tried to take him up myself but couldn't make it up the slide. I really felt old.

Here is Matt going through the big obstacle course. I wish I would have taken a picture of the whole thing. It was huge! I've never seen anything like it.

He went down the slide head first, and this is how he landed. He's lucky he didn't skid across the parking lot on his face. All three of us were super exhausted when we left.

Ponca Pics

Kyan and I made a quick trip to Ponca the other day to visit my family. I hadn't seen my granny since March. But we didn't get to stay long at all. It flew by super fast. Still it was good to see everyone and we had a fun time. Hopefully next time won't be so rushed. Thanks mom and Tony for everything!

Kyan loved playing in the backyard and on the deck. That's pretty much all he wanted to do most of the time.

"This backyard is AWESOME!"

Grandma has a big waterfall on her back deck. Kyan loved playing in the water. It was the first thing he asked to do when he woke up Friday morning (that's why he's still in his jammies with crazy bed head).

He also liked the turtles who live in the waterfall.

Here is Kyan seeing how close he can get to the chiminea before I get onto him. The only thing I asked him not to touch was the inside of the chiminea; so of course he teased me with it.

Kyan really liked all the plants on grandma's deck. Sorry grandma, hope they're all okay.

We played in great-granny's backyard. There was lots to explore there.

We tried to take pictures on the bench...it didn't work out so well.

Here is a cute pic of Kyan standing on dad's belly while dad is singing "If you're happy and you know it stomp your feet."

'Working' with K

Several people have asked about what I do with Kyan throughout the day...how I 'work' with him during our 'table time' and so forth. He has changed so much in the past three months that we've finally decided to start documenting with video as much as we can. I wish we would have started in the beginning, but hopefully in another few months his progress will be as remarkable and we'll be able to look back to these videos in amazement.

So I started the ABA therapy almost three months ago. I began with asking Kyan to imitate me putting a block into a bowl. It took several days just to get him to drop the block into the bowl on his own. I had to physically, hand over hand make him do it over and over again. For awhile with each new addition that's what I had to do...hand over hand help him imitate me. We work every day on motor imitation (like clapping, pointing, etc) and object imitation (like driving and crashing cars, feeding babies, and eating play food). I reward him with 'reinforcers' such as toys that he only gets to play with when he's 'working.'

So now we are working on receptive labeling (labeling objects and pictures by taking, giving, or pointing), colors, matching, and the big yes/no concept. It's amazing the things kids learn easily that autistic children have trouble grasping. If I ask him if he wants something like juice then he'll just repeat "juice" rather than saying yes or no.

This first video is me working with Kyan on saying "yes" instead of "more." I think he is starting to get it because yesterday I told him "No, I'm not opening that door right now" and he looked right at me and said "Yes." BTW he loves door stoppers so I'm using that along with throwing him on his couch as a reinforcer.

The second video is a short clip of our normal table time. We obviously cover a lot more in a session, but this is what it basically looks like everyday. I had him drop the block into the bowl just to show where we started and how hard it was to master the first skill. Imitation is still really hard for him, but he is definitely improving a lot with practice. He loves to work and even practices on his own at the table sometimes.