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Summary: A story of love, hope and wonder!
Review: "Son-Rise: The Miracle Continues" is one of the most inspiring and beautifully written books I have ever read. In fact, I have read it again and again, and each time I am moved and touched in new and wondrous ways. It is a story filled with love and joy and exploration and wonder. It is a story about real hope and the unending belief that everything is possible. Barry Neil Kaufman describes with great beauty and honesty the personal details of the journey he and his wife, Samahria, traveled with their once-autistic son. The love and passion and delight surrounding their journey spills forth from the pages. It is truly extraordinary. The totally loving, accepting, and non-judgmental attitude that they brought to their special son, and to themselves, seems so right and so clear. It is the kind of love everyone would want. And while the love and attitude are central, Mr. Kaufman also details how they made this love tangible and visible to their child, working with him every day in this very special way, making their love even more powerful through their actions. And it works. After reading this book, I was inspired to do a Son-Rise Program for my own special child, who has, as a result, completely transformed and blossomed into the beautiful child he is today. It has changed his life and my own. What an incredible gift! Whether you have a special child in your life, or you want a very special book, "Son-Rise: The Miracle Continues" will truly touch you and inspire you in wonderful ways.
Rating:
Summary: A story of love, hope and wonder!
Review: "Son-Rise: The Miracle Continues" is one of the most inspiring and beautifully written books I have ever read. In fact, I have read it again and again, and each time I am moved and touched in new and wondrous ways. It is a story filled with love and joy and exploration and wonder. It is a story about real hope and the unending belief that everything is possible. Barry Neil Kaufman describes with great beauty and honesty the personal details of the journey he and his wife, Samahria, traveled with their once-autistic son. The love and passion and delight surrounding their journey spills forth from the pages. It is truly extraordinary. The totally loving, accepting, and non-judgmental attitude that they brought to their special son, and to themselves, seems so right and so clear. It is the kind of love everyone would want. And while the love and attitude are central, Mr. Kaufman also details how they made this love tangible and visible to their child, working with him every day in this very special way, making their love even more powerful through their actions. And it works. After reading this book, I was inspired to do a Son-Rise Program for my own special child, who has, as a result, completely transformed and blossomed into the beautiful child he is today. It has changed his life and my own. What an incredible gift! Whether you have a special child in your life, or you want a very special book, "Son-Rise: The Miracle Continues" will truly touch you and inspire you in wonderful ways.
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Summary: This wonderful book of unconditional love changed my life.
Review: I read every book I could find on alternative treatments and therapies [for autisim]. Nothing I read appealed to me. Then a family member gave me the book that would significantly alter our lives. Little did I know that when I read Son-Rise: The Miracle Continues, that my life, the lives of every member of my family and many in our community would be forever changed. As a person who was brought up in a rather open-minded home, the Kaufman's precepts, teachings and beliefs at once made perfect sense. I knew when I finished the book that I would take my family to Option Institute to learn this process. I had hope once again. The most important thing that Barry Neil Kaufman has taught our family is to reach for the stars, believing whole-heartedly that you will touch them, while totally accepting it if you do not attain your goals. What we used to look upon as tragedies now are always viewed as opportunities for growth and happiness. Thank you Bears Kaufman for your beautiful words of wisdom, hope and love.
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Summary: A FRAUD IN AUTISM TREATMENT
Review: A feel good book, a feel good mushy headed philosophy - - - BUT NO CURE FOR AUTISM TO BE CERTAIN! Can I please see ONE STATISTIC? Tell me the name of a child that has been cured!
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Summary: A message of unconditional love!
Review: Anyone who doesn't appreciate this book is missing the point. The work of the Kaufman family has been neglected and shunned by many in the autistic community on the pretense that it is "unscientific" and will "make" people feel bad if they try other treatments, but the truth is the Kaufmans are among the first to offer a program that not only CAN get results, but doesn't emphasize results as the important part of the journey. The important part, we are reminded, is to love our children and ourselves no matter what. This book makes clear the importance of doing whatever you feel is best for your child, while emphasizing that those decisions should come from a place of love and not of fear.
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Summary: Son-rise review
Review: I cannot give you a review yet because I have not received my copy yet. But based upon my reading the original book & seeing the tv movie, I found it very interesting & informative.
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Summary: This is a very special perspective on autism.
Review: I have been working with my autistic son using floortime and developmental approaches, which are very similar to what Kaufman describes in this book - you join your child, you focus on creating meaningful interaction between the two of you, you engage your child and gently draw him into your world rather than forcing him into it. While I don't think I'd pay thousands for someone to show me this, the book is quite cheap and really all you need to get the idea of what they did.
The critical piece for me was the utter acceptance of your child for who he or she is. Love is unconditional. Too often, even if we don't intend to give this message, children with special needs or differences can feel like we only love them if they recover or if they become verbal or if they stop stimming, or whatever it is that we are working on. The Kaufmans' approach has as its bedrock unconditional love and acceptance. It is the balance of this love with the striving for more - for the child to reach his greatest potential - that many reviewers missed as the core message of the book. They are not mutually exclusive. The author never once insinuates that a person should "feel badly" if their child doesn't make a full "recovery," or if they didn't do everything just as the Kaufmans did.
The point is not, "follow this method and your child will also recover from autism." It is simply to love and be with your child, to tune into his needs, and from there your child will grow and blossom to his greatest capacity. And wherever that is - on the spectrum or off - is just fine. Process, not product, is emphasized.
I had to put the book down at first because Kaufman's style reeked of New Agey feelings. I keep telling my husband, "I like this book a lot even though it's so wacky." If you can get past that, the message is a pure one.
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Summary: Never trust any miracles that come with price-tags
Review: I have very mixed feelings about this book. When Kaufman describes them in any detail, the developmental play techniques he uses with his son seem intelligent and useful, and the emphasis on responsiveness and attention to what motivates the child in question is good. It's also nice to read someone who is not continually worried about how to eliminate entirely harmless but "inappropriate" autistic behavior. Various other writers - Stanley Greenspan, Melanie Nind and Dave Hewett, etc. - have actually developed similar techniques, but have described them in much greater detail and scientifically documented their (more modest) claims, something Kaufman has consistently failed to do. Too often, however, Kaufman seems to reject practical details in favour of claiming that the right attitude is all that matters, the right attitude apparently requiring "choosing" to feel happy about everything. Any parent of a child with autism who occasionally feels tired, frustrated, or momentarily unable to "choose" to be ecstatic will now have to feel inadequate as well. As a person with an autistic spectrum condition (Asperger's syndrome) myself, and as a volunteer with severely autistic children, I happen to think that autism and autistic people are beautiful and wonderful beyond measure, but I don't think that such enjoyment and delight should be made compulsory (a sure way to destroy them anyway) or that parents should have to feel that they are failing their child if they also feel the other, equally human and valid emotions of fatigue, worry, or grief...he seems to be selling acceptance on the basis that if you just accept something enough, then a "miracle" will occur and it will go away (which is an odd sort of acceptance). If a mirac! le doesn't occur, then presumably you had the wrong attitude... For many children, I'm sure that the practical techniques he describes are genuinely beneficial (Craig Schulze, in "When Snow Turns to Rain", describes how they were not for his son), but I have an innate distrust of anyone who sells (literally or figuratively) a fixed package of techniques as a "miracle cure" for all children and all problems. Some limits and differences are real; some children can't just "choose" to be normal; some disabilities don't go away, and true acceptance may mean learning to live and work with them.
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Summary: Inspirational and uplifting
Review: I read this book when my child was 5 years old and in the public school system, in which he was receiving failing grades from his CST. This book renewed my hope and dreams for my child which was in total opposition to the 'professionals' opinions. This book changed our direction in life for our child. My child's grades are straight A's vs. straight F's. My child is happy and so are we!!! This is a must read for any parent dealing with a child with special needs.
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Summary: love can cure; but love binds also...this is a CULT FAMILY
Review: i was so excited to read this book, primarily because i wanted to see what Raun would write in his intro. well, i wasn't really let down, because i pretty much expected him to write what he wrote, and i'll paraphrase: "my parents and my dad are the greatest, most loving people ever, i love them and will be extremely close to them always, i have ZERO criticisms of them, they are perfect, and now look at me, i am the perfect, happiest, most normal, most functioning, most well-adjusted 20 year old ever. i play sports, have girlfriends, am in a co-ed fraternity, have friends, am intellectual, am in a top-flight college, get great grades...AND I AM UTTERLY BORING, NON-FREE-THINKING, AND AS ATTACHED TO MY PARENTS AS ONE COULD IMAGINE." what strikes me after reading this book (and i suspected it strongly from reading son-rise) is that this family, led by the father Barry, is a self-promoting cult. now granted, the message they offer is a wonderful one, and that's what primarily drew me to the book - as they prove, to me, beyond a reasonable doubt, that pure love and acceptance can cure the most disturbed person, such as their little autistic son, BUT!!! But, that kid strikes me as an emotional neuter as an adult, and i BLAME his parents. i think they have no right to have written about his life so explicitly, essentially making him into a child star, observing his behavior for the general public, talking about his problems and his successes, his first crushes on girls. these are things, i SO STRONGLY THINK, that should be private, to truly allow a boy/man (really any person) to explore him or herself, and to share with the world what he or she wishes about him or herself. i feel those parents trapped their little boy, and make it impossible for him to find any fault in them, and as such...he can never gain his wings and fly away...even if it's only to explore a little bit. this family makes it seem like any form of anger is a crime, a bad thing, and that to choose anything other than happiness shows some error on one's own part. thus, to feel angry and to be anything other than happy would be betraying the cult. you know, my parents may not have been as "loving" as Raun's, but they didn't also publicly flaunt me to the world, and for that i thank them. and i strongly suspect that father flaunted his son in front of the world...as a odd and unconscious message to his own parents...due to his own unresolved issues (anger!!!) with them. i just don't buy the whole message.
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