Son-Rise: The Miracle Continues

Rating:
Summary: MAKE SURE YOU READ THIS BOOK!
Review: This book picks up where "Son-Rise" left off. Readers are treated to the gift of a healthy, nonautistic Raun and his sisters. Raun provides many of the insights about autism. "You have to be pretty smart to pull it off," he says later. "I don't know how I ever spun a shoe box on one corner. I couldn't do that now." My favorite part was Raun's second grade assignment, which was to draw a picture of himself. His picture was of a beautiful pregnant woman. When asked why he drew a pregnant woman, he said, "That's my mother. There is a little boy inside her spinning a plate." That is a lovely story about how this child was able to chart his own progress and development.

The Kauffmans and their dedicated team of loving people have proved time and again the strength of love and hope. The case histories that are included in this book are very interesting and thought provoking. The Option Program is indeed one of empowerment and helping people to recognize what decisions they can make about their lives.

This is definitely a must read. I can't recommend it highly enough. I love the Kauffmans!

Rating:
Summary: MAKE SURE YOU READ THIS BOOK!
Review: This book picks up where "Son-Rise" left off. Readers are treated to the gift of a healthy, nonautistic Raun and his sisters. Raun provides many of the insights about autism. "You have to be pretty smart to pull it off," he says later. "I don't know how I ever spun a shoe box on one corner. I couldn't do that now." My favorite part was Raun's second grade assignment, which was to draw a picture of himself. His picture was of a beautiful pregnant woman. When asked why he drew a pregnant woman, he said, "That's my mother. There is a little boy inside her spinning a plate." That is a lovely story about how this child was able to chart his own progress and development.

The Kauffmans and their dedicated team of loving people have proved time and again the strength of love and hope. The case histories that are included in this book are very interesting and thought provoking. The Option Program is indeed one of empowerment and helping people to recognize what decisions they can make about their lives.

This is definitely a must read. I can't recommend it highly enough. I love the Kauffmans!

Rating:
Summary: MAKE SURE YOU READ THIS BOOK!
Review: This book picks up where "Son-Rise" left off. Readers are treated to the gift of a healthy, nonautistic Raun and his sisters. Raun provides many of the insights about autism. "You have to be pretty smart to pull it off," he says later. "I don't know how I ever spun a shoe box on one corner. I couldn't do that now." My favorite part was Raun's second grade assignment, which was to draw a picture of himself. His picture was of a beautiful pregnant woman. When asked why he drew a pregnant woman, he said, "That's my mother. There is a little boy inside her spinning a plate." That is a lovely story about how this child was able to chart his own progress and development.

The Kauffmans and their dedicated team of loving people have proved time and again the strength of love and hope. The case histories that are included in this book are very interesting and thought provoking. The Option Program is indeed one of empowerment and helping people to recognize what decisions they can make about their lives.

This is definitely a must read. I can't recommend it highly enough. I love the Kauffmans!

Rating:
Summary: With it's message of hope, this book saved our lives.
Review: This book saved our lives. When my 2 yr. old son was diagnosed as autistic the entire medical profession turned their backs on him with terms such as "hopeless" or "we've never seen this before". My wife was fortunate enough to be handed this book by one of our son's occupational therapists and after reading it, she handed it over to a world class skeptic...me. With each line my eyes opened to a new world where I started to see opportunity instead of tradgedy, acceptance instead of repulsion and hope where there was once was no where to turn. The secret of this book is not in it's method of guiding special children, but in it's effect on the parents of that special child. When you are finished, you truly understand how "special" your child is and how with each new challenge, new wonderful doors open in your life. This book is essential for any parent dealing with the issues of raising a special child no matter what philosophy is being used in the child's development. If you are also fortunate enough to incorporate the teachings of the book into your child's program, you will see truly miraculous results. Don't pass this one up!!!!

Rating:
Summary: A life-changing experience!!
Review: This book totally changed my life. After our son was diagnosed with Autism, we were told he was severe and probably would never speak. I felt hopeless and confused about what the future would hold for him. The Kaufman's book totally changed my life and I realized that there was so much hope for him. Through the Son-Rise program, we were taught that attitude, excitement and love can all work together to bring about great changes in children with special needs. Now our son is an absolute joy to be with. He has good language skills, he laughs and jokes and hugs and best of all, he loves people. Everyday is a gift! If you want to be inspired, read the book.

Rating:
Summary: Take the criticisms below with a grain of salt...
Review: This is an excellent book, which has made such a tremendous difference in our autistic daughter's life. We are running a Son-Rise Program for her, and are seeing wonderful advances in her eye contact, attention span and interpersonal skills.

Having gone to the Option Institute twice now, I must take issue with the assertions of some interviewers below that they are a "cult". Perhaps there is a sort-of "group-think" among the people there, but that tends to happen in any long-term gathering of people, from AA meetings to high schools. That alone does not make a group a cult, though I can understand how outsiders might be put off by it.

Both times my husband and I were there (there were about fifty other people in our group as well) the people at Option didn't try to brainwash us, cut us off from our families, or make us worship Barry Kaufman - as a true cult would have. If they were a "cult", they certainly missed a golden opportunity to enslave a whole slew of new members!

More tellingly, they never challenged our religious beliefs; everyone left with the same beliefs about God (or lack thereof) with which we came. At one point, my husband told Bears (Barry Kaufman) about certain correspondences he saw between elements of the Option Process and Catholic philosophy (we are devout Catholics). Bears replied that he thought it was wonderful that we could relate the principles of Option to our own Faith. *Never once* did the man disparage or challenge our religious beliefs, or force his beliefs about God on us!

Does that sound like a "cult leader" to you???

In her review, Rivkah Maccaby writes that, "as far as she knows", the Kaufmans aren't up on the latest scientific advancements in autism treatments. Actually, the people at the Option Institute did recommend to us that we learn about and consider implementing the various nutritional interventions for autism, such as the gluten-free, casein-free diet.

Another reviewer thinks Raun Kaufman is an "emotional neuter". Well, I've seen him speak twice, and he is as affable, warm, funny and human a person as you could ever meet. He's definitely not "emotionally neutered", and I wish people would not judge someone based on the introduction they wrote for a book! So he loves his parents; is that a crime? If it wasn't for their tremendous work and sacrifice for him over a four-year period, he'd probably be locked in an institution today. But because of their tireless dedication, he now leads a normal life. How can a person realize that and not be deeply grateful?

As for lack of scientific evidence that the method works, the Son-Rise people told us that, very often, once parents help their children to emerge from autism using the Son-Rise Program they turn around a refuse to tell their stories to other parents! They are somehow "embarrassed" about their kid's autism and want to "forget" it or "hide" it from their child - and I personally know of one family in my area which did this! Seems to me such families never entirely internalized the total acceptance of autistic children which is a cornerstone of the Son-Rise Program; there's nothing shameful in being autistic. Yet the program still worked for them somehow, which is a testament to its power.

Nonetheless, it is a source of frustration to the people at the Option Institute, since they can't collect as many success stories as they would like, which leaves them open to the "you have no evidence that this works" charge. They are actively trying to collect data from parents at every Son-Rise workshop, and then collect follow-up data six months later. This helps them show to questioners and potential donors that the method does in fact work!

I suggest people find out more about the Option Institute before criticizing it without knowledge. Yes, the programs cost quite a bit, and that may keep more people from learning it (though scholarships are available and they also teach you how to fundraise). No, the people there are not perfect, but who is? And no, Option is not my religion, though it definitely has some good ideas rooted in the teachings of Jesus, Aquinas and the Socratic Method (among others). If you don't want to do the Son-Rise program, then don't do it; no one is holding a gun to your head. But based on my personal experience and that of others I know who've implemented the program (we kept in touch by email after our seminars), I can tell you that it does work, and that it is worth doing!

This program is helping my daughter and many other children with a variety of special needs - not just autism. I just don't want other families who would potentially find it helpful to be scared off by nebulous charges of "cultism" and "emotional neutering" of children. How ironic that the same people who complain that the program's claims of success are "unsubstantiated" can themselves make such *unsubstantiated* charges against the Kaufmans and the Option Institute!

Rating:
Summary: What I Wrote
Review: When I said "as far as I know," it preceded "the Kaufmans are still living in 1969." I did not exactly mean that they aren't aware of things like the cf/gf diet. I meant that philosophically, they are still living in the days of the flower children.

Perhaps I am being unfair, since this book is now two decades old-- albeit, it was published two decades after Woodstock.

The methods the Kaufmans used are recognized therapies now. Some of them existed at the time Raun was a toddler, though they were considered radical. They are now conventional. In a sense, the Kaufmans reinvented the wheel, because instead of intuiting their therapy processes, they could have found them in a book called The Me Book, a book published around the time, or just before, Raun was born.

My point in saying that the Kaufmans are behind the times is that they still believe that their therapy is some kind of love-in, and that is why it works. Back when The Me Book was written, no one had any idea why the therapies worked. Now we do. We know from PET scans and MRI's, from lifelong studies by dedicated doctors and psychologists, why these methods work, and it is NOT because the therapist loves the child.

The Kaufmans "love conquers all" attitude is bound to make some parents feel inadequate, because the converse is that parents whose children do not improve are not loving enough. If love were the solution, there would not be any autistic children.

Now if Kaufman believes that the mechanism is that parental loves drives the effort required to continue the intensive therapy day after day, then he is right. But I don't think this is what he means. I believe Kaufman actually thinks that this therapy is an expression of love. It may be, among other things, but love is not the reason this therapy works.