Meeting with our volunteers.

This post has been copied from our "Care Page"
Posted Dec 20, 2011 10:09pm


Tomorrow night we will meet with or first choice for a volunteer in Brady's Son Rise program! Ruthie!!! Ruthie is Brady's pre school teacher for the early childhood education program, and both Steve and I just adore her!! She is the epitome of Energy, Enthusiasm, and Excitement!! Or "the 3 E's" like the program teaches!! The very first time I met Ruthie, I stopped by her pre school room and introduced myself as the mother of "Brady" a 2 and 3/4 year old (at that time) boy who had just been diagnosed with autism. I proceeded to tell her that he would soon be joining her class. Ruthie, unlike most people who you meet for the first time, GRABBED me and gave me a huge hug!!! I remember thinking….uuuh, ohhh,…OK….and "kind of" hugged her back…."awkward" most people when they meet for the first time shake hands….not Ruthie!! That is not her style, and BOY are we glad she is the way she is!!!… WE JUST LOVE HER!!! AND SHE LOVES BRADY!! Anyway, The night before the volunteer talk/lecture at the Son Rise conference I attended Dec 5th through the 9th, I had made a list of potential people I could talk to about being a volunteer in our Son Rise program. I was thinking how in the world am I going to find people who would be willing to do this for FREE??? The "lecture" was so great!! They told us all about how to go about "selecting" volunteers, that after that lecture I found myself crossing people off that list, and narrowing it down to a select few that I really wanted to give the "gift" to!! I say gift, because the way they (the Son Rise teachers) talked about being a Son Rise volunteer…it really is a gift to be part of something so incredible and special!! You are "allowing" the special people in your child's life to be a part of something EXTREMELY amazing!! They read a letter from a MD who had volunteered in a child's program that he never knew before he choose to volunteer. He had responded to a flyer he had seen posted at his local health food store. He said the principals he learned in the program (that the parents of this child taught him) carried over into EVERY aspect of his life! He said he was so grateful to be a part of this special program that the "payment" of the experience and self growth he got from being a volunteer, was priceless, and worth WAY more then any salary he could have earned! He felt more fulfilled in his own life by becoming a special part of the child's life he helped recover from autism!! They also talk about picking people who you would pick, if you COULD pick your family members. Essentially they will be members of your "Son Rise" family by choice. When your child no longer "needs" the program…the volunteers will be like surrogate parents to your child. They will marvel at all of the "normal" milestones Brady will reach…knowing how unlikely it would have been for him to achieve with out them!! They taught me that our volunteers will commit to Brady, they will surround him, and love him, and help guide him into our world, and out of the exclusiveness of the world he has created for himself. If you don't already know...Autistic kids get very easily overstimulated, so in defense they shut out the rest of the world, and all of it's stimulus, because when they shut everything out, the world they create inside themselves is a safe happy place. We need to help convince them that our world is fun safe and happy, and WE want them to join us there! So in order to do that….we have to FIRST join them in their world so we can lovingly guide them into ours!! SO, because of ALL of that I found myself carefully re-considering who I would give our Son Rise "gift" to!! Ruthie still tops that list!! If we can teach her the Son Rise principals, and she helps us guide Brady lovingly into our world…just think after we recover Brady…how many other families she can help!! It is what she does!! She teaches special needs kids! Wouldn't it be awesome if after a couple years in Rutihies class those "special" kids would no longer be "special" in a need extra help way?? They would be especially "typical"!!! It will be like a ripple in a pond! I feel so excited at the thought that!! Maybe one day, because of Brady, our family, and volunteers like Ruthie….many more kids could potentially reach their FULL potential!! and be "typical" children!!
OH, and by the way the people who taught the the Son Rise lectures, at the conference I went to have all personally helped MANY children…starting with their OWN family!! Bryn…who together with her parents helped her baby brother Raun, THE VERY FIRST Son Rise participant FULLY recover from his SEVERE autism!! He was WAY worse and way more "in his own world" then Brady is!! So we are already 5 steps ahead!! THEN, Bryn along with her husband William, who is also one of the Son Rise teachers, FULLY recovered their own adopted daughter Jade!!
So it is not "too good to be true" It is REAL!! If you read about my own VERY FIRST session working with Brady in this manner, you have to get the chills!! If you have not read about it yet…go back an update in this care page and you can read of mine and Brady's successes already in using this principal!
The SECRET they teach?? SIMPLE!!
Love, and REALLY, REALLY play with your child! ONE ON ONE…just you and your child…NO TV, NO electronic gadgets…just you and him…anyone remember imagination?? Back in the day when we all had less, and played just fine, using our imaginations!!
Accept him for who he is, and love him unconditionally!!
Who wouldn't LOVE BRADY? RIGHT??
And another FYI: Raun, the very 1st Son Rise child is now a graduate from Brown University, with a degree in Biomedical Ethics!! AND He is the CEO of the Autism Treatment Center of America!! How is THAT for irony…to all the professionals who told his parents Barry and Samaria Kaufman to forget about him, to institutionalize him…that he would never be more then a mute, helpless, mentally retarded child with an IQ of less then 30!! :oP
We are going to build an official Son Rise playroom in the basement, since our basement is partially unfinished. Our goal is to be doing at least 25 hours of in home one on one time with Brady in the "playroom" each week! And since we don't want the other kiddos to feel left out of the playtime, we have a plan to do the Son Rise principal with the other 2 too! Piper will get 7 hours one on one "therapy" hours a week in the playroom, and Hayden will get 12 hours a week of one on one time with either Steve or I. During the week, we will have helpers/volunteers come in and do the therapy with Brady from 3-5:30, so we can do homework with Piper, cook dinner, etc. We are also hoping to have family come spend time with Piper and Hayden on the weekends so Steve and I can spend a lot of one on one time with Brady in the playroom on the weekends.
Our goal is to be doing a full time therapy routine starting after the first of the year!
That means Brady will be one very busy little boy!! BUSY at play!!
M-F from 9am until 11:45 he will continue to go to the Rochester Center for Autism, then from 12noon until 2:30 he will be with Ruthie at school in the Byron public school early childhood program, and then from 3pm to 5:30 he will be one on one at home in therapy with either Steve, myself, or one of Brady's volunteers! TOGETHER we WILL "find" him!!
I BELIEVE!!!!

Disclaimer: The information on this blog is NOT intended to take the place of diagnosis and treatment by a qualified licensed healthcare provider. Any recommendations are for educational purposes only and are believed to be effective. However, since USE of any information provided herein by others is beyond the control of Michelle Bacon, RN, no expressed or implied guarantee as to the effectiveness of this information can be given nor liability taken.