The Son-Rise Program®

Son-Rise® was developed in the seventies by Barry Neil Kaufman and Sahmaria Lyte Kaufman who treated their own autistic son Raun in a very unique, yet obvious way. They started joining him in his world, making all the same repetitive movements that he was making and thus gaining his trust. They introduced impulses and then games to make it fun and exciting for Raum to be in contact with this world that had been so complicated and confusing to him.

After the intense work of three years their son succeeded in completely losing all his autistic symptoms. This child that had been rated at an IQ of below 30 when diagnosed by experts who advised the parents to “best put this hopeless case into an institution” went on to graduate from an elite university and today heads the Autism Treatment Center of America.

Their journey has been chronicled and wonderfully been talked about in the books by Barry Neil Kaufman and the Son-Rise Program.

Reading about the program Christiane and Deniz Döhler, both improv theatre players themselves, could immediately translate its techniques into the language of improv. Nonplussed? Just see for yourself:

The program takes place in a play room, especially furnished for the child. Everything that happens in this room is accepted and spending his time in it should bring joy and fun to the child.
Oh yeah, this seems to be the ”Yes, and...“ room!

It is a major aim to always play with the child in an accepting and non-judgmental way, i.e. if the child happens to spin around objects for hours on end, the adult accepts that and participates in the activity; if the child flaps his or her arms, the adult does so, too; if the child is rocking back and forth incessantly, the adult does the same. By entering the autistic world of the child in the first place and playing the “Yes, and…” game with him or her, a base of trust is built.
Hmm… incorporating impulses, accepting and playing “Yes, and…,” – all of which is well-known territory for improv players.

Once the basis of trust has been established, games can become more clearly interactive and challenging, with a focus on communication, eye contact or physical contact. As a result, the child is being motivated by the adult’s energy, enthusiasm and excitement to spend more time in ”our“ world and daring to step out of his autistic world.
Ha! Over-accept, stay positive and drive the action forward…

The playing and training sessions are observed by the parents via a see-through mirror. At the end of each session the facilitator receives a detailed feedback. What went well? What could be improved yet? And, of course, how could you communicate with the child even more effectively? Every two weeks facilitators meet for supervision, assessing the results together. They determine new goals and look for appropriate techniques and games to pick up the child exactly where he or she stands.
Well, this rather reminds us of the preparations for and the debriefing of a performance.

What we notice over and over is that each participant goes about establishing this space of love and acceptance in his or her unique way. Also, the possible application not just in treating children on the autistic spectrum, but also in education generally as well as communication are manyfold. If you feel like being a part of our team or another team in your area, get in contact with us.

For more information, please refer to the website www.autismtreatmentcenter.org. If you are further interested in the Son-Rise® program you can obtain a wonderful BBC documen-tary on DVD either from us or on the website free of charge.