OPTION FOR Autism » The Option Institute and Autism
The Option Institute and Autism
The Son-Rise Program® was created by Barry Neil Kaufman and Samahria Lyte Kaufman to reach their own son, diagnosed as incurably autistic with an under 30 IQ, and transformed him into a young man with a near-genius IQ, who graduated from an Ivy League university and has no trace of his original condition. After directing a learning center for adolescent students, he became a teacher and trainer at The Option Institute and recently became the CEO of the Institute as well as Autism Treatment Center of America, a division of the Institute, where The Son-Rise Program is taught to parents and families from all around the world.
This unique treatment program, based on an attitude of love and acceptance, is profoundly gentle, non-judgmental and respectful of the child's world and creates maximum opportunity for growth.
For more than 25 years, The Son-Rise Program offered by Autism Treatment Center of America has helped parents of children challenged by Autism, Autism Spectrum Disorders, Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD), Asperger's Syndrome, and other developmental difficulties to help their children. As a parent conducting home-based Son-Rise Program, you learn to be there for their child in the most caring and helpful ways. You gain expertise in implementing unique and useful techniques. Most importantly, just as you ask your child to grow and change, you yourself have grow and change.
As a Son-Rise Program parent or volunteer, you learn that, although techniques are vital, it is your own attitude, drive, clarity and ability to believe in yourself and your child (even when no one else does) that help you to implement a successful program.
Over the years we've found that parents conducting home-based Son-Rise Programs find personal development programs at The Option Institute invaluable in gaining greater clarity, comfort and ease in working with their child and others.
Do you want to become a stronger program leader providing powerful feedback to volunteers, therapists, and even I.E.P. decision-makers? Would you like to develop skills to counsel those who work with your child so that they can become calmer, clearer and better able to help him or her more effectively? How about developing a relationship with your partner that is deeper, sweeter, closer and more fun? Or, how about (dare I say it!) taking a week to actually focus on YOU, building an unshakable sense of internal strength that can’t be rocked by what others say or do?
Any one of The Option Institute personal development programs can help Son-Rise parents and volunteers in their Son-Rise Programs and in their lives. However, there are several courses that Son-Rise parents who have completed The Son-Rise Program Sequence have found particularly useful.
