Reaching Out For Help

Katie is six years old. She was a really happy a contended baby. She was always quiet and didn't speak much; we had our concerns but thought that she was just a late developer. When she was two years old she was diagnosed with Autism and associated learning difficulties.

This news was devastating as we knew that with autism she would have a life long difficulty and would always need assistance from others. When she was diagnosed there was little hope of improvement and we were told that only one in five Children with Autism ever talked. We were also told that her behaviour would most probably get worse as she found others and the outside world harder and harder to understand.

We were determined to give Katie every chance to understand the world and cope with the world around her. She had music therapy, speech therapy, water therapy and attended a specialist school which also included various methods to help Katie to communicate.

At nearly five years old and after two years of all these therapies Katie was still

Ÿ non verbal,
Ÿ very withdrawn
Ÿ unsure of the world.
Ÿ She had no eye contact
Ÿ unwilling to have any or seek anyone's company preferring to be on her own
Ÿ found physical contact uncomfortable.

That was until we found the Son-rise at the option institute of America. The Son-rise is a home based child friendly parent directed program which uses a non-judgemental and loving attitude to reach autistic children. Using the Childs motivation and allowing the child to set the pace of learning and growth, facilitates a love of learning and the want to be with others.

We have been running Katie's son-rise program for just over a year and a half and Katie has now got
Ÿ 90-95% eye contact,
Ÿ is able to say and use around 150-200 words
Ÿ loves to play with her facillators.
Ÿ Answers to her name
Ÿ Recognises family members
Ÿ Is just learnt to say and recognise the alphabet
Ÿ Knows her numbers and colours
Ÿ and is able to enjoy physical contact

Although Katie has come a long way she is still very anxious of the outside world and hates sudden or loud noise. She still finds talking or playing with others extremely hard and has trouble creating and forming sentences.

To help our very special little girl we need to take her to America to the option institute to give Katie the opportunity to blossom and reach her full potential.

She will receive one to one tailor-made therapies from fully trained Son- rise teachers and facillators. We would receive expert advice and teaching techniques on how to run an effective sonrise program at home. You can imagine how valuable this would mean to Katie and our family.
We needed to raise £8800 or 5500 Maltese Liri to be able to fulfil our dream of getting the intense therapy and training she so desperately needs.