Jacob's American dream

Early in 2014 our youngest child, Jacob was diagnosed with severe autism. Although we both knew something was not quite right with his development- he still wasn’t talking, he rarely looked anyone in the eye, wouldn’t engage in play in anyway and got very frustrated when he couldn’t communicate his needs leading to him self-harming. But when we finally did receive his diagnosis it was as if someone had ‘pulled the rug’ from beneath our little families feet!

While struggling to come to terms with what having an autistic child meant we stumbled across an American program called ‘Son-Rise’. The Autism treatment Centre of America, based in Massecheuttes receive hundreds of children/ adults with autism every year and offer an intensive week of treatment.

After attending both start-up courses offered in London, we learnt how to run our own play based program at home. Jacob has his own Son-Rise Playroom where we both work with him one-on-one to encourage social interaction, eye contact and speech through a truly loving and accepting attitude. The main idea being that we have to enter HIS world and embrace it before he will feel comfortable joining us in ours. Such a simple idea…but it works!

Since running our program we have seen Jacob become a lot more sociable- he has begun playing with his older brother (it finally feels like Noah has a little brother to bond with), he has starting using a few clear words and he gives loads of eye contact to those he feels most connected to.

We know that to continue this progress we need to get our little boy over to America for the week long Intensive Course. Where he will receive up to 8 hours per day playroom time with Son-Rise teachers and as parents, we will receive coaching and gain skills/ strength to drive our program forwards and optimise our efforts. This experience would benefit Jacob so much and indeed our little family unit as a whole. Please help us raise £15,000 which would cover flights and travel, living expenses and a week at the ATCA.

We’re sure if he could, Jacob would say a BIG THANK YOU but for now he will send you over a HIGH 5 instead …

 

Paul, Christine, Noah and Jacob x