Sun Rise

     

      For the past six months I have been spending two days a week with an Autistic boy, lets call him Sam. Sam is six years old, he is non verbal, and severely autistic. He loves to rip paper, and jump on his little trampoline. He is pretty amazing. During my time with Sam we follow a curriculum called "Sun Rise" created by a man named Berry Kaufman, his son Raun was autistic, Berry and his wife Samahria just wanted to find a way to communicate with their son. Sun Rise is different from any other autistic curriculum I have been around, it encourages us (the workers, or parents) to allow the child to stimulate (yell, wave hands, jump up and down) in fact we should join them! Let them know "Hey, I am with you, I want to be in your world." Pretty exciting and ground breaking if you ask me. This is just a part of what I do with Sam, but I do spend a lot of time ripping paper, or bouncing on a ball yelling at the top of my lungs.It is pretty liberating really. I have found the more I do this, the more I enter his world, he begins to let me in. He will look at me and smile! There really is no greater feeling.

   I know you might be thinking why would I choose to blog about something like this. I'm not a teacher yet, this is all just volunteer. It is something I am passionate about, something I want to share with the world. It has been something that grounds me, and helps me to be thankful for every child in every circumstance in life. Sometimes we all need to remember to meet kids where they are, and regardless if they are autistic or not, they will meet you. Acceptance is something we can all learn  

This is a 4 minute video is a girl named Laura. Her story is pretty amazing. Hope you guys watch and let me know what you think!