Anna’s SonRise Programme

Volunteers Wanted!

 Updated Jan 06

Anna’s SonRise Programme

Volunteering

In February 2003, Anna started a Son Rise programme.  Anna’s dad had attended a 5 day training course given by the American organisation which developed this approach. 

SonRise Ideas

The approach involves playing with Anna in a specially modified playroom.  The idea is to create a special environment for her which is all about making her feel relaxed and removing distractions.  At this point it becomes possible to encourage her to talk through loads of praise and positive reinforcement whenever she makes an attempt.

Initial sessions for volunteers then involve establishing trust and having fun.  When Anna performs strange repetitive habits, we join in because this helps her to relax.  When she’s ready to come out of this, we make our selves the most interesting thing in the room and perhaps offer activities to share eg bouncing on trampoline, rolling over big ball, dressing up, face painting – but we are ultimately led by her.

Having got to the stage of enjoying a game together, we then build up the enthusiasm through variation.  We would create a situation where Anna is encouraged to choose an option or ask for more.

Any sounds Anna comes out with at this stage are pounced upon and really encouraged – given a word even if not fully intelligible.

The Play Room

Anna’s playroom is her bedroom which has been modified for the purpose.  Her room has a number of big action toys which she likes -  trampoline, big bouncy balls and slide.  In addition a number of shelves contain toys of interest so that she is encouraged to point or ask for items to play with. 

Progress To Date

Pointing to request something and improving eye contact were notable early areas of progress.  A notional target vocabulary of 20 words was set and although some achievements were initially made, we still have a long way to go on this.

Anna is really trying with her verbalisations so we are now focussing on showering every utterance with positive reinforcement to try to repeat the success with the eye contact.

Volunteers

Volunteers are key to the programme.  We’ve typically had half a dozen at any one time who  play with Anna on weekdays after school.  Ideally two sessions a week at around an hour and a half in the room is normal.

The main requirement is to have the 3 Es – Enthusiasm, Energy and Excitement so as to make yourself the most interesting thing in the room as this is all about creating interaction with other humans rather than things.

Training & Feedback

Having attended a number of SonRise programmes and ran a programme for three years, Anna’s parents are able to provide basic training in the approach.  A key learning tool is feedback – sessions are videoed, and discussed afterwards with a view to jointly coming up with new approaches and ideas.  We also have a SonRise professional, Shona who visits us regularly and comes up with new ideas working with Anna in the room

Group Meetings

Group meetings are also key.  Here we jointly review the evaluation forms that we complete after each session and brainstorm together what techniques or games are working well and what less so.

General Progress

This year, Anna has learned to ride a bike and to use a Poma ski tow along with skiing itself.  She has been sailing and canoeing, all of which was unthinkable a year ago. She now takes part in many activities alongside her peers at Dunblane Primary School, and greets people spontaneously. Simple things, like sharing a game or food with others or waiting in a queue now don`t frustrate her and she is enjoying interacting with her siblings much more than she used to

Our Trip to SonRise in the USA

SonRise

The big day finally arrived!  Anna flew out to Sheffield, Massachusetts with her parents on the 27^th January for a week’s Sonrise intensive course.  It was minus 25 outside but we were cosy in a log cabin.

Anna played in a special playroom with adults changing every two hours over an 8 hour day.  These people bombarded her with energy, enthusiasm and excitement, continually inviting her to interact and communicate.  She was bathed in so much love from these people that she responded well.  It was a long day for her but the whole ethos of Sonrise is around fun so it was also very enjoyable for Anna. 

Calum and Catriona also had 5 full days of sessions on organising programmes, giving feedback to volunteers.  At times they watched the work with Anna with commentary from a teacher in order to take the techniques back to their home progamme.

Here are Sonrise Child Facilitators, Aaron and Julie, two of Anna’s play pals for the week. 

By the end of the week, Anna had:

§         Spontaneous eye contact up from 1xmin to 2xmin at up to 8s

§         Requested eye contact up from 82% to 95%

§         9 spontaneous words (approx)

§         9 requested words (approx)

§         Average interaction span 4 min

§         2.5 interactions per hour

§         A max interaction of 30 minutes!

In the evenings she was calm, relaxed and happy and even made us a cup of tea!

Mum and dad at the end of the week – exhausted but very pleased with the results.  We’ve still a long way to go but we now really know what we’re doing in order to get there.