Aditya's eye contact improved dramatically in 2 days. By the third day, he was looking at his friends before talking to them 80% of the times, and his Son Rise playroom friends no more had it as a goal! Wo-hoo!
Instead our goals became: 1) help Aditya communicate his wants / not wants more clearly 2) inspire him to be spontaneous in his play 3) inspire Aditya to participate physically in an activity chosen by him or by his playroom friends
On day 4 Aditya (who used to use a much more literal language before to communicate the same need) said: Hey can you please wait for me, I need to run to the bathroom.
Finally... before the beginning of the week, Aditya's attention span was assessed at somewhere between 10-15 minutes. By the end of the week it was 21 minutes.
Of course, you guessed it correctly.... the description above is indeed of the miracle that we saw unfold right before our eyes in the one week long Son Rise Intensive program for Aditya. Aai, Baba, and Aditya flew to the beautiful town of Sheffield, MA and lived in the apartment provided by "his friends at Son Rise" (which is how he thinks of them now). One room of the apartment-- the Son Rise playroom!
Love... it's what makes Son Rise-- Son Rise! Love... it's what they live and breathe at the Son Rise house. They = Aditya's special friends Kim, Camila, Amanda, Susan, Brandi, Juliet!
Love... we see it everyday around us now, being expressed profusely and enthusiastically with the "I love you Daddy"s out of nowhere, and a spontaneous "Excuse me" before talking to Mom as he sees her on the phone.
Some more:
1) "Hey if you do that it will be nice of you" on one occasion where I offered to do something to help him
2) Silence. It was a special moment as it happened when Aditya was running around the room swinging his hands which abruptly hit a volunteer this week. Aditya stopped and looked at the volunteer, almost as if he wanted to stop and acknowledge what just happened. Of course, it was celebrated enthusiastically (that is super important besides being a true reflection of how we feel about Aditya's fantastic work in the last 2 weeks!)
3) "I think you will be flying Delta right?" says Son Rise senior teacher William on day#5 of his intensive
Aditya looks at Mom and says: "Is that true?" then looks at Dad (who is on the other side of William) with NO WORDS, like he is checking in to see what Dad thinks.
4) "I hope you are having fun here with your friends" says Dad on day 2 as Mom, Dad, Aditya meet in the Son Rise playroom at Sheffield.
"And you guys too" comes the reply, looking at me, of course
5) "Byyyyye". This special moment came today as I was about to leave for office. Sensing that from my actions, Aditya stopped his favorite activity of making a paper gift for someone, and came down running.... ONLY to say goodbye to me. Priceless!
6) But the best of all his communication happened an hour after we came back home, as Aditya asked his twin sister: "Did you miss me?"
"No" says sis, "because I was having fun with grandma. Did you miss me?"
"No" says Aditya with a smile. "I was having fun too"
And then they both get chatty and engage in a conversation so lovely to watch it cannot be described.
We had thought Aditya's one week long intensive program would no doubt help. We had also thought it would be something we will do at some point for him... we just had to do it to help him experience being loved 24 by 7 with a 100% accepting and non-judgemental attitude. But we had no idea that the love and acceptance that Aditya's friends at Son Rise immersed him in, could cause a change in the wiring in his mind in such less time!
Our daughter often talks about going back to Disneyland which she thinks has been her best one week vacation. No wonder Aditya is already talking about going back to what is clearly the Dreamland for him!
Our special thanks to all the friends who helped us allow Aditya experience this life changing journey! Be it your volunteering help, your monetary contribution, or even your prayers, we truly thank you for it all.
We still have a long way to go. Aditya's evaluation at the end of his intensive program puts him in stage 4 of the Son Rise developmental model. (A neuro-typical child is at the end of stage 5 or more).
We think the next few hundred miles of our journey are going to be tremendously exciting, and we intend to drive with our hearts and souls!
-- Mom & Dad, still immersed in the love that was showered on us at the Son Rise house!
