Raun Kaufman Presents on the Son-Rise Program

Sabeeha Rehman, Raun Kaufman and Mark Raisbeck at Rebecca School.

Raun Kaufman presented at Rebecca school about his own recovery from Autism Spectrum Disorder and the development of the Son-Rise program created by his parents. Raun Kaufman was diagnosed at 18 months as severely autistic and went from a mute, disconnected child with an IQ below 30 to an outgoing, social boy with a high IQ through the work his parents did with him. He described his transformation from a boy who was constantly spinning plates, rocking back and forth and flapping his hands to the outgoing social person he is now and how his parents relentless efforts healed his brain. After healing their son, Barrie and Samahria Kaufman, went on create the Autism Treatment Center of America, a teaching center for the Son-Rise Program, where parents can go to learn how to implement the Son-Rise Program at home.

A key part of the Son-Rise program is that instead of discouraging stimming, you join your child when they stim in order to create a connection and form a relationship. Through this joining, and the connection, you enter the world of the child in order to eventually draw them out. Unlike ABA, which rewards behavior with discreet trials and discourages stimming, the Son-Rise program seeks to use the motivation and interests of the child in order to get them to learn and connect. Raun Kaffman spoke about how when parents join their child stimming using the Son-Rise Program techniques, not only did they understand their children better and the reason for the children's repetitive behavior, but the stimming often dramatically decreases. He spoke of his own fascination with spinning plates as a child and said "Every time I would spin a plate, my parents would spin with me. The more they joined me, the more I would look at them." The program has a very specific way to implement learning into the joining.

To see how the Son-Rise program works, you can view the Son-Rise Program-Responding to Verbal Communication video on youtube on the Autism Treatment Center of America channel.


There are many Son-Rise program videos that you can watch on YouTube or you can look into attending the five day Son-Rise Program Startup to learn how you can implement this program.

Besides the practical advice about the things you can do to help heal your child, Raun also spoke about parents needing to "enjoy, delight and savor the kids we have now" and not be so fixated and so busy fixing them that we lose the connection. If you have a chance to hear Raun Kaufman speak, he really has an amazing, inspiring story to tell. You can also see him speak on Strategies for Autism Treatment on the Autism Treatment Center website.