Last run of the year - 7 sleeps to go!!

Next weekend holds the final event for Running The Marathon of Autism for 2011. On Sunday 9th of October Maryke will be running the 42km Melbourne Marathon for Felicity on the very same day Felicity will be celebrating her 11th birthday. We reckon that's a great omen for it being a wonderful day and wish Maryke all the best for each and every step her legs take! Run Maryke Run!



Please help us continue to support Felicity through her Son-Rise Program by sponsoring Maryke in the HUGE final event of the year. All Donation details can be found by clicking HERE

We'll be sure to let you know how the day goes. Both Maryke's marathon run and Felicity's birthday celebrations ;D

4 sleeps to go...

The timer is ticking away... at the time of publishing this post there is only 3 days, 20 hours, 21 minutes and 42 seconds until the 2010 City2Surf!
3 of the Running the Marathon of Autism runners: Ian, Carley & Jocelyn, will be taking on the 14kms in Felicity's name - AWESOME!!

This is your chance to sponsor these wonderful people for their marathon efforts and in the same action you will be supporting Felicity through her own marathon journey recovering from autism.



We have been overwhelmed with all the support so far and are thrilled that our donation counters are currently at $4506.
How awesome would it be to crack the $5000 mark before the starting gun trigger is pulled at the City2Surf this weekend??

With 3 ways to donate it's quick and easy to further support Felicity in her Son-Rise Program.

PAYPAL:
Donation via credit card can be made by clicking the below yellow button (you do not need a paypal account to do this)

DIRECT DEPOSIT:
Account Name: T J Costin
BSB Number: 944 300
Account Number: 012 598 461

NOTE: If you would like a receipt, for tax purposes, please send your email address, postal address and a copy of the direct deposit transaction to - tanya@intellectualdisability.org

CHEQUE:
Cheques are to be made out to: T J Costin
Please post them to:
Running the Marathon of Autism
T J Costin
P.O. Box 304
Church Point
NSW, 2105

NOTE: If you would like a receipt, for tax purposes, please include a note with your email address & postal address

THANK YOU< THANK YOU< THANK YOU in advance for all your support!!

Consult with Carolina from The Autism Treatment Center

Hi, I'm Matt, father of Felicity, and I wanted to share what I learned recently on our last conference call to The Autism Treatment Center of America.

Every three months or so, we regularly link up with Carolina in Massachusetts via Skype, to talk and discuss Felicity's program.

Even though its nearly 3 years since first learning about The Son-Rise Program, I continually find there is still more to discover, and I found that was certainly the case from our last link-up.

I have heard many other people make the same comment about The Son-Rise Program, saying that it is a gradual continuous learning process. The reason for this, I believe, is that through playing with our child in the playroom, what we are learning about is ourselves. So in a very real way, Felicity is teaching us about ourselves. This is a real gift.

In preparation for our latest consultation, we made a couple of short videos of Felicity and I playing together one evening. We send the videos across to Carolina, who then views them before we have our link-up.

Thankfully, the time difference at this time of year means that we can talk together in the mid-late evening. During the Australian summer, we start in the late hours and end in the early hours of the next day!

I was a little apprehensive when we sent through the videos because I knew that I have had much "better" sessions in the playroom than this one, which felt a little "flat" in some sections. However, if I am going to be honest and get the most from our consult, then it would be best to send through the "good" and the "bad".

Sure enough, Carolina picked up on this and we got to discuss what I can do better when challenges arise. To pick a specific point, there were a couple of times when Felicity was asking me to put some of the puzzles back on the shelf when she was finished with them. Each time Felicity would ask me to put them "Up" and I would respond by doing so.

I was respecting where Felicity was at in that moment - she wanted to get that puzzle put away, and after that we would move on. But it did not feel like we were playing together. I felt like I was just an extension of Felicity, and she was using me as an instrument.

The challenge is how can I build this interaction of putting this puzzle on the shelf, into a playful game with even more interaction between us?

So Carolina, like she often does, started to workshop and brainstorm with us to try and come up with things to try that would interest Felicity and draw her in to a little playful game or even an imaginative idea, as small as it may be.

Felicity has a deep love for the physical and slap-stick tickles her funny-bone, so we came up with balancing the puzzle on our head, spinning a puzzle piece on our node, or dancing our way to the shelf along with a playful song.

The theme behind each idea is to extend the interaction that little bit more, and to show Felicity that we are here to play with her, even if she might not be that interested to play with us at the time.

Of the two people in the playroom, it is the neuro-typical person (that's me) who is more likely to be initiating social interactions more often. So even though we allow Felicity to lead the activities in the playroom, it is role of the facilitator to build the interactions as much as possible, and hence to take ownership and to lead the social interaction inside the playroom. This was the main idea that was reinforced for me from our consult.

This idea is not a new one for me, and I had known about it before. But somehow I had let this slip out of my routine. Or had I become too routine, and forgotten this key idea?

Are there areas where I could challenge myself to grow? It has also been said, that as we learn and grow ourselves, we give our children more freedom to grow as well.

This is one of the big reasons that having regular consultations with the experienced team in the US is recommended. I particularly find sending the video through and getting feedback to be very useful, and helping to get me on the right track for Felicity's program.

I look forward will be putting what I learnt into practice in the playroom.