Sonrise

[andy]

I attended a seminar in Dublin hosted by Ron Kaufmann from the Sonrise programme.

He did claim that he was cured of autism.

Whether the programme has an effect to make such a claim infront of parents was in my view dangerous.

To date I can find no evidence in a peer reviewed journal about this approach. If anyone knows of any please let me know

[Leah]

Hi Andy-I just looked at the date of your entry so I hope its not too late to reply. Isn't Sunrise the behavioural intervention based on teaching children how to play? I think the basis of the idea is right -I mean impairments in communication and imagination could definitely only be helped by being taught how to play. But I also think the children they help are higher functioning children who show consistent interest in their environment. As for "curing", I agree with you. A lady called Laurie Knowles from the US gave a conference when I was in India last year and she claimed her son was totally cured from Autism by using dietary suppliments and interventions. She is an amazing lady -she has literally tried and tested absolutely eveything she has given him in the last few years. The transformation was shocking -her son went from a skinny pale boy with rings around his eyes to a beautiful speaking child. From what I can tell so far though most of the cases like Laurie's centre around a food intolerance being the main stay of the behavioural problems. Laurie had investigated mercury, yeast and other bacterial infections that could cause symptoms and explained these during the conference. However, I wonder if in many of these cases a huge deficiency in vitamins and nutrients can mirror the symptoms of Autistic Spectrum Disorders and this worries me a lot. There is no doubt that Laurie's son actually looks and is healthier and happier but how long can he stay on supplements for? As for Sunrise teaching children how to play -well in theory its great but overall you have to wonder, if Autism for most children starts with a long withdrawel from society -can it really turn all the symptoms back -like turning back time? At the end of the day though - these things all offer hope don't they? It pays to be informed, but I agree that there is no such thing as a cure, only a myriad of cases of Autism and trial and error. Laurie works with a company called New Horizons -who do hair testing for parasites and mercury in their labs. Then they recommend (and sell!) vitimins to cure the problems. I'm in Holland at the moment on holiday so I've no notes with me but you could try googling "New Horizons" online and see if you can find any trial results. I hope this helps.

[andy]

Thanks for your response. For the record I have few objections to people with ASD receiving more one to one contact. Therefore, the idea's espoused can be useful.BUT, claims about cure no matter from what source have to treated with some degree of scepticism. The role of diet and autism is worthy of much more scientific investiagtion.