Sorry we haven't updated the blog in a while but we have been really busy with our program and preparing for our trip to London for the New Frontiers course, the follow up to the Start Up program. Since our last update of the blog we had some really fantastic news when Lorcan visited his paediatrician for another assessment and she was so pleased with his progress from the last time she seen him 6 months beforehand that she decided to update his diagnosis from Severe learning difficulties with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to just Severe learning difficulties. She stated that his progress with his communication, social interaction and overall behaviour meant that the ASD part of his diagnosis was no longer an issue as far as she was concerned. This progress is due to the work myself, Shauna, our 3 volunteers (Lisa, Suzanne & Claire) and the staff at Segal House.
When we first received Lorcan's diagnosis in Nov 2008 most of the things we were told were negative, what Lorcan can't do, what Lorcan may never do but when we decided to do the Son Rise program we were told to take encouragement from what Lorcan could do and believe that with simple love, acceptance and a change of attitude we could help Lorcan develop and build on what he could do. The changes in Lorcan after 1 month into our program was astounding, almost hard to believe. The words he could say increased from around 50 to over 100, the frequency and longevity of his eye contact improved, his intercation skills improved and his flexability improved. The Son Rise program is not a miracle, they do not work magic but they simply teach people with special children to believe, to accept and to understand, things that parents will not get from the medical professionals who diagnose their children!
Myself and Shauna went to the New Frontiers course with our 3 fantastic volunteers and we had a great week. The course was so inspirational and really gave us the motivation and the new ideas that we needed to progress our program. The course came at a great time for us as there were times with our own program we were struggling to think of themes for Lorcan, we were struggling to find and use our '3 E's' (Energy, Excitement & Enthusiasm) while in the playroom and sometimes we found it hard to motivate ourselves and our volunteers before going into the playroom. We got plenty of ideas, plenty of motivation and we all feel so excited to get back into the playroom and put our ideas and learnings into practise.

Myself and Shauna would like to say a big thank you to Claire, Suzanne & Lisa for taking the time out to come with us, especially at such a vital time in the year as far as their University exams are concerned. We would like to emphasise that without these 3 girls our program could not be run as effectively as it has been over the past 12 weeks or so and we really appreciate them. Thank you!!

We hope to keep the blog updated as regularly as possible and we hope to have more news of Lorcan's progress soon!!

William

We have been running the sonrise program for 5 weeks now and we have seen some major improvements. When we went to the start up course in January Lorcan was able to say 75 words this has now increased to 146 words which is a massive achievement in 5 weeks. The nursey he attends have commented on his interaction skills with the other children improving and they have noticed a difference in his language being used more. His clarity of words have also improved. Over the past 2 days he has shown more improvements and attempting to say 2 word sentences 'My Daddy - he says 'maddy' and get off- sounds like 'ge of' and come on. The is fantastic at what we have acheived in 5 weeks. We are still having problems with our volunteers and he is still crying with the girls although we had a consultation with the autism treatment centre of America on Wednesday and the gave us guidelines to work on for the crying and working on Lorcan's Flexibility. This has worked as Lisa's Session on thursday only had a half hour of crying and the rest of the time interacting. William and I are delighted at the progress he has made so far and hopefully the next time the blog is updated we will have more great news. Just to add our fund-raising event was a great sucess and we would like to give a big thanks to everyone who has supported us.

Shauna x

Lorcan's Son-Rise program officially began on Thursday 12th February 2009. Myself and Shauna did do a few hours 'unofficially' before this just to get Lorcan used to it and to see if we could pick up any games that Lorcan would be particularly interested in so that we could use them in future.
One of our volunteer's, Lisa, started the program by doing a 2 hour session from 1o'clock until 3 o'clock. It started off well with Lorcan interacting and playing with her but after around 10mins or so he realised that myself and Shauna weren't there so he became a bit unsettled. Lisa continued to use the techniques that we showed her to try and gain Lorcan's attention again but unfortunately Lorcan just felt too strange so Shauna went up and joined them but she continued to let Lisa be in control with Lorcan. Lisa did brilliant for her first time in the playroom and with more hours she will become more confident in herself.
Lisa finished her session and Claire, one of our other volunteers, arrived to do another 2 hour session from 3.30pm to 5.30pm. Again, this session started really well but after a few minutes Lorcan became unsettled again. I went up this time and sat through most of the 2 hours but again it was Claire who was in control of the session with Lorcan. Shauna and I only joined the volunteers because it was their first day and we did not want them to have to deal with a very upset Lorcan but eventually we are going to have to leave the playroom and stay out, even if Lorcan becomes upset so that he learns that crying is not the way to communicate and so that he can get the benefit of his sessions with his fantastic volunteers. Claire did absolutely fantastic for her first time with Lorcan and the best part was that she seemed to enjoy it as much as Lorcan which is great news.
I was due to do a 2 hour session after Claire from 6.30pm until 8.30pm but unfortunately soon after Lorcan had his dinner he 'went out like a light', unsurprisingly, and he never woke until an hour or so later.
All in all he had 4 good hours of Son-Rise on his first day and hopefully these 4 hours will be the start of Lorcan's journey towards recovery!!

William