Jennifer Briggs and her husband struggled through their early years as parents. Their daughter, Sarah, was diagnosed with autism at 4 years old. She was nonverbal. It was a struggle to ensure she ate enough to stay healthy.
“We’d tried lots of therapies, and nothing was working,” said Briggs, 47, of Pittsburgh’s East End.
Long before Sarah was born, Briggs had read about the Son-Rise program, developed by Barry and Samahria Kaufman for their autistic son Raun in the 1970s. It began to gain popularity and today parents can train on the program at the Autism Treatment Center of America.
The Briggs decided to give it a try. On Jan. 21, Briggs will publish “Watching Sarah Rise,” about the amazing journey her family has been on since starting the program.
“I don’t want to say trying Son-Rise was a last-ditch effort, because I’d have continued trying other approaches,” Briggs said. “But we had seemingly tried everything.”
The Autism Treatment Center describes the Son-Rise method as viewing a child’s repetitive behaviors as a doorway for connection, rather than an obstacle keeping them from conforming to a world they may not understand.
“One of the biggest things was to give more time for a kid to respond to a request or a prompt,” Briggs said. “Before the training, I was responding just to Sarah’s attempts at language. If she would say ‘Mmm’ and make the sign for ‘milkshake,’ I’d immediately run to the kitchen and make her a milkshake.”
Through Son-Rise, Briggs learned to try and engage Sarah further.
“I’d look at her with a big smile and ask if she could give me the whole word,” she said. “I kept smiling and waited, and after 10 or 15 seconds, she stumbled through the (consonant) sounds of ‘milkshake.’ It was a matter of expecting more from her, but also giving her the time and understanding to meet that expectation.”
In addition, the Briggs engaged Sarah in their own sort of personalized version of the Son-Rise program, working with a diverse group of volunteers who engaged her in hours of therapeutic activity and play.
Briggs said Sarah’s initial formulation of words opened the floodgates.
“It was like her language and vocabulary were a snowball gathering more snow as it rolled downhill,” she said. “She began learning new words every day and every week.”
Sarah will turn 18 this year, and is a junior at St. Anthony School Programs in Franklin Park.
“They support kids from some of the local Catholic schools and give them a lot of one-on-one support,” Briggs said. “And as each child seems ready, they have them join mainstream classes.”
Briggs said she decided to write “Watching Sarah Rise” to tell her story and bring hope to parents who may be in a similar situation, but also to bring more attention to the program in general.
“Barry Neil Kaufman wrote his book ‘Son Rise’ in 1976,” she said. “I know it’s helped thousands of families all over the world, but it’s something a lot of parents still haven’t heard of, and it’s not necessarily something you’d come across.”
There are differing opinions among the medical community about the effectiveness of the Son-Rise program. Briggs can only speak to her personal experience, which has seen her daughter growing socially and intellectually by leaps and bounds over the years.
“Sarah learned to speak and people can usually understand her,” Briggs said. “But some kids go through the program and don’t learn to speak. Others go far beyond where Sarah is.”
Briggs said her book is a way to offer guidance and hope to any parent trying to advocate for their autistic child, and to emphasize the importance of community in addressing issues like autism.
“I love to write and I really wanted to share this story,” she said.
Briggs will host a book launch event for “Watching Sarah Rise” at 5 p.m. Jan. 25 at Penguin Bookshop, 417 Beaver Street in Sewickley.
For more, see WatchingSarahRise.com.