Laurentius-rex, have you images of your paintings online?

Lots of autism education/therapy/treatments do not come cheap, it is true—-it would feel very wrong for us to solicit funds for Charlie’s needs; we have been lucky in this regard. I have just read more than a few stories about families using Son-Rise and holding fund-raisers—-seems a susupicious connection.

The minute I received my incredibly heavy, glossy packet replete with photos of “experts” in expensive suits, I knew something was amiss.

Then, when I saw the pleas for money and donations, and how to get others to donate to yourself, and how they would counsel me long distance (on how to get there) for a hefty sum per hour…I shut it all out.

Seems as if they combine the worst of Madison Avenue advertising with the rabid self-help movement, to create a wonderful financial opportunity for themselves at the expense of desperate parents.

Can’t remember the resercher now, but it was something about fraternity’s and the harder the initiation ritual, the more the fraternity is valued.

My paintings are priceless you can’t buy them(cos there is no market which is besides the point) but as a struggling artist there is no way I would sell myself short for little more than the price of a decent frame, I would price my pictures in the thousand pound plus bracket, cos who would take them seriosly as art otherwise

And while I don’t doubt a lot of kids have made progress, I think that what happens in large part is FAMILIES make progress towards giving the child an environment they can succeed in. It’s much easier to learn new skills when the people around you have the attitude of “Whatever you can do today, tomorrow, and forever doesn’t matter because I’ll love you regardless” than it is when you feel BROKEN. It’s an expectations thing, too.

And most people don’t need to spend that kind of cash to learn about love. Even if they want to use the approach, careful reading of the book should do it.

….and I don’t believe in cure, either. I believe in “enough skills gained to be successful in mainstream society”, but that isn’t cure.

Confidence is good. Wonderful. But isn’t that just a product of the environment? Heaven knows that at the late age of 16 I gained confidence, and at 21 even more…because the environments (gymnastics and a homeless shelter of all places) expected things of me that no one had before. And they expected me to be good at them. And lo and behold, I was. I didn’t need to pay tons of money for that…

And I ALWAYS end up rambling on your blogs!