I was one of the original aspies that guessed that Raun was most likely high functioning autistic. (He– or I have always thought, one of the staff–wrote back a scathing letter saying that if everyone thought as I did that he would be in an institution playing with his feces.) I have found myself and “Raun” quoted over and over, its rather funny actually. There were all kinds of statements in one of the books (that I admittedly didn’t read) that described some of his interests, things like time travel, etc.etc. It was like if you saw a description of a kid who loved Thomas Train, outer space, computers, etc etc. I think this should be in the DSM.

I also don’t think anyone is “cured” of autism. I think that kids who might do well (even with no real program as such) probably do well in various treatments. It is pretty well established that you can’t tell by looking at a very young kid with hfa from a low functioning young kid, afaik.
Since Raun was diagnosed so young, it stands to reason that his family would have had little idea of his eventual prognosis. (Actually it was not an official dx. but I have little doubt that he was/is on the spectrum somewhere). I’m actually rather appauled by the no. of people claiming that autism is like some kind of disease that is curable. ABA has a particularly bad history of this kind of thing, so you know they are competing with ABA.

I actually approve of some of the Son Rise ideas. Anyway there are other programs around these days that don’t have the price tag and use some similar techniques like DIR Floortime and RDI.
At least the developers of these recognize they don’t cure autism.

It remains questionable that you would want to eliminate all traces of a condition that has certain advantages (like a strong visual sense). Some autistic people will get furious on this topic, btw.

I have seen a lot of good anecdotal reports on Son rise, but as I said I think it is an educational approach (that other methods share).

BTW, I heard a radio interview of Raun. He seems quite articulate. This in no way means he does NOT have hfa.

–des

I’ll make that blog post now; hot, lazy summer afternoon and I have no more work to do anyhow. (If I didn’t have to wait for people to come in to pick up their invitations to the service on Sunday – Prince Edward will be there – I’d be on my way home now!)