Quest for better quality of life for Charlie leads to US
LITTLE Charlie Wailes-Fairbairn seems like any other six year old boy as he happily plays with his toy cars on the family farm at South Berrington.
Julia Wailes-Fairbairn is counting on local support to help her son, Charlie, come to terms with autism. Picture by Joe Payne.
LITTLE Charlie Wailes-Fairbairn seems like any other six year old boy as he happily plays with his toy cars on the family farm at South Berrington.
However, Charlie is profoundly deaf and two years ago was diagnosed with autism - a condition which impairs communication skills and social interaction.
This understandably came as a great shock to his parents, Rupert and Julia, but they resolved there and then to leave no stone unturned in the search to give Charlie a better quality of life.
The search took Julia to the United States where she attended a week long course at the Autism Treatment Centre of America.
There, she learned the basic principles of the Son-Rise programme which helps parents create a home-based programme that puts the child at the centre of the teaching process.
The Son-Rise programme was developed in the 1970s by an American couple with a severely autistic son. They were told he had an IQ of less than 30. They worked with him for three and a half years with a team of volunteers and his progress was so startling that he attended normal school from the age of six, went on to graduate from an Ivy League college and now tours the world teaching about the approach his parents pioneered.
It would perhaps be too much to ask for such dramatic results, but the Wailes-Fairbairns are confident the programme will be hugely beneficial to Charlie.
Julia said: "We obviously hope that Charlie will come out of his autism, but for the time being we aim to develop Charlie's speech and social skills.
"We will be playing with things Charlie is interested in. To begin with we will just enjoy his games and let him lead the play, but there will also be clear strategies to push his development forward.
"We know from experience that forcing an autistic child doesn't work, so the aim is for Charlie to have a great time and willingly join adults in the programme."
The family has set up a Son-Rise playroom at home, where Charlie will spend much of his free time playing with his parents and other adults on a one-to-one basis.
The success of the programme now depends on volunteers coming forward to be part of the team working with Charlie.
"We simply can't do this on our own, so we're looking for people who could spare a few hours a week to help us," admits Julia. "No experience is necessary but energy and enthusiasm are essential. We will train all volunteers and it should be very rewarding and an opportunity to really make a difference to a child's life."
It is thought that children are born with a pre disposition to autism which is then triggered by other factors.
"No-one is quite sure what caused Charlie to be autistic, but it is likely that his deafness is a contributory factor," explains Julia.
He has since had a cochlea implant operation to improve his hearing and is making encouraging progress at the Grove School in Tweedmouth. He is now able to write his name and read familiar words, he can spell his friends' names and enjoys working with numbers and books, although cars remain his great passion.
"Things have improved significantly since Charlie started at the Grove and he is much more settled and more communicative than before," revealed Julia. "Unfortunately, he has not yet started to talk and gets very confused and frustrated in situations where he can't understand what is expected of him."
Anyone interested in becoming a volunteer for Charlie can contact Julia Wailes-Fairbairn on (01289) 387200.
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Weather for Berwick-Upon-Tweed
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
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Temperature: 10 C to 20 C
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