Mafe Maria: Personal stories by autism parent mentor, Maria Stultz

team joaquin

(17 entries)

Our in home child-centered play therapy program attracted 11 volunteers who let me train them, and stretch their minds, to help an autistic child learn every skill he needed to thrive. They gave us their love, energy, and dedication, building me as an empowered teacher and better therapist for my son, while allowing the process to expand them in return. We are eternally grateful to each of these extraordinary women who joined our project, and changed our lives.

Spontaneous Gorgeous Symbolic Gestures »

Watching this was so exciting!… Even to Heidi, who at the time didn’t know much about the gestures goal… It’s been just two weeks of very subtle “work” giving Joaquin’s brain little pieces to figure out symbolic gestures, and today he spontaneously gestures “move the couch down”, then creates another gesture reproducing with his hands […]

Friend Eliza »

Over the last month before turning three years old, Joaquin started writing numbers, drawing their outlines, spelling words and writing some, all by himself. His memory is amazing. His focus, passion, and control when drawing and writing is (I believe) extraordinary. All signs of a beautiful mind at work. And, as exciting and reassuring as […]

Meeting Strangers »

Last weekend we enjoyed the company of Katrina Kramlich, a lovely and experienced Son-Rise child facilitator who came to our home to play with Joaquin in his romper room. The experience was absolutely wonderful, especially because the universe conspired to fit everything in such a perfect way, that Eliza (our first volunteer), had a chance […]

All in motion »

In preparation for my coming trip back to Massachusetts to attend an advanced Son-Rise course, last week I had to fill out a long survey reporting all kinds of details about Joaquin’s current state. The survey was exactly the same I took back in May, just a few weeks after having become aware of Joaquin’s […]

Blind but Trusting »

I’ve just received my rental car for the week. After placing my bag in the trunk and contemplating all the little ways how this cheap rental is not as nice as our family car, I pull out the map package I’ve printed earlier charting the route to the Option Institute. The number of steps is […]