Son-Rise Program and Autism Ranking:

Current Research

We have identified two efficacy studies of the Son-Rise program in peer-reviewed journals published in English. The published studies included a total of more than 50 autistic children aged between 3 and 7 years old.

• The study by Houghton et al (2013) included a total of 6 children aged from 3 to 6 years old, all of whom were diagnosed with autism. It reported “Results showed an increase in the frequency of spontaneous social orienting and gestural communication for the experimental children, compared to six age- and behaviorally-matched control children with autism. In addition, for the children who received treatment, the duration of social dyadic interactions and total time spent engaged in social interaction increased from pre- to post-treatment.”
• The study by Thompson C. K.  Jenkins T. (2016) included a total of 49 parents of children aged from 3 to 7, all of whom were diagnosed as having ASD. It reported “Parents who administered Son-Rise Program intervention reported improvements in communication, sociability, and sensory and cognitive awareness in their children, with greater gains associated with greater hours of treatment per week.”

We also identified three other research studies which looked at other aspects of the programme (but were not efficacy studies).

• The study by Williams K. R. Wishart J. (2001) examined parent’s use of the Son-Rise Progam through a one-year longitudinal questionnaire and interview study. It reported that “Issues relating to school attendance were examined, including parents' decision-making processes regarding concurrent school attendance, issues of compatibility between home and school, and issues arising for those families who discontinued school attendance in order to run a full-time intervention at home. Rather than using the Program exclusively and intensively, it was found that many families used the recommended intervention techniques part-time in the home whilst continuing their child's school attendance, and found the two learning contexts to be compatible with each other.”
• The study by Williams and Wishart (2003) included a total of 57 children, aged 2-12, from 56 families. It was a longitudinal study with questionnaires to all participants attending initial Son Rise training in UK with 3 questionnaires: after the training (Q1) at 6 months (Q2) and 12 months (Q3) later (63% response rate at Q1). Questions concerned: implementation of the intervention; effects on the family, including drawbacks, benefits, stress, levels of happiness, and financial effects; and perceived efficacy of the intervention.
• The study by Williams (2006) …. reported on a different aspect (implementation of the intervention) of the same study. Data was gathered on: characteristics of children and families using the programme, intervention intensity, involvement of volunteers, ongoing training, concurrent school attendance, concurrent intervention use, and perceived treatment fidelity. 64% of parents reported intensity of up to 20 hours/ week and 58% of parents worked for up to10 hours personally in the intervention – significantly fewer hours than they had initially hoped for. The majority of children (80%) continued to attend school on either a full- or part-time basis, and 59% of children were involved in other interventions at the same time.

We have also identified one study of the Picture Exchange Communication System which the authors claimed to be based on the principles of the Son-Rise Program (Zink et al, epub) but we have not included this in our analysis as we do not think that this provides an accurate evaluation of the Son-Rise Program.

Updated

16 Jun 2022

Last Review

01 Oct 2016

Next Review

01 Mar 2023