Halo-Soma?

July 5, 2006

Hello all - while looking for something else online, I stumbled on

this web site: www.halo-soma.org ... the success stories are

intriguing, as is the methodology... but like all of us, I think, I'm

wary of magic bullet cures. Do any of you have any experience with

this method? Thanks and best to all,

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Dell'

Austin, TX

July 6, 2006

Hi - we took our son to see Soma several years back when she was in

California. She worked with my son for 4 session over 2 days and

the cognitive results were amazing. Unfortunatley we were not able

to replicate these results at home so we didn't keep up with the

technique. I wouldn't say that she worked any miracles for us, but

what she did give us was truely invaluable. For my non-verbal son,

she turned us onto trying to tap and reach his personality and

cognitive ability through reading and spelling. So we started to

use her alphabet board approach (a piece of lamenated paper with a

QWERTY board printed on it) and soon realized that my son could

spell! This ability showed up about a year after we went to see

Soma, so I can't say that it was a result of her work, but after

visiting her, I realized that this is what I wanted for my son, so

we gently pushed it and were ready to jump all over this when the

ability emerged. A couple of key take aways for us...

1) Soma and her son, Tito, are truely amazing and inspirational

people. I am always humbled by mothers like her (and many of those

on this list) who work so hard to help their children and then turn

to help others. Anyhow, Google Tito and autism and you can find the

CBS and PBS clips on them.

2) This approach (Rapid Prompting Method - RPM) is something to look

into if your child is non-verbal.

3) Her objective is not to get the children to be mainstreamed or

indistinguishable from peers, but rather to tap the cognitive

ability. From this sense ABA is a great compliment because she

commented how nice my son was to work with because he sat so nicely

and did not bite or scratch her. The abuse this poor petite woman

must have gone through!

4) It is difficult for many (atleast for us) to replicate her

results. So if you are interested in learning more, approach her

more for inspiration and not so much scientificly proven technique.

She is in Austin now. I am part of their list and last I checked,

Soma was the only one certified to use her own technique. Even that

group is having a difficult time trying to replicate her approach

and getting certified practitioners out there. There is no doubt she

has a special touch with kids, but having your child respond to just

one person wass not practical for us.

4) Lastly, I want to emphasize that Soma gave us inspiration. We

were starting to put my son's therapy and progress on auto-pilot,

but our visit with her kinda re-invigorated us. Anyhow inspiration

counts for alot especially if it comes at just the time that you

need it.

We continue to use ABA. I have not visited Soma since she moved to

Austin. My son is reading and spelling. And Soma will always hold a

special place in my heart.

I hope this helps.