Customer Reviews

Miracle to Believe In

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The Kauffman family has created the Option Living program which has become well-known since their son Raun's recovery from autism in the late 1970s.

Roby Soto, a man living in Mexico learns about the Kauffmans after reading "Son-Rise." His son, Robertito Jr. exhibits much of the same behavior Raun did early in his treatment program. By age 5, Robertito is neither toilet trained nor verbal and his contact is fleeting at best, non-existent at work. Roby, his wife Francisca head north to work with the Kauffmans to restore Robertito.

Raun, of course, takes to his new friend immediately. He loves Robertito's round, full cheeks and from the minute they meet, Raun almost never leaves his new friend's side. I really like the way the author calls Robertito and his parents "our new friends." The staff of devoted volunteers work endlessly and tirelessly with Robertito in one-on-one fashion. They do what Raun's parents originally did with Raun -- they join Robertito in whatever self-stimulating activity he is engaged in, talking to him all the time. Robertito makes great leaps and bounds in speech and self care and at the close of the book, a doctor who had treated him earlier marvels at the boy's progress.

I love the way the author shows his high degree of empathy for all persons. In one chapter, he describes a concentration-camp like institution for autistic children where the kids are cattle prodded into compliance. One weird task is to get the children to "hug their instructors." Barry throws down the article in disgust, saying that autism is a communciation disorder. Why were the children in this place treated this way and referred to as "it" instead of a boy or a girl? And why would anybody want to hug their instructors if their instructors treated them like Holocaust prisoners. Barry is a very astute, loving, kind, intelligent and humane person. He has my unflagging respect. So does his wife, Sumitra (formerly Suzy) and their three children, Bryn, Thea and Raun. They are truly sterling examples of what love is really all about.

God bless the Kauffmans! God bless the Sotos! This book deserved a special place of honor in our hearts and bookshelves.

Oh, the power of love! I did not just read this book, I consumed it. The feelings of the Soto family were mine, as I too struggled to try and understand my autistic son. Since visiting the Option Institute and embracing a Son-Rise program for our son, the changes our family has undergone have been miraculous! The son who would not hug or show affection now wraps his arms around me tight and offers me a kiss. I know this happened because I was able to change my beliefs and truly accept him for who he is. Everything that happened to the Soto's is happening to us as well. I loved reading this book right on the heels of reading "Son-Rise, the Miracle Continues." These books have changed our lives!

I read this book and learned amazing things about myself and ways that I could better communicate with children, especially children with communication difficulties. Barry Kaufman really got me thinking about why relationships that allow you to be the most loving, happy and inspirational person you've ever wanted to be begin with a loving and accepting attitude of the person you want that relationship with. In this book, they work with a young boy totally submerged in his own world, and by loving and appreciating him the way he was, they were able to show him the best they had in themselves, and interest him in joining their world.

What's funny is that a few years after reading this book, my beautiful baby boy was diagnosed with autism. This book addresses all the trials and tribulations we've been through: self-doubt, fear, depression, worry, excitement, acceptance and pride. It's when we stopped trying to fix him and just started to love him that he started to join us more and more. His progress is baffling the professionals.

The book is a great resource for me, and I highly recommend it to people who aren't afraid of pursuing relationships with people who may not seem interested in that, people who aren't afraid to believe in miracles, people who want to be happy and not view the special children in their lives as a tragedy, people who know that with love all things are possible.

This book is pure inspiration!

A Miracle to Believe In offered me a rainbow as the storm called autism blew into my life. When the "experts" forecasted a gloomy future for my autistic son, this book offered me hope and happiness through love and acceptance. It showed me how to see my son as a pot of gold, a treasure and a gift, just as he was. It taught me how to want everything for him without expecting anything to change. I learned that true happiness is a choice and can be attained even when I don't get what I want (ie, a "normal" child). Love is a powerful motivator as this book reveals.

This book is required reading for anyone who works with my son in our Son-Rise program, which we run 48 hours a week in a playroom like the book describes. Our son is a miracle in progress. Where ever he ends up, I know that I will experience sheer delight each time he looks into my eyes or holds my hand or gives me a kiss. This book has taught me to relish the simple moments while "going for the gold" in our Olympic adventure of life with a perfectly autistic little boy.

I will be forever indebted to Barry and Samahria Kaufman for their courage, conviction, and above all ... love. They are truly champions of life.

People face all types of challenges in their lives. This book details the challenges facing the parents of a special needs child and the manner in which they chose to flourish instead of buckle under that challenge.Barry Kaufman's message of acceptance in the face of the negative prognosis of all the medical community is a gift to all that face such challenges in their own lives. He suggests opportunity to grow, where others see only tragedy. He finds hope where others find only fear. This inspiring book should be required reading for all those blessed with special needs children and for all of those who want to change their attitudes regarding life around to a more peaceful and happier existance. One of the more unique aspects of this book is the incite it gives you into the other wonderful volunteers and people who work with this little boy. He not only changes the lives of his parents, but everyone around him that he touches.

If you are feeling blue about what cards life has dealt you, read this book and your deck will get a serious reshuffle!!!

People face all types of challenges in their lives. This book details the challenges facing the parents of a special needs child and the manner in which they chose to flourish instead of buckle under that challenge.Barry Kaufman's message of acceptance in the face of the negative prognosis of all the medical community is a gift to all that face such challenges in their own lives. He suggests opportunity to grow, where others see only tragedy. He finds hope where others find only fear. This inspiring book should be required reading for all those blessed with special needs children and for all of those who want to change their attitudes regarding life around to a more peaceful and happier existance. One of the more unique aspects of this book is the incite it gives you into the other wonderful volunteers and people who work with this little boy. He not only changes the lives of his parents, but everyone around him that he touches.

If you are feeling blue about what cards life has dealt you, read this book and your deck will get a serious reshuffle!!!

I now can be around a person in my life and try to help this person a little better.This book opened my eyes to a whole new way of helping this person, than before. It is a book that anyone that cares needs to read.

This is an amazing read about an amazing family and how they transformed their little boy with Autism into the man he is today, CEO of the family business and spokesman. You really can believe in this miracle.

This book makes me angry because it seems to mix a little truth (the importance of accepting a child as they are, and not seeing them as a "tragedy") with a lot of snake-oil.

In many ways, the teaching and play techniques that Kaufman describes are good and practical ones (although, contrary to what he claims, he is not the only one applying such techniques to the teaching of autistic children).

It's his attitude and tone which seem phony through and through.

He constantly makes a big deal of how important it is to love and accept an autistic child they way they are, autism and all - but then implies that if you just accept them enough, they'll magically be "rescued" from the autism. Sorry, Barry, that's not real acceptance. If you truly accept someone as they are, you stop looking for "miracles" that'll make them into someone else.

He claims he can't guarantee any results, but when ever Robertito fails to progress dramatically, it is always his parents' attitudes which are deemed to be at fault. They aren't accepting enough, or they're expecting too much (evidently, you can only expect miracles if you stop expecting miracles). Presumably, if they just got their attitudes right, he'd be cured.

He talks equally constantly about how non-judgmental he is, but in fact judges others in the most sneakily vicious way imaginable. Anyone who uses other methods to teach autistic children, or who asks him difficult questions, is portrayed as a cold and brutal torturer. The mother who criticises him for making other parents feel that they're to blame if they don't produce "miracles" is held to be short-sighted and incapable of understanding. We even know that one character is going to turn out to be a baddie when she refuses to stop drinking coffee and start a health-food diet - sure enough, she's quickly shown to be callous and irresponsible.

Indeed, judging by Kaufman's description of his own family, anything less than a continual state of blissed-out happiness about everything is unacceptable (consequently, there's a certain "Stepford Wives" feel to a lot of the book).

The whole book has a strangely novelistic feel,with detailed accounts of conversations Kaufman wasn't present at and lengthy accounts of others' private thoughts. Unless we are to assume that he's psychic, we have to infer that at least part of the book is "imaginative reconstruction". I have no objection to this sort of thing per se, but it's thoroughly out of place in what is supposed to be a documentary account.

I'm not just a random cynic, I am a high-functioning person with autism. I've spent my life with people trying to "fix" me in one way or another. And I can safely say that being locked in a small playroom with a Kaufman determined to "accept me in a totally loving and non-judgemental manner" is my personal idea of hell.