The man who inspired York mother Rebecca Scotter to seek alternative treatment for her autistic daughter Rachael is to visit Britain next month. Raun Kaufman tells ROSSLYN BRENNAN why he is determined to change people's attitudes to autism

RAUN Kaufman's life story has been the subject of medical journals, alternative therapy leaflets, documentaries and has even been turned into an award-winning television movie.

So when you speak to him it is easy to think of his life as an embellished tale bordering on fiction.

However, the articulate and friendly 29 year old American has a real message to put across to parents, families and health professionals when it comes to dealing with autistic children.

During a tour of the UK this month, he hopes to reach hundreds of people and offer an alternative view of the wide-ranging condition and suggest techniques that can improve the symptoms drastically, sometimes curing them completely.

Raun, above, was diagnosed as severely autistic at the age of 18 months with an IQ of less than 30, so as he speaks today he knows that autism is not always the life sentence it appears to be.

His parents, Barry and Samahria Kaufman, were told that their son would never speak, never read and never communicate in a meaningful way, and were advised to put him in an institution. However, the couple defied medical opinion and worked out their own methods for reaching their child.

Instead of correcting Raun's obsessive behaviour, which included spinning plates and rocking backwards and forwards, they joined him.

Once they had established a relationship, they began to teach him using their own methods - called the Son-Rise Programme - and by the age of five he started to develop like any other child.

He became a highly verbal, socially interactive youngster with a near-genius IQ bearing no trace of his former condition.

He graduated from Brown University with a degree in biomedical ethics and is now an international lecturer, writer, and teacher for The Son-Rise Program at the Autism Treatment Centre of America.

Raun's story often attracts disbelief. He says: "When people meet me they are either surprised because they thought that I had not really recovered, that I had been institutionalised. Or they say I must never really have had autism.

"I find that very funny.

"I have a good friend about my age and she had cancer of the lymph nodes. She went through treatments and she recovered and she hasn't had cancer for many years.

"People don't go up to her and say 'You must never have had cancer if you don't have it now'.

"The attitude comes with a preconceived idea that autism is a condition from which nobody can progress."

Raun says his life would have been so different if his parents had listened to the doctors.

He says: "So many autistic children are written off. So many people think it's terrible, it's hopeless, they are going to be like this for the rest of their lives.

"Even when they are receiving treatment, many of them are focused on changing challenging behaviours.

"But we create a relationship with the child and once we have that they are more willing to connect with us and we can help them grow and change.

"We participate in these repetitive behaviours with the child and find that rather than reinforce these behaviours these children look at us more. The child shows us the way in and we show them the way out."

The centre has worked with 2,000 families so far and, according to Raun, the results have been encouraging in each case. He says more doctors and other professionals are now taking the system on board.

Rebecca Scotter, from Huntington, York, her partner Robert Nutbrown and her sister Nicky Scotter, travelled to the centre in Massachusetts at the weekend to take part in a one-week intensive programme to learn the Son-Rise programme. The family will then use the techniques learned on eight-year-old Rachael, a pupil at Lidgett Grove School, when they return to the city.

Raun says: "There are some people who have been through the programme and their child is now completely typical. Other children still have challenges to face but have far outstripped their diagnosis.

"By doing the Son-Rise programme there's no guarantee of a positive outcome because every child is different. But everyone we have worked with has seen progress which excites them."

Raun's free lecture tour visits Manchester on September 23 and Newcastle on September 24. For details of the tour and to book a seat ring 001 4132292100, email tour@option.org or visit: www.son-rise.org or www.paains.org.uk/sonrise

Updated: 09:13 Monday, September 02, 2002