Fund Raising For Travis

Hello! We are Travis’ parents, Laura and Jeff, and have set up this web page in response to family and friends who have been so loving and generous in wanting to help us on this journey. We appreciate all the love and support you give us, and your well wishes are a most valuable resource for all of us!



Travis is a beautiful, sweet boy with an adorable laugh and twinkle in his eye. After developing normally for the first year of his life, Travis stopped babbling around 12 months and became delayed in other areas of development. At 18 months, he was diagnosed with autism. Autism is a developmental disability resulting in challenges in language, communication, cognition, and social interaction. While there are many things that are still challenging and frustrating for Travis, he also gets a lot of joy out of life. He loves to climb and play outside, run around with his big sister Julia (5 yrs old), and play in his "Son-Rise" playroom with family, volunteers, and therapists. At 4 yrs old, he has progressed over the last 2 years from communicating with signs and sounds to speaking in multiple word sentences, and developing much more interaction with others.



Travis’ parents are helping Travis overcome his autism with a home-based, child-centered Son-Rise Program® in combination with biomedical interventions and other therapeutic options. The Son-Rise Program® has helped thousands of children move towards recovery, using an optimistic, loving approach that is based on the belief that all children have a limitless potential for extraordinary healing and growth. Funds raised initially were used to help Travis’ parents attend the Son-Rise Program® Start Up, a five-day group training course at the Autism Treatment Center of America™ in Sheffield, Massachusetts, in September of 2008. Additional funds were used for Laura to attend the advanced Son-Rise training programs Maximum Impact (in March 2009) and New Frontiers (November 2009), as well as to support his enrollment in other therapeutic settings such as the Bridges Program at Texas Children’s Hospital, where he received Floortime, speech, and occupational therapy for a year and a half. Current donations are being used towards continuing private therapy with his former Bridges therapists following the closing of the Bridges program in September 2010 due to budget cuts . To find out more about The Son-Rise Program® visit the website: www.autismtreatmentcenter.org/.



To send a donation for Travis, you can send a check to our address below, or click the "Donate" button on the right to donate with a credit card using PayPal. Please note that this donation will not be tax deductible since we are not a non-profit organization, as the funds raised will help one particular individual. Any amount is most appreciated and helpful, but nothing is as valuable as all your positive thoughts and prayers! We are amazed at the generous outflow of kindness that has already come our way in response to starting this journey. Everyone seems to know someone who is willing to share their story, experience, advice, or information about a new therapy, dietary intervention, educational program, etc. This support has been so very helpful by both providing us information and also letting us know that we’re not doing this alone. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you!!!



- Laura Licato and Jeff Meier



Travis Meier

4607 Rainbow Valley Ct, Missouri City, TX 77459



For more information, email: travismeier@sbcglobal.net

Sunday, May 10, 2009

May update - Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day! Hope all of you moms, aunts, grandmas, godmothers, etc. are having a wonderful day today.

We are doing well. Julia and Travis were both sick recently, but now have recovered and so we are back to school. Travis had a little bit of hard time adjusting after being sick (tantruming much of the day, not wanting to eat, etc.) but other moms of autistic kids tell me this is very typical for these kiddos. Seems like the after-effects lasted longer than the illness! Unfortunately we have passed the germs on to Nana and Grandma so now they are suffering too. Hopefully this will be the last time for awhile!

Meanwhile, things are moving along. Travis had a field trip with his "school" to the zoo which was very interesting. I don't think he actually saw any animals (except the coy in the decorative pond and a squirrel) but he certainly enjoyed running up and down the steps and ramps to the exhibits, as well as the grates in the concrete and the yellow "caution, wet floor" signs. Travis is also in a new "big boy car bed" that our wonderful neighbors, Lou and Tino, gave us. It is a toddler bed the shape of a car and his crib mattress fits right inside. It has been a bit of an adjustment being "free", and I still have to go in every night and transfer him from the floor into the bed, but he and Julia love it and have a good time jumping off the new bed onto the floor (about 6 inches!) He is also talking much more and says "bye bye" to almost every object we encounter each day.

Also fun has been watching Julia and Travis interact more. They jump off the car bed together, run around the house, and Julia is always helping to remind Travis to "use his words". It's pretty funny coming from a 3 year old prone to crying fits herself when she doesn't get what she wants! More next month...