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, February 13, 2011

Winter, 2011

Once again I am amazed at how much time has passed since I updated Travis' blog! Travis turned 4 years old on Dec. 4th, 2010. I am labeling this one by season since that seems to be as often as I get to write. :)

There were certainly a lot of transitions this fall for Travis with the ending of the Bridges program and not being enrolled in the public school's PPCD program this year. I think it was the right decision as Travis is really progressing, and his therapists thought he was likely to learn just as many negative behaviors at the new school as positive ones. It does seem that his therapy program is very "light" this year though. We are doing only 3 hours of private therapy per week, in addition to 2 hippotherapy sessions per week. He is doing fairly well in his "mother's day out" program with typical kids 2 mornings per week, although sometimes he has difficulties there and just Friday spent much of the day in time out and had to go to the director's office! That said, most of the time he does fine with the others. We are also doing gym classes with typical kids twice per week to give him a little more support physically as we had to drop his occupational therapy in January. Things are definitely coming along, most notably that some of the GI issues are finally abating and we are making good progress on the potty training front. This summer we will scale back on the private therapy and try a few day "camps" to test the waters with new surroundings and people. At least one of them will be for kids with special needs but some others will not, and that should give us a good idea of how much progress he's really made before figuring out next year's therapy schedule. I'm being optimistic and registering him for typical preschool 4 1/2 days per week for next year, hoping that he will be ready for that by the end of summer. Still taking it one day at a time...

As always, so grateful for all your well wishes and thoughts you keep sending our way. Much love and appreciation for all of you, and hoping all is well for your families and friends.

0 comments: