Anyone here do any RDI?

[CanYouBeHappyAnyway]

as per the title

it has been suggested to me that dd might benefit from RDI. but I don't know much about it.

anyone here got any experience? where would I even begin to look into it?

TIA

i hadnt heard of it either but id be interested as a possible therapy for my DS so found this...

www.help-autism.com/autism_search_faqs.html

id be interested too to see if anyones had this for their DC

That website has some very dodgy information on it and makes some false claims.

However, RDI itself can certainly help a child with autism. My last ABA supervisor was RDI trained and had 8 years experience. I recruited her and trained in ABA and absolutely got the best of both worlds.

It's based on building a relationship with the child and trying to increase the number of interactions through being their bestest friend in the whole world and being absolultely fun and engaging for them, so that generally, their world is much better with you in it with them than without.

It doesn't cure autism. It doesn't really treat the symptoms of autism either. But it can increase the amount of time that your child is in a 'social world' and give them practise of this. The idea is that eventually they will choose to stay in it more often than not.

hth

Thank you, both.

I did read through the website with a face - really quite blatant propaganda. Not much substance of what you actually do either, which makes me a bit more.

dd is very social anyway. really, very much so. far more likely to want to chat/play/read stories together than be off on her own.

maybe it isn't for her after all.

thank you, will ponder some more.

we used RDI (so I'm told!) in our ABA programme to improve ds' awareness of non-verbal cues (direction of eye gaze etc).

I'm pretty meh about it ... ds is very social & we don't have problems with him wanting to do things with us/peers (social issues are more about control) or being in his own world. I still don't really understand it tbh.

i only found that one to give CanYouBeHappyAnyway an idea what its about i wasnt recomending the site or anything within as ive only just heard of it myself ,remembering even if it is available in the uk (which apparently it is) a uk RDI programme especially if via a recomended therapist and a HCPs advice ive never heard of it from personal experience and thats from chatting on MN and parent groups at SS or my DS HCP no ones ever mentioned it .
Just read all way through i dont personally belive anything recommended or not i go by my own experience as all of our DCs are so different what works for one may not another n vice versa , we have access now to AIT so im hoping to get on this programme but even then i wait for the results before saying what i think even of that , one thing though if that programme they build up a fantastic friendship how devastating would that be if suddenly for any reason taken away i dread to think how my DS would be considering how he has been with change of teachers and TA ect in past

no, no, smileandwave2000 - thank you for finding the site. I haven't been able to find anything else as (seemingly) comprehensive.

it seems you have to buy the books, and sign up with a consultant to actually find out what it is all about (ie what you do), which is why I asked here.

it was very helpful to read through, and it was a good list of questions asked - the answers should have been comprehensive, but did leave me lacking, tbh.

I've never come across anyone who has "properly" done RDI, and I was hoping to find someone here.

graciousenid - do you know what you did to help with those areas? how the RDI bits were delivered? what made it different from the ABA you were doing? how did you know the improvements were down to RDI or ABA?

Haven't heard anything good about it, and it all seems a bit mumbo-jumbo Emperors New Clothes to me
from what I've heard, it's trying to copy bits of what they do in the Higashi in Boston, but not being clear about it.

we have the chance to help someone complete their RDI qualification thingy, with dd1.

and can't find out anythign abuot it either.

wish we could - it woudl be interesting to hear form families who have used it.

MrsShrek - intrigued now - what do they do at the Higashi in Boston, then?

I odn't like the way that iste spent a lot of time saying what RDI wasn't and not much info on what it was, and how to go about it.

agree with Star too - some pretty dodgy claims on there

re. the Higashi, all rumour and hearsay
Someone DH works with has been over with their child, for two years. They do the Daily life Therapy (think it's what it is called, am on phone so can't open another tab to check atm) Go googling and I'm sure you will find more if you need to.
All I heard about RDI was from someone who kinda couldn't see what it was aiming at and where it was going, as distinct from what the rest of us in ASD specialist services are already doing, iyswim. Therefore couldn't see why all the TM's and registered names business, and obv the considerable costs.

we didn't get any improvements so I shelved it (he was 3.9 I think when we started)!

I don't think ds had a clue what he was supposed to be doing - it was all delivered silently by the tutor with meaningful glances in the direction of an object that ds was supposed to then get. The programme was eventually to build to the point the ds could build a copy of an unseen lego model by the tutor glancing at the different coloured blocks & then indicating with their eyes where each one should be placed on the board. ds was not motivated to participate!

His attention to non verbal cues, eye gaze & gesture has improved greatly in the last 3-4 months (he's 4.5 now) (though we don't keep data on it - it's been noted by all his NHS & private therapists in the most recent bunch of assessments) - we did a mini ABA programme to work on hush! stop! come here! gestures but mostly it has just improved developmentally I think.

We did all the follow ds' interests/join his world etc stuff with Hanen when he was 2.5; I'm not sure how the basic RDI stuff is different (I've never found anyone who could really explain it to me) & the stuff we tried to do with ds was way too advanced for him.

ah just remembered the first phase of the programme - we'd hide a marble (for marble run) under a cup & indicate to ds which one of three it was under by staring at it - that actually worked quite well at improving eye contact.

There used to be a poster on here called Saker, who was doing RDI with her son and was very positive about it. I don't know if she posts under a different name now, or whether she's left MN. if so, as she was lovely! Anyway, if you do an archive search under her name you should find quite a bit of info.

It is run on a very business model so very secretive and you have to sign up etc etc
There is an RDI school in Oldham just opened and a woman - Zoe something who is very active on forums, NAS etc who is consultant or parent? using RDI and has a website ?? Bright Futures I think its called. There is also a RDI Yahoo group I think.
She has also posted some videos of RDI on youtube

We read up on it. The Gutstein (is that what he's called?) guy has done some books and you can get them on AMazon and try out some of the ideas. i think they required buying lots of beanbags

I think they have published some research now on RDI but not good quality peer reviewed stuff
Manchester Uni did a study on a parent social communication RDI / SLT / Floortime type model called PACT and it did not show good progress for the children involved - but being the UK was not many hours a week etc

Lots of programmes do borrow from RDI and Floortime etc but do not buy into the theoretical basis behind it. eg many ABA approaches have become more play based and child led as a result eg Early Denver.

For us we needed the ABA to reach DS and get him to pay attention and co-operate and now we can do looser more playful activities but if we had not 'made' him do what we wanted through ABA rewards etc we would never have got anywhere as he was perfectly happy in his own world totally blanking us and stimming all the time. He would just have had us all joining in his stim.

Agnes Do you know EVERYTHING?

Oh yes most definitely!
I think sitting on the internet (not to mention libraries and bookshops reading everything on the shelf) for hours when DS regressed was either therapeutic (I feel I am doing something) or an avoidance tactic!

To be fair DH's way of dealing with it is to read, read, read he has a 5 inch thick Fred Volkmar book by his side of the bed.

I trained as an ABA therapist 12 years ago, and after a few years moved towards Floortime as there was something missing, ABA didnt quite address everything. There was no element of "fun" for the child, regardless of how fun we made the sessions.

12 years on, I've come full circle and am back in ABA, (I'm a supervisor, and doing a Masters in ABA) having not found the answers in Floortime nor RDI exclusively. What I did realise was that a distinction needs to be made between good ABA and bad ABA, and 12 years ago it was the latter. It was all about instructional control and getting the child to be compliant, first and foremost. Then working on skills etc. Now, through research, good ABA is all about 'pairing' to start off with, building that rapport and connection with the child and making everything motivating for the child, and being aware that reinforcers are constantly changing and are more or less motivating depending on so many factors.

12 years ago, us therapists would walk through the door and the child would go running crying in the opposite direction. Now we walk through the door and children are running to their tables and grabbing stuff and bringing it to us because we are the Fun Gang :o)

When we know better, we do better.

Hello

I am not quite sure if you are still around...

I just posted my question on a new thread

Dear mums

I have a nearly i years old autistic son still no speech and aba didn't help much due to anavsilable tutors...static teaching...etc

Is there any mum who could share her experience about RDI please

Thanks

Hello StarlightMcKenzie

I could not send you a PM

I am hoping to start rdi soon with my son and need advice on choosing consultants...etc

I sm.in the UK

Let me know please any advice info that could help me.
Thanks for ur time 👍 💓

Hello

I could not send you a PM

I am hoping to start rdi soon with my son and need advice on choosing consultants...etc

I sm.in the UK

Let me know please any advice info that could help me.

Thanks for ur time 👍 💓