If you need one of the best overviews of the RDI® Family Consultation Program ever, go no further than to hear it all from Dr. Sheely herself. Succinctly she responds to a reader’s question in our RDI® Newsletter. And if you are already engaged in an RDI® Family Program, GREAT! This is a nice reminder of our “why bother” in what we are all doing here, and don’t forget to subscribe to the newsletter!
Question: “We have been
following your description of work with Ellen and are thinking of beginning
RDI. What would work with a consultant look like and how much would it cost.”
Dear Parent,
Thanks
for your questions. I love hearing from you and I hope that the following is
helpful. I must tell you that I love what we do, so I will try not to go on and
on!
The Guiding Relationship
Our
fundamental understanding of Autism is that it thwarts the guiding relationship
that is, for the most part, pretty intuitive with parents. The primary reason
that the guiding relationship is frustrated is that in typical development
there is an emotional feedback loop in place allowing the child to bring quite
a bit to the table and send certain messages. In the beginning this happens
through facial expression that the parent then uses to guide the child.
Most problematic is that because of the disruption created by autism, a certain
kind of intelligence, which we refer to as dynamic intelligence, does not
develop. (This does not refer to all intelligence, especially that of a static
nature which is often intact.) However, this does not make dynamic intelligence
less important since it is fundamental to so many things - our jobs, our
relationships, and, therefore, primary to our RDI™ work.
Our consultants are trained to restore this guiding relationship and to help parents help their child become more self-sufficient learners. It happens through a process of transferring dynamic decision-making from consultant to parent and helping the parent become an effective self-evaluator of his/her work with the child. (I warned you that I would go on and on!) This is so important that we sometimes say our goal as consultants is to work ourselves out of a job, not into one.
Most exciting is how this happens. I will describe my own practice which is similar to that of most consultants. We begin fairly early on with an assessment, different from others you may have experienced because we are teasing out the optimal support for you and your child. We want to make sure that we’re not overcompensating and we also want to analyze whether there are co-occurring problems or obstacles that need to be considered. Following the assessment we begin our work-usually weekly meetings that always focus on a specific goal and include assignments specific to the area of student/child growth that your guiding will foster. These student/child areas include such things as joint attention, competence, self-regulatory decision-making, co-regulatory decision making and emotional responsibility.
Professional FeesOur consultants are trained to restore this guiding relationship and to help parents help their child become more self-sufficient learners. It happens through a process of transferring dynamic decision-making from consultant to parent and helping the parent become an effective self-evaluator of his/her work with the child. (I warned you that I would go on and on!) This is so important that we sometimes say our goal as consultants is to work ourselves out of a job, not into one.
Most exciting is how this happens. I will describe my own practice which is similar to that of most consultants. We begin fairly early on with an assessment, different from others you may have experienced because we are teasing out the optimal support for you and your child. We want to make sure that we’re not overcompensating and we also want to analyze whether there are co-occurring problems or obstacles that need to be considered. Following the assessment we begin our work-usually weekly meetings that always focus on a specific goal and include assignments specific to the area of student/child growth that your guiding will foster. These student/child areas include such things as joint attention, competence, self-regulatory decision-making, co-regulatory decision making and emotional responsibility.
Our consultants set their own rates, so I’m not able to answer this question. However, we do ask that they be very specific about how you will work together before you begin the process. This would include a discussion of their fees, meeting times and your access to the resources as described below.
RDI
Learning Community
All
of your work between sessions occurs within the online RDI Learning Community.
Here we have objectives; webinars and discussions where you will learn to
analyze your work between face-to-face sessions, formulate questions for your
consultant and present snippets of the work that you want your consultant to
see. For my families it’s the time between sessions where the exciting growth
occurs. Thus, when you walk through the door every week your consultant is
ready to help you move forward.
I don’t know if you have other children, but we concern ourselves with them as well - that they not feel their family’s resources are so devoted to the child with the problem that there is nothing left over for them. We want couples to have a strong relationship with each other, their other children and time for themselves, too.
I don’t know if you have other children, but we concern ourselves with them as well - that they not feel their family’s resources are so devoted to the child with the problem that there is nothing left over for them. We want couples to have a strong relationship with each other, their other children and time for themselves, too.
I
hope I have answered your questions. Please feel free to contact me directly or
post to this newsletter.
Best to you and your family,
Best to you and your family,
Dr.
Sheely
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