Thanks Suezip - p

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-15-2003
Thanks Suezip - p
3
Mon, 07-18-2005 - 9:26pm

Thank you so much for all the RDI information. Reading on the RDI website is just not the same as "talking" to a person. I am glad to hear a dvd recommendation. I am an elementary school teachr turned stay at home mom so I feel I could implement the program. How do you find time? Does your child attend special programming or preschool on top of your home programming? Can you tell me how your child has changed since implementing RDI?

Part of my hesitation is that we don't have a dx on the spectrum...at least yet. My son's diagnosis is dyspraxia, and think my husband will balk at spending so much without a dx. I have done a TON of reading though and I do think he could possibly have a codiagnosis of Asperger's or PDDNOS. I do tend to overanalyze but also think if we don't get that label it will be that we squeak by (barely)on the NT side. Sometimes I don't know which way to hope if you know what I mean.

I hope you feel better soon, or at least that the pregnancy passes quickly. :)
Chrissy

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-24-2004
In reply to: ttcabg
Tue, 07-19-2005 - 8:44am

Chrissy,

If you are a former Elem teacher, you definately could implement any program. You need good organizational skills and a good intuitive sense of what behavior in your child means and how to adjust any program to suit that child. Get Gutstein's books: Young Child Activities (not the exact title) and Solving the Relationship Puzzle before you get the DVD. These may be enough to get you started. I don't do a "tight" RDI program, if you KWIM. I mix it with other stuff. My son attends public school (1/2 day Kindergarten in the fall). He is not well suited for a regular classroom yet, but I like the option of him having lots of one-on-one, which the Autism class provides. He is actually WAY more high functioning than the others in that class, but he just marches to his own drummer to much and we have to work on tantrumming still, which would totally disrupt a regular class. We are currently doing medication trials to try to get a good mix that will control his mood. Another hurdle for Cassian's education is that he is so advanced in many academic areas. I many end up homeschooling him at some point for a while, but for now, I have him in public school and the system has been cooperative. We do private OT and Speech as well, which is paid for by our insurance, and I suppliment these programs at home with more work. With a baby on the way, I really need him to be in school next year.

The most helpful aspects of RDI for me were: 1) the developmental stages (which you do have to take with a grain of salt because kids overlap stages), 2) the activities (use them as a jumping off place and then create your own), 3) the online support (helped at first but at one point I no longer needed and unsubscribed), 4) Gutstein's detailed explanations of what autism really is (you may find this will solidify your decision about your son).

Gutstein did a lot of talk last year about who else could be helped by RDI. Kids with NVLD, mild AS, etc. were included. My son has a lot of dyspraxia too, and I have often doubted whether he is truly an ASD child, even though he fits the criteria. His underlying cognitive issues show a lot of good intact empathy but inattention to his surroundings. He looks like a child who has a lot of parietal lobe problems but very strong frontal skills. He always needs additional work on sequencing. RDI gave me a guideline for what to work on, but I never followed it exactly. I'm sure you did the same when you implimented prewritten programs in your classes.

Except for attending the workshop, which was expensive ($2000 for both DH and I), and the cost of me staying at home, I would say we spent under $200 on our RDI program. This was spent on the books I mentioned and supplies like beanbag chairs, beach balls, crawling tube, manipulatives, etc. I would have spent this money on the toys anyway, and the books were worth the money, so I never have felt that we did anything foolish in starting the program. The amount we spent on supplies and books also equals what we might have spent to participate in a couple of Mommy-and-Me classes that our son couldn't handle anyway (something good to tell your DH). The workshop was money well-spent, as it pulled DH into our program as an active participant. DH and I still have impromptu meetings about what we need to work on with Cassian, and he is a huge help in implimenting our programs. He totally understands where we are going with our son and how to work on getting there. I do the organization part, but he picks this up and runs with it when he gets home.

So, I would recommend that you buy the books first, subscribe to the online newsletter (bearing in mind that they can be solitous at times), and check out the online supports. Give yourself a few months to pilot some exercises with your child. You will probably do best by starting at Stage 1 or 2 and working your way up. It takes at least 3 mos to get true brain change, so you need to give yourself enough time working on skills and functions with your child to see lasting change. If the dyspraxia is affecting his social interaction but he doesn't have ASD, I would think that working on specific social interaction sequences will help him. You may want to marry some OT exercises with what you do in RDI eventually to get the right mix for your child. That is what I have had to do anyway. Sometimes I have spent months working on something like speeding up Cassian's orienting to a person and then this part of his social interaction clicks into place. It's really all about customizing what will work for your child, and a skilled teacher is ideally suited for this kind of work.

My email is mom2cassian@yahoo.com. If you want to email me to try out ideas or whatever, please feel free. I'm not as interested in getting rich as Gutstein is, so I don't charge a fee;). Good luck.

Suzi

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-15-2003
In reply to: ttcabg
Tue, 07-19-2005 - 11:13pm

Suzi,

Thanks again for all your input.

I guess Cassian must tantrum at school too, huh? My ds only does that at home, not in his spec. ed preschool - not even once. Interesting.

I read in one of your posts to someone else that Cassian was/is hyperlexic. So is my son. Their litle brains are just fascinating to me.....

I have read both of Gutstein's books before, along with the floortime book, and will have to get Gutstein's out of the library again.

I don't know if my son is on the spectrum or not. I think if you went to five different practicioners they would all give different answers, which is frustrating.

I sounds like you do an excellent job with your son. Thanks again.

Chrissy

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-24-2004
In reply to: ttcabg
Wed, 07-20-2005 - 9:44am

Chrissy,

I have a philosophy about labels and treating kids. Basically, I think a definitive label is unimportant if you are going to treat the child yourself or pay someone else to treat him/her. Insurance companies and school systems want to see that label to justify spending money on a child. Parents don't need this kind of justification when they think their child is having problems.

Say your child has 2 of the necessary characteristics for Aspergers Syndrome, but not the other 3. Who cares if he has a label, if you are going to treat these 2 deficit areas yourself? No one. You are the parent, and as an educator who has read extensively, you know what you need to work on with him. Figure out the deficit areas your son needs extra help with and go to work on these.

This is how I designed a program for Cassian. He dosn't need PICS, for example, but he needs a lot of work on motor planning. Music and written language help him consolodate information better, so we use these a lot. We do a lot of work on peripheral awareness and attention switching in RDI sessions because these are pervasive problems. He needs work on compliance and controlling his tantrumming, but this is really a peripheral issue where Autism is concerned.

That's my philosophy in a nutshell. It's very like what you probably used when teaching individual children in your class, although the capabilities you are trying to foster are not things like reading, writing, and arithmetic. I think that once you know exactly what you need to address with your son, everything will fall into place for you. So, I'd encourage you to worry less about labeling him and put your energy into detective work that will help you determine specific areas of function which need work. Your husband may like this approach better too, because it doesn't entail a "scary label" like Autistic Spectrum Disorder. No one here will kick you off our board, if your child doesn't fit all the criteria. We know the Autistic Spectrum is a loosely defined construct.

Suzi