Re:Anyone out there doing RDI?

November 19, 2006

Aliza and ,

I don't know if this will post, so I'm cc'ing my friend

Singleton to forward, in case it bounces!

I was very interested in RDI, I have two sons on the spectrum, a 10

year old profoundly affected by Autism, and several co-morbid medical

conditions, and a 9 year high functioning son. We've had a pretty

decent ABA home-program in place for them since they were 2 & 3 yrs

old. I was very happy with their progress, but there was still room

for improvement with social and peer relationships.

I also was at my wits' end with the BCBA's available to us' lack of

creativity and level of expertise when it came to addressing social

deficits. After attending many many workshops and reading whatever I

could get my hands on re: social skills curricula.

Around the same time I remembered a family from our area had been

taking their very high functioning child to the Connection's center

for years and this child's level of social competence and ease of

interaction at 13, in comparison to what I'd observed when he was

9 & 10 was nothing short of amazing. This child had NO other

intervention other than RDI, but he also was a child that was fully

included in reg. ed. from the get go with moderate supports and a

safety net. So there were no co-morbid conditions, so speech

disorders, etc.

I attended a 2-day overview and was impressed with the parents'

interpretation of the teachings and joined a yahoo-group to learn

more. I then purchased their 5-hour DVD and the activity books and

just on my own tried following some of the protocol. I was so

pleased with my older son's gains that I put both children on the

waiting list for an RDA and attended a four day parent training.

I had a horrible experience at the course of that training with

Gutstein and Sheely, a couple of their trainers and a PR manager,all

young girls who did not have children themselves. This caused me to

sit back and take a closer look at RDI, where do the principals come

from, where is all the funding going, why are there no peer reviewed

published data and why is all the information of progress only on a

handful of very high functioning children.

I also was taken back that two of their trainers asked my how long

I'd been doing RDI and who was our consultant after seeing our

children's videotapes? Because the answer was, I wasn't doing RDI

really, I'd been running ABA programs. But I kept hearing a LOT of

mis-information about Behavioral approach and a LOT of slamming of

Behavior Analytic approach to teaching.

I also on a couple of occasions took a verbal beating from Gutstein,

that was so outrageous and childish that several parents came up to

me during various breaks and apologized to me for his behavior! It

was a really bizarre experience. And to top it all, they cancelled

our children's appointment for the RDA and sent us a full refund of

$8800, citing they couldn't meet our criteria of licensed providers

conducting the RDA!

You'll have to know me to see how bizarre this is, I am a very shy

person who always works so hard not to offend! I'd been a volunteer

with a parent organization for years and over the years have

interacted with countless professionals and parents and advocates

around the state and around the country and I've never had anything

but cordial pleasant interactions. So I found the whole experience

rather odd and eerie. To this day I don't have a good explanation of

what was going on with them and what it was about my husband and I

that threatened them so much. One thing I can say is that we're not

groupies and I'd done my homework so my face may have shown that I

wasn't buying some of the mis-representation and misleading

information. I do think this group has really done their homework

and have an excellent Publicity generating skills.

I think what the husband and wife have done is to provide a blue

print of social and relationship development in NT children-much in

the same way that the ABLLS was for a VB curricula-and are helping

parents focus on the foundation of this development and look for

signs of competency in their children at every level. The success of

the program is solely on the parent's ability to determine what is

required at every stage of development and to closely scaffold and

foster this growth in their child, it take a LOT of dedication and

free time, energy and clarity of mind to be able to do it. It also

takes the support of the entire family.

I also met a family at one of the four day workshops whose daughter

had been doing RDI in Houston for about 3 years and the lack of any

significant progress was pretty remarkable. They were attending the

4 day parent training for a second time at the advice of the CC

consultants in order to improve on their intervention! Each parent

training workshop is ~$2000.

But having said all of the above and as bad as my experience was with

the connection's center, there's still the irrefutable fact that

parents across the country are taking this approach to experience

sharing and mentorship with their children with wonderful outcomes

and I still think it's well worth the time and the energy to

investigate it.

However, I am a LOT happier now that I'm working with another

psychologist who is RDI certified and is a much more reasonable,

honest and MUCH less motivate by the financial gains. She bills

insurance, doesn't have a god complex(Gutstein definitely does!), and

is honest about the child's readiness. She also acknowledges the

fact that both of my children have benefited greatly from the skills

that they've learned through Behavior Analytic approaches.

So what I'm trying to say is do your homework, find out where RDI

came from, study the other material and studies that prompted Sheely

and Gutstein to try this with individuals with high functioning

Autism and Aspergers and also join yahoo-groups dedicated to RDI.

But a word of Caveat, remember, there are still NO PEER REVIEWED

published results of how RDI has had measurable and significant

impact on treatment of core symptoms of Autism. It is still all

anecdotal. But perhaps so was ABA at it's infancy many decades ago.

Only time will tell if this is the ground braking treatment they are

selling it as.