This is the sentence that sums up why my family needed RDI. I have 4 children, two of them were Dx on the spectrum. All I wanted was my children with AUtism to talk to me...to find our relationship more important then stimming in the corner or out the window. I was always involved in my childrens therapy...and became part of my childs team as a behaviorist in his home program 11 years ago. By all accounts we were successful in mastering skills for my oldest son but there was still a huge gap with what my then 7 year old understood socially. He had a behaviorial home program for 4 years. Yes, he could now talk but all his talking was for his needs, his wants, what he was thinking. There was limited perspective sharing. As I was told this was as good as it was going to get, at the same time my younger son was not progressing in his behaviorial program. Along with some bio medical interventions, I knew that he needed more then just learning behaviors. This is when a friend introduced me to RDI.
Taking some strategies from RDI and implementing them in my home program, we saw huge results in just a week. We were all hooked! We knew this was the intervention that would help my then 4 year old after 2 years of limited progress in other interventions. He was Dx severe infantile Autism...I was told he would never talk and like many, told to institutionalize him. He now is in stage 4 of RDI and continuing his progress to catch up to his peers developmentally. HIs communication is not for just his needs, but they are for geniune sharing and humor. He wants to involve US in his interactions.
It made sense to me that my older son still needed help, so I implemented RDI with him also at age 8. At the time he was in a school for children on the spectrum and was not very social unless prompted.
Through the help of a consultant, My children began to understand perspective and regulation in a back and forth relationship. RDI turned our families life around! Needless to say my children are no longer in a school for children on the spectrum and my oldest is surviving middle school with friendships and yikes, even a facebook account!!
With the success of my own children I knew I wanted to help other families through RDI. WIth my 12 years experience in Autism I started a global online support group for other families doing RDI or wanting to learn more about RDI that has grown to over 700 members. Join us at -
