Product Description

A practicing psychologist offers a new approach to developing social skills and relationships in children diagnosed with autism or Asperger's Syndrome. Dr. Gutstein describes ways to steer these children onto a bright new path of self discovery and social awareness, one that will ultimately bring them home to meaningful friendships, shared emotions and heartfelt connection with the people in their lives.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36385 in Books
• Published on: 2001-03-14
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 200 pages

Dr. Tony Attwood
A remarkable intervention program!

Customer Reviews

MOVING THE CHILD FROM RETREAT TO ENGAGEMENT
RDI enables the child to move from the self-imposed safety of a static system of his/her own making to engagement in the fluid world at large. The steps are based on the developmental stages of a normal childs venturing into world while he/she looks to the caregiver for support and referencing. The child on the autism spectrum ventures out until the world becomes confusing and chaotic and because he/she does not look back at the caregiver for a broadening understanding becomes overwhelmed and retreats into stimms or idiosyncratic habits to create a static, safe or predicatable environment. The child looks odd as he/she is not engaged in the fluidity life. The words static and fluid or big with RDI as the idea is the child is constantly controlling his/her environment to block out anything which might change the order they seek. The step by step process of RDI is a very optimistic idea in action as it can be used with a 2 year old or an older more entrenched Aspergers child with defined obsessions for example - basically it doesn't matter the treatment begins with breaking into the child's stimm or obsessions in a playful fashion to make them used to the interruptions of their solo activities. This is pretreatment then the program moves through levels based on developmental stages. Level 1 for example is about co-ordination and self referencing with the care giver and the child is never allowed to move forward without the caregiver right there step by step - this is a back and forth relationship play level, based on facial gazing for information - infact avoiding language at this stage is very important as the child should learn to read anothers face at this point the caregiver says "I need to see your words" - once the child has mastered back and forth - gaze reading and shared joint attention it progresses to shared novel interactions that involve spontanity, a higher level of emotional attunement and fluidity. The goal is for the child to become an initiator and to become adept at keeping co-ordination when actions and reactions grow more complicated. I believe this program is a neccessary component to any intensive program with developmentally disabled children as ABA only goes so far - ABA is great at working with these kids excellent memories to teach rote skills - but it does not provide for the rich experience of life which can not be predicted and which gives life meaning. Lynn Koegal at UCSB discovered looking back over her 20 years of videos that the kids who really mainstreamed indistinguishable from typical peers and became independent adults had self-initiation skills and this is the ultimate outcome of RDI. That they learn through referencing the other, where the self is in the relationship, and the payoff is equally enjoying what they can add or initiate in relationships.

A critical piece, but not the only piece of the puzzle.
I was given this book by another parent whose son has autism, and my son has a preliminary diagnosis of PDD-NOS. While I do agree that an important part of the missing piece for specturm children has to do with their inability to read and respond to the emotional and social cues of their peers, I have my doubts as to whether or not that certain "piece" is the most critical and primary component of autism that needs to be adressed first and primarily in order to begin the process of recovery. Frankly, I am dubious of any therapy that requires parents to spend $3,000 on a four day seminar before they can purchase more therapy, which will likely have to be paid for out of pocket. I find that the RDI's official websites use of guilt and fear in goading parents out of their precious resources is not only irresponsible, but generally reprehensable as well. When I hear something like recovery, or hope for you child's fullest potential, initially comes with a three-thousand dollar cash outlay plus the cost of travel and hotel accomodations, so that someone can tell me over the course of four days, that my son has a deficit when it comes to socialization, I immediately become suspicious. Buyer's beware I say: when therapists have our children's best interest at heart, they never use guilt or fear to get parents into their offices so that treatment and help can begin to lighten the already heavy load of caring for a child with autisim spectrum disorders.

Do the program, ignore the propaganda
If you're a parent looking into treatment options, then I most definitely recommend RDI as a part of your treatment program. It's focuses on many of the very important skills that are not well addressed through other approaches - things like socialization, forming and maintaining relationships, abstract language/thought, and creativity. Let me make this clear: the approach - I love! I think it's much-needed, well-researched, and great! Some of the PR surrounding the approach, however, I do not.

Unfortunately RDI falls into the "Just use us, we want to be the only game in town!" mentality that so many treatment approaches do. If you explore RDI further (i.e., decide to do a conference or consultation after reading this book), you may be told that:

- ABA programs make children "more autistic", even though they appear to be getting better this is only a short term illusion, underneath it all they are being taught to think in a more black-and-white 'autistic' way.

- Language fundamentals (i.e., basic vocabulary, following directions, speaking in sentences using correct grammar) are not a core defecit of autism despite the fact that they are listed as part of the diagnostic criteria, and so they are not targeted. The child will 'get' all of this language by doing RDI, however, even though it's not specifically addressed.

- The child's age when they begin treatment isn't important, the birth to five time frame for early intervention is arbitrary. Also, intensity of treatment isn't important, quality of treatment is (again, this is said as 'fact' despite the fact that it is not supported and seems to be contradicted by research)

This is some of the information that was presented when I went to an RDI conference and checked out their website, from Dr. Gutstein himself. So I recommend this program to parents with a warning - keep your common sense. Do not fire your speech therapist or your verbal behavior consultant if you're happy with these programs and you think they are working. I like RDI a lot, I think it's a great program and very beneficial to the child, but some of the information they are passing along to parents as 'fact' seem more like their own theories that do not appear to be consistently supported by research.

Bottom line - there is no one 'right' approach for any child! Some kids will need to sit down and drill on vocabulary words over and over in order to develop a functional vocabulary. Yet this would be silly and pointless for some other children. Some kids will benefit from behavioral, sensory, or other techniques as part of a combined program, some won't. Why this fact is so rarely recognized by the 'heads' of these various therapies is beyond me.