If you have asked the question, what is the difference between The Son-rise program and RDI, and have found your way here, I hope that this information is helpful to you.
The reason I am writing this is because even though The Son-rise Program acknowledges that RDI has some similarities on their site, there is a lot of misinformation that they are promoting as RDI. You can check out their page here- http://www.autismtreatmentcenter.org/contents/other_sections/floortime-rdi-son-rise-program.php Yes, RDI, The Son-rise program and Floortime all acknowledge relationships as a crucial backdrop to the ultimate success of our children. After that fact, all three take different, unique approaches. Both Son-rise and Floortime are child led, whereas RDI is guide led, with the focus on promoting Dynamic intelligence. The focus begins with relationships, but taking it that step further for the building blocks of understanding perspective and critical thinking as shown by typical children, is what makes RDI so effective In assisting our children to catch up to their peers on all levels of intelligence ( social and IQ) therefore fulfilling their true potential! click here for more information http://www.rdiconnect.com/pages/Our-Programs.aspx
I respect any parent’s choice and want to give a parent correct information… to make an informed decision. As I stated, this is the purpose for writing this, since I am a parent who took both her children Through RDI as well as a RDI certified Consultant. As a side note, there are many misrepresentations regarding Floortime in this comparison, but that will need to be for another day J When I discovered the incorrect information on the Autism treatment of America site, I did email Mr Kaufman. I asked for Mr. Kaufman to correct the information he has on RDI on his website which to date he has not. In addition, I volunteered to have us both collaborate on a comparison which was also declined. For this reason I stayed with the basic comparison from the Son-rise site, as with comparisons I like to have a well balanced view from both parties. With that said, please keep in mind there are many more differences and I welcome your questions or comments. RDI4Autism@gmail.com
Repetitive “Stimming” Behaviors | |
RDI | The Son-Rise Program |
RDI uses natural authentic activities to create a beautiful dance of Co regulation between parent and child. Central to RDI is the belief that our children want to interact but do not know how to be an apprentice to our guidance. RDI fosters safety for our children by the assurance that we, as their guide hold the answers to their confusion, therefore creating resilience and competency in mutual engagement. Parental or support guidance is dependent on what developmental milestone are being addressed | Advocates “joining”, which means entering the child’s world by enthusiastically participating in their repetitive behavior until the child interacts of their own volition. This is seen as central to creating a willing interpersonal connection. MORE RDI RDI advocates joining a child in their interactions. We believe there are many ways to join, focusing on one method called Guided Participation. http://www.education.com/reference/article/guided-participation/ Parent based, guide lead does not mean that we do not foster the mutual interaction and ideas of interaction presented by our children. Quite the opposite. This of course is central to any relationships. Parents learn how to influence their children for discoveries. The specific difference between joining in The sonrise terms compared to RDI is RDI equips our children through an authentic mutual engagement rather than trying to get an action by following along or the reward of entertainment. As their Guide in RDI, we reach into the child's world through many different avenues, not just one as with the Sonrise program. This process streamlines joint attention ( as we believe children crave OUR guidance), therefore affording our children a second chance to gain those missed milestones. We believe our children can succeed if given a do over in a more slow, deliberate fashion. |
Repetitive “Stimming” Behaviors | |
RDI | The Son-Rise Program |
TRUE or FALSE? Neither stops nor joins the child. FALSE. TRUE RDI RDI joins the child as their guide, equipping the child with a role that they feel competent in to move forward on a joint attention level/ Mutual connecting. RDI follows the example of typical development in increasing competency for our children, therefore reducing their need to withdraw or escape through self stimulatory behaviors. We all have participated in self stimulatory behavior at one time or another ( twirling hair, banging a pencil) RDI believes in reaching in to the child’s world , just as a friend tapping their pencil when you start would get your attention, and then guiding the attention to an authentic joint relationship that is based on the very basic Me/you/us foundation ( In psychology this is referred to as the intersubjective relationship). http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Intersubjectivity | Advocates "joining", as explained above. MORE RDI Here is an 1 example of the difference. Please feel free to contact me if you would like more examples. Your child is stimming. You are sitting on the floor next to your child. In both cases your child feels your presence. With the Sonrise program, you are to join your child in their stim, for however long that is and celebrate any eye contact, etc. With this process you are following your child, and may be joining in with them for months. With RDI, the guide, making sure that they are close to their child ( the zone of connection) along with keeping in mind ( The zone of proximal development) http://psychology.about.com/od/zindex/g/zone-proximal.htm which will gives the child a role that they can be successful in and not want to withdraw from their guide. This is an effective process to draw your child instantly into a social relationship. These start out small with very simple co regulatory actions, that could begin with joining a child in their action..moving that to a joint attention activity, to more advanced actions always just one step ahead of the childs development to ensure that developmental prerequisites are being addressed. AN example of this would be if a child is stimming within his speech, We will join in with that conversation, guide the conversation to a joint collaberative conversation that promotes thinking, and guide the child to understand the thrill of our Mutual engagement. This system (Guide led) is very precise compared to The Sonrise program where they are waiting for a child to respond positively. The Sonrise Program does advocate following along in every self stim behavioral ( hand flapping, jumping up and down, etc) RDI acknowledges for some behaviors that may be counter productive where the child is in obvious fight or flight mode or there are more reliable ways to reach the child. In addition, many parents struggle with stimming along with their child for hours, days, weeks, months, waiting for a response. Within RDI, children respond positively sooner as they grow in certainty that they will not be overwhelmed. This is just one of the many reasons RDI is so unique and effective in approach. |
Red and Green Lights: The Exclusive/Interactive Continuum | |
Floortime/DIR and RDI | The Son-Rise Program |
TRUE or FALSE? Seeks the child’s interaction regardless of the child’s “state.” Facilitators are taught to look for opportunities to create and build interaction as much as possible. FALSE TRUE RDI We are looking for opportunities to build Dynamic intelligence. The description above from the Sonrise site is incorrect and misleading. For a description of DI please click here http://www.rdiconnect.com/pages/Dynamic-Education-Program.aspx When a child is in a disregulated state, RDI believes they are then in fight or flight mode because of the unproductive uncertainity that is surrounding them. This is a core reason that one of the foundations within the RDI program is to recognize this state, and how to co regulate with your child to bring him/her out of fight or flight mode. This can be one of the reasons that a child is using self stimulatory behavior as a calming mechanism. We want them to use our perspective, social referencing, and our joint attention as a calming mechanism. Think of a typically developing baby who has learned to borrow their parents/guides perspective An example of this is here-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6cqNhHrMJA | Teaches how to see, in each moment, where a child is on a continuum - from exclusive/in their own world (red lights) to interactive (green lights). During red lights, children are joined in their world. Teaching and challenging happens only when the child is giving a green light. RDI What is productive vs unproductive uncertainity? Click here for a delightful example http://intentionalparents.com/tag/productive-uncertainty/ Making it more personal. Think of a time in your life where you were excited about tackling a job or task. You had just enough support to productively manage any uncertainty that may happen. Now think about the times in your life where the well planned event or task took a turn and a few things started going wrong, (murphy’s law, etc) Depending on the degree of disaster J typically we can all keep it together until that final straw that broke the camels back. Then we slip into Unproductive uncertainty. We cant think straight, everything is jumbled, we just want to escape!! We have limited ability to manage all that is going on so we our body’s response to protect itself is fight or flight mode. Our children with Autism are in this mode more often than not. By our guidance, we are able to turn the tables on their Unproductive uncertainty by again being their guide OUT! RDI consultants guide parents on strategies to help regulate their child back into productive uncertainty for maximizing learning throughout the day. |
Celebration of the Child | |
RDI | The Son-Rise Program |
TRUE or FALSE? Does not believe in big celebrations of the child (particularly with regard to eye contact) because of a concern about doing anything which might be construed as ABA-type behavior-shaping reinforcement, which is seen as bleeding social interaction of most of its humanity. When the child engages in some way, the facilitator either remains silent or “spotlights” what the child did in a low-key manner FALSE TRUE RDI Im not even sure where to start here! This is incorrect. Since RDI is based on typical development, of course we believe in celebrating with our children. We also certainly would not do something because of fear of looking like ABA. I’m not even sure what that means? To separate RDI and ABA, one only needs to research the different philosophies of Behavioral conditioning vs the cognitive revolution/the role of intersubjectivity in how we think and therefore act. RDI is heavy on thinking as represented in the focus of developing Dynamic intelligence. The core deficits of Autism show that dynamic intelligence is an obstacle for every child on the spectrum. We do spotlight our children’s victories but there is nothing low key about creating experience based memories. | Sees another way forward with a different kind of huge celebration which adds humanity. Celebrates eye contact, communication, flexibility, and engagement as magnificent and meaningful steps toward the world of others. Uses celebration to express a deep sense of gratitude that the child can understand, enhancing closeness and social engagement. MORE on RDI RDI believes in celebrating with the child in many different ways. Central to this celebration is making sure we do not rob our child from the competence they feel in an authentic activity by overwhelming them with over stimuli. An example of this is you and your child are involved in playing or any joint activity. Using the one step ahead model, they are able to think of the next step ( with your guidance), safely knowing you are their guide and they can borrow your perspective. Spotlighting their success by highlighting the experience seeking and.or sharing that has occurred, you both share those moments of success. This spotlighting, encodes the positive memory as *US* and builds upon the next step of success. RDI celebrates Every aspect of an interaction. We celebrate things like eye contact, etc without calling attention to the action. Instead we call attention to what is gained in higher level memory building by *looking*. This helps our kids understand that we are celebrating *why* they knew to look at us. This way, developmentally, the child remembers the success of the action ( what they learned by looking) compared to being rewarded by entertainment because they * looked*. This overstimulation can be overwhelming to a child but more importantly diverts their memory encoding from their success to now being entertained by the adult for *eye contact*, etc. This can be confusing to the child in what to actually pay attention too. Think of your own life… You want to celebrate but in a normalizing way, with plenty of experience sharing and encouragement, not just alot of noise!! This is overwhelming for most people, let alone children with fragile systems. The sonrise program does celebrate with children for specific things they are looking for with a lot of bells and whistles and noise. This is the teaching method ( energy,excitement,enthusiam). This first video is how we as parents are supposed to prepare for working with our children according to The Son-rise program http://www.youtube.com/user/autismtreatment#p/u/130/-DX3dIz0qpo This second video is trying to divert their child's attention to wanting pancakes. You will see that the adult is doing all the work in the interaction while the child (played by the adult) is being entertained. The adult is using alot of language and actions and the entire activity is very fast paced. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKBL42muGkI&feature=relmfu This can be overwhelming for our children and with the delicate state we want to give them every opportunity to effectively celebrate with them and make sure THEIR success and THEIR discovery stays with them! ( using more non verbals, slowing our pace, thinking language compared to chatter) This second video is a therapist trying to get a child to look at them ( role play). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm746gSqwo8&feature=related There is no authentic reason to look other then for entertainment purposes. This is sweet and fun, and can be incorporated as play, but does little to build a childs true dynamic intelligence. The goal in this video is to manipulate the child to look...Not because of social referencing, but because of entertainment. Remember the visual cliff video! We want social referenced to emerge through dependable developmental channels the same way typical children learn to *borrow perspective*. |
The Importance of Attitude | |
Floortime/DIR and RDI | The Son-Rise Program |
TRUE or FALSE? Values attitude, but does not make it central to every aspect of program implementation.. FALSE TRUE RDI RDI’s focus is on the Guide apprentice model to focus on trust. This focuses on the safety and trust between parent and child for a developmental approach that is non judgemental and welcoming. As parents we love our children and RDI has a high rate of parents who in turn become RDI consultants, sharing the feeling of being empowered with other families! In addition RDI believes that our competence as a parent can be compromised because of Autism. Our children are not responding and so we feel like we are doing all the work just to get some sort of response from our child. RDI has two programs going and are complimentary to one another. We have the parent program of objectives where the focus is restoring that trust in your style of parenting ( Autism is NOT your fault). Parent objectives help you to go through your day and determine when you can implement RDI into authentic activities ( making it less stressful since you do not have to be in a room, away from other family members and children for large periods of time). The most effective treatment for Autism is when it can be part of your lifestyle in home and the community. This maximizes results! The parent objectives guide the parent through every aspect of education, readiness and guiding, along with attitude. The child objectives guides the child through typical developmental milestones. This simultaneous, complimentary method is a constant source of encouragement for the entire family..so yes, attitude is valued in every aspect! | Sees attitude as vitally important, since having a non-judgmental and welcoming attitude determines whether the child feels safe and relaxed enough to interact and learn. It also determines whether parents stick with a program. RDI sample objectives ( taken from Dr Steven Gutstein’s Dynamic curriculum Guide/parent objective Leading through influence and not control Healthy and unhealthy dialogues (Attitude) Participating in a static dialogue that has unwittingly become a "lose-lose" script resulting in a negative experience for both participants (e.g. "Letting you bug me until I lose my temper."), or at least for one (e.g. "I allow you to wear me down once again until I give in").
Student/child objective- Level one approximate developmental age 6-12 months of age Experience seeking Challenge and novelty- Demonstrates clear preference for activities where guides add small, ongoing, but logical variations, when allowed to assume a competent co-regulatory role. Perspective widening objectives
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RDI wants to equip families to remediate their childs Autism according to typical development. There are many interventions that look at a child and want to try and bring them out of Autism through a different plan. However, we believe that the most effective, and true to families and children, is giving families and children a second chance. This is why RDI is based on the Guide model, believing that our children can indeed be effective guided just as their Neuro typical peers! Check out this paragraph from Dr Gutstein in reference to this revolutionary belief in our children..that THEY can be successful right from the start!
Guides make ongoing, as-needed adjustments and revisions to maintain an optimal state of challenge and provide a "safe landing," if the Apprentice does not experience success when taking steps into the unknown. Guides seek to remain on or near a dynamically changing edge of competence: Too low and the child's existing neural pathways will handle the problem. Too high and the brain will move into avoidance or withdrawal mode- Dr Gutstein
RDI believes the parents are the most effective therapists for their children, and is the only program that has a online system equipped with developmental milestones from typical development for the parents to feel empowered by this information that they can fill in their child’s milestones missed the first time because of the effects of Autism. RDI consultants provide constant support to families through the online system along with meetings, skype, etc. RDI does not require the parent to attend a workshop and then give them a packet of information to implement a program at home. We are a fully supportive program where the parent has access to the consultant as well as a huge community of parents also doing the RDI program at their fingertips. In addition, there are webinars and discussions that are education opportunities. There is no other program that has this level of support. I have noted on the Son-rise website, because of the incredible support system that RDI provides, The sonrise program is looking to mirror some of what RDI does in 2012, according to their website. http://www.autismtreatmentcenter.org/document.php?sectionid=6&documentid=59&/index.php This continues to show me that RDI is revoluntary in helping our children and the trendsetter for our children, believing in them and knowing that with guidance and support, Autism no longer has the grip it once did. There are RDI certified consultants in just about every state in the US and abroad. Click here to find a consultant in your area http://www.rdiconnect.com/pages/Find-a-Consultant.aspx …and start guiding your child out of Autism.
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