"I believe that If we can provide a second chance to restore or establish the GPR in a more deliberate mindful manner, we can help the majority of children and families embark on a more normal path of cognitive, emotional and social development. All infants are born with a strong drive to learn from the more expert members of their culture. This is what it means to be human. While their capacity has been overwhelmed at some point in early development, I believe that if we carefully construct a pathway for them, most children will learn to be apprentices and participate in a Guided Participation Relationship."
–Steven E. Guststein, PhD
We have developed a comprehensive program that restores the natural Guided Participation Relationship to families where it has been disrupted or has never formed. While the methods we developed were initially for families who had a child with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, the Family Guided Participation Program is appropriate for families facing a variety of challenges (i.e., Reactive Attachment Disorder, ADHD, Tourette Syndrome, abuse/neglect, to name a few).
Many parents have managed to instruct an apprentice but not guide them. The Family Guided Participation Program allows the parent with the help of a consultant to evaluate where the child stopped developing as a cognitive apprentice. Parents learn to re-think their daily lifestyle, restructuring routine activities, to provide safe but challenging opportunities for mental growth. They make sure that children’s discoveries are preserved and not buried in the flow of daily activity, by helping the child capture and consolidate critical memories to build an experiential repository for future success. Parents develop their role and their child's role in a mindful way creating a pivotal relationship that changes the way the brain is being formed.
By deconstructing the foundations of the Guided Participation Relationship, we have organized the program into a series of customizable developmental steps so that any parent can learn to become an effective guide at their own pace. These steps include basic tools such as learning to communicate and interact with other team members through the Learning Support Community, as well as the introduction of experience sharing and multi-channel communication. Once the logistics of the program are mastered, the work continues as progress and future needs are evaluated, and parents are readied to apply what they have learned to their relationship with their child. This is also the time when Consultants begin to use a modified version of the Family Guided Participation Program for their clients on the Autism Spectrum referred to as the RDI Program for Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Once parents have adjusted and are prepared for their new program, consultant’s work centers on helping their clients create the physical, mental, emotional and communicative space for guided participation. This begins with examining and modifying the degree to which parents have unconsciously become physiologically enmeshed with specific child behaviors. Later the focus shifts to setting up a realistic environment to produce mental growth for the apprentice including developing necessary limits and boundaries and continues with an emphasis on fostering independence, daily activities that will serve as opportunities for guided participation and developing stress management plans for all family members. Finally, guides are asked to reflect on their strengths and limitations and create personal previews for future guiding.
The Family Guided Participation Program provides parents with the basic tools needed to guide. Consultants break down each step for parents, creating an exact picture of their specific role. Once this information is digested, parents focus on how to modify the family communication environment to reinforce thoughtful, respectful communication in two parts. The first focuses on the guide helping the apprentice gradually become a responsible co-collaborator. The second teaches guides to observe and analyze themselves, their apprentice and the state of the guided participation process, as well as learning when and how to insert new cognitive challenges into activities.
Who is it for?