Consultants receive extensive training in the following programs:
Family Guided Participation Program
In this program consultants establish a guide-apprentice relationship with parents while empowering parents to become competent guides for their children. The Family Guided Participation Program is constructed of the prerequisites for working on dynamic intelligence, creating an environment for mental and neural development.
The consultant must have a comprehensive understanding of their role as well as how to guide the apprentice using framing, scaffolding, elaborating, spotlighting and memory forming. Consultants frame challenges by modifying task elements that are beyond the apprentice's capabilities and removing information not central to problem solving. They scaffold by slowing down their natural pace and temporarily taking responsibility for parts of solutions before gradually transferring sole responsibility to the apprentice in small steps. Finally they spotlight, making sure critical information and actions stand out, while helping the apprentice capture meaningful personal memories. These memories provide the basis for using the past to plan and work for the future.
The RDI Program for ASD
A customized ASD curriculum is available as part of the Family Guided Participation Program, the RDI Program for ASD is based on over 15 years of specialization with the Autism Spectrum Disorders. Applicable for children of any age as well as verbal and non-verbal clients, this curriculum includes extensive planning tools to develop a customized bio-psycho-social intervention program.
The Dynamic Education Program
For families who have already established a Guided Participation Relationship, consultants learn how to take clients to the next level by using a curriculum constructed to carefully build neural collaboration and prepare learners for real-world success. The consultant continues to support the essential elements of the guide-apprentice relationship using a developmentally based approach purposely focusing on areas of weakest neural development. In this more advanced program the term student is used to denote the apprentice and replaces the term child.
Consultants learn to customize their client’s curriculum to address a variety of different environments and needs including: recommended academic standards by state or educational organization, adult work skills, home school objectives and even Occupational Therapy objectives (to be used by qualified OT's only).
The Dynamic Consultation Tool
Secure and confidential, multi-media online “charts” provide easy access to objectives, assignments, communication and samples of progress for the family. Consultants, parents and other team members effectively communicate, viewing each other’s work in their respective settings, as well as receiving regular feedback from one another.
Based on specific assignments constructed by the consultant, parents upload representative samples of their interaction to their consultants for review. These work samples typically consist of parental thoughts and analysis through video or other media files that provide a representation of their progress. Consultants rapidly respond to parents using the online system and provide valuable monitoring during intervals between live meetings.
The Learning Support Community for Consultants
The goals behind the Consultant Learning Support Community follow the example of the Community of Practice (CoP). The concept of a community of practice (often abbreviated as CoP) allows small groups of people to work together through extensive communication while developing a common sense of purpose and a desire to share knowledge and experience.
The expectations for this community include:
Implementing the research, ideas and feedback from the consultants directly into evolving programs. As our programs have grown, we have learned, much like software engineers, that development cannot happen in a vacuum. Even with the best intentions, programs developed without the direct input of the consultants and families using them is hazardous and ineffective.
Drawing from a diverse world-wide community, consultants at all levels (from trainee to veteran) will be able to support one another and provide immediate solutions for day-to-day challenges. Time is saved by conferring with members of a Community of Practice (CoP). People have tacit knowledge which is not found in a book. For example, one person shares the best way to handle a situation based on his experiences, enabling another person to avoid mistakes and shorten the learning curve. In a CoP, members can openly discuss and brainstorm about a project which can lead to new capabilities. The type of information that is shared and learned in a CoP is boundless.
A collective resource to support the pursuit and practice of our programs, heightening global awareness and creating fresh opportunities.
Additional resources available for professionals involved in the training and certification include:
Membership for their clients in the Learning Support Community
Access to training opportunities for all future programs and future tools
and participation in a unique quality assurance program
Who is the Consultant Training Program for?