RDI® remains a groundbreaking approach in a field that often feels stuck. Unlike traditional models, RDI® prioritizes dynamic intelligence: the ability to adapt, problem-solve, and build meaningful relationships.
Why do so many people have such low expectations for individuals with autism? Absolutely everyone has potential. The key is unlocking that potential.
In this episode of Autism: A New Perspective, host Katherine Lee brings in a former RDI® student who is now in her 30s. Alysia Elliot and her mom Sharon Sargeant talk about Alysia’s life with autism, before RDI® and how starting an RDI® program changed everything.
RDI® can help all families, and your child can benefit from starting RDI® at any age, but the program is designed to promote growth, learning, development, and the ability to have relationships and perform necessary life skills, and, eventually, independence in adulthood. Your child can benefit from RDI® into their teen years and into young adulthood, if they are not yet ready for adulthood.
In this episode of Autism: A New Perspective, Kat Lee talks with special guest Dr. Sarah Wayland, an RDI® Certified Consultant and parenting coach, about raising autistic teens, RDI® and navigating high school on the spectrum.
In this episode of “Autism: A New Perspective,” we continue the discussion about raising girls with autism. Kat Lee is joined by special guest Sharon Sargeant, an RDI® parent whose daughter is now an adult. Sharon talks about the difficulty of getting a diagnosis in the early 90s, trying ABA, and discovering RDI® when her daughter was 12 years old.
In the general population, there’s a spectrum of people. Not everybody is going to be a college professor, and some people are going to have jobs as an assistant at Starbucks, and other people are going to have jobs as engineers. And so when I see someone who has a job as a greeter at Starbucks and has autism and has a girlfriend, I see that as an incredible success.
As children with autism grow up and inch closer to adulthood, there are sometimes lingering concerns–What if we didn’t do enough? What if we went in the wrong direction? What if independence isn’t possible?–but growth is possible into adulthood.
Children with autism have a desire for everything to stay the same, but what if you could help your kids embrace and even look forward to change?
