RDIconnect® Blog
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Building the Foundations of Mental Apprentice (and what that means!)
In order to benefit from the MindGuiding relationship the child (apprentice) needs to have formed certain foundations. Here are the five Foundations of a mental apprentice – and how to help lay them.
Laying the Foundation for Intrinsic Motivation through Declarative Language
Being asked questions is perceived as a demand by many children. In fact, questions or demands actually raise blood pressure in the child, putting them on the defensive! Use declarative language instead!
Benefits of Free Time for Kids
Your child learns and develops from planned activities, but with a balance of free time, space is given for your child to naturally develop the motivation to learn.
RDI® Intervention Staging
The RDI Program approaches intervention in the essential areas of teaching, building foundations, and creating growth through problem resolution.
How RDI®️️ and Dynamic Intelligence Lead to Quality of Life for Adults on the Spectrum
Dynamic growth is a key function of dynamic intelligence. With this, your child’s mental resources are improved. Your child constructs and continuously builds a library of personal knowledge that they can retrieve from as needed.
The Second Function of Dynamic Intelligence: Ongoing Growth
Along with their application in mentally challenging, dynamic environments, dynamically intelligent persons preserve mental resources for a second critical function – dynamic growth.
How does Dynamic Intelligence Help Our Autistic Kids during the Holidays?
The more “normal” and routine life is during the holidays, with fewer unexpected circumstances, the more you can help your child avoid overload that could lead to a meltdown.
How to Improve Communication with Autism
Your role is to not “cure” the child of autism but to improve communication which bolsters the autistic child’s growth and development and therefore helps to set and strengthen a foundation that encourages independent living.
Six Areas of Dynamic Intelligence
The development of Dynamic Intelligence is crucial to the ability to have a quality of life.
Improving Parent/Child Communication with Autism
As a parent, we experience much joy when our autistic child gains the ability to answer static questions, but what does it look like for our child to communicate in a much deeper sense, and how do we help them improve?
RDI®️️ Annual Conference 2020
**Recordings will be available to all attendees for 6 months after the end of the Annual Conference** Early Bird Pricing ends Sunday! We are excited to announce that this year’s Annual Conference is...
Emotion Sharing Activities
Activities that can help you and your autistic child build a connection with one another, share emotion and promote social engagement.
Online Schooling When Your Child has Autism
Fall has arrived, and your child’s school has gone to online education due to the pandemic. You are not trained as a teacher. You have no idea how to manage online schooling for your child who has autism. What should the schooling focus be? How do you begin to adjust your life to this?
Scaffolding Towards Independence
Looking for an effective developmental model that will help your autistic child reach their potential? Scaffolding Towards Independence Scaffolding allows the student to gain independence by...
What is Executive Functioning and How Autism Affects It
Executive functioning is critical to our independence as an adult, and most of us are not aware that we possess it. It is comprised of cognitive and mental abilities that help us regulate, control, and manage our thoughts and actions and can be a marked challenge for autistic people.
RDIConnect® Guiding Engagements
Mindful Guiding is not conducted in a spontaneous, seat-of manner. Rather, it takes place during guiding engagements.
Activities for Autistic Children
You can use your imagination as the parent guide and erase any thoughts or burdens you may have perceived as limitations. There are countless activities you can plan that help reach the goals and dreams that you have for your child’s mental growth and development.
Obstacle to the Guiding Relationship
Whether you are new to the RDI® Model or have been around for some time, at some point you will face challenges and obstacles in the process of Guiding your autistic child. Learn more by watching...
Promoting Positive Behavior in our Autism Treatments
Problem behavior, typically thought of as “autism behavior”, is both voluntary and involuntary action that autistic children resort to as a coping mechanism in their environment. Positive behavior, signs that your child listens, watches, responds, and eagerly wants to be a part of the learning and growth process is what we encourage in our treatment. Our program is not one of behavior modification, nor are we a textbook program that treats behavior in autism based on age-related standards. We treat behavior as information.
Mindful Communication
Recommendations for developing mindful, experience-sharing communicationChanging the approach to the way you interact with your child can make all the difference in his or her mental...
What is My Role as a Parent in Autism Treatment?
Do you look at your therapist or consultant as the authority that possesses the main role in your child’s autism treatment? You are the one that holds the dreams for your child’s development in life, and you are also the one that can best provide home-based opportunities for your child’s mental and self-growth.
RDI®️️ At Home: Playing Catch with Dad
This video is an example of how RDI®️️ can be used at home, through everyday activities.
Tips for Virtual RDI® Consulting
Are you working remotely with your child’s autism specialist or consultant? We have some tips to help you get the most out of each session!
RDI®️️ At Home: Stacking Cups
The growth of self, cognitive development and emotional regulation do not develop if a child does not value and accept the parent’s guidance.
RDI®️️ In Response to Quarantine and Isolation
It’s Wednesday—like no Wednesday we’ve ever known. Another parent gives insight into daily life and the building of her guiding relationship with her son. This is what to look for—the huge...
RDI®️️ At Home: Making Cookies
Watch as this mom and her son use RDI®️️ as they make chocolate chip cookies.
RDI®️️ At Home: Setting Up the Grill
It’s Tuesday—like no Tuesday we’ve ever known. Today’s video spotlights perseverance, thinking and resilience. Watch this child figure out how to put a grill together. A first look suggests that the...
RDI®️️ At Home: Variations on the Game of War
In response to quarantine and isolation, RDI®️️ families and consultants are sharing videos of themselves working and playing with their children.
RDI®️️ At Home: Master Chef
It’s Saturday—like no Saturday we’ve ever known. Watch this Masterchef juggle more than one dish at a time. His Consultant Kamini Lakhani, RDI®️️ Trainer for India, writes:We discovered Vishal’s...
RDI®️️ At Home: Monster Walk
It’s Friday—like no Friday we’ve ever known. Feeling cooped up, lacking energy, need to exercise? Grab a child and do the Monster Walk. I won’t ruin it with too many details but do take note of...
RDI®️️ At Home: Action for Action
This video demonstrates very clearly how a basic idea that remains the same can be changed ever so slightly as it begins to explore larger and larger ideas.
Covid-19 Off the Rails: The Emotional Roller Coaster
Dr. Sarah Wayland and Kat Lee talk about the difficulties faced by our kids in the days of COVID and how we can help them – and the entire family – to regulate.
RDI®️️ At Home: Sharing Perspectives/Smelling Together
It’s Monday—like no Monday we’ve ever known. There are some very obvious differences in capabilities when a child has autism. Most striking is the inability to understand the perspective of another...
How to Measure Success in Your Child’s Autism Therapy
Have you ever asked yourself if your child’s autism therapy is working? You aren’t alone in your thoughts.
RDI®️️ At Home: Build a Castle
RDI®️️ is about thinking and cognitive development. If I ask you “What is your idea?” you may struggle to come up with something or even ask, “about?". But, in a different way what if I tell you...
RDI®️️ At Home: Making Juice
Parents often ask for ways to work on referencing facial expression tone of voice and body language because their child might have language but is missing these important elements for conversation....
Mohit The Artist
In every generation an artist comes along whose expression pushes the evolutionary aesthetic curve. Meet Mohit and watch Mohit paint. His fascination with internal landscapes expresses a powerful...
A Brother Talks About Flourishing With an Autistic Sister
A common worry of parents who have children on the spectrum is whether autism might negatively impact their other child. Last Friday I had the opportunity to interview the brother of an autistic...
RDI®️️ At Home: An Apple a Day
It’s Tuesday—like no Tuesday we’ve ever known. As you watch this video, pay close attention to the guiding relationship between this mother and her son. It is a sweet interaction that is very...
RDI®️️At Home: Drawing with Mom
It’s Tuesday—like no Tuesday we’ve ever known. A lovely, low-key example of using an every day experience to work on perspective taking. "The children are all home- due to the lock down."Look at how...
RDI®️️ At Home: Daily Rhythm
It’s Monday—like no Monday we’ve ever known. A Homeschool RDI®️️ Mom share her valuable wisdom and invites you to turn this period of isolation into an opportunity: Greetings from an RDI®️️ mom in...
RDI®️️ At Home: Cutting Veggies – Set Pattern to Achieve Joint Coordination
It’s Sunday—like no Sunday we’ve ever known. Dr. Dhanashri, a consultant from India shows the power of an every day regulatory pattern as a backdrop for growing a child’s mind. Notice the attention...
RDI®️️ At Home: Setting the Table
It’s Saturday—like no Saturday we’ve ever known. A principle of RDI®️️ is that parents of children on the spectrum know how to guide their children—RDI®️️ simply helps them develop the desire for...
Caring For Children And Teens With Special Needs During A Global Pandemic
Every now and then I come across a message so timely, an interview so relevant that I find myself wanting it to arrive in your inbox before I’ve even sent it. Dr. Sarah Wayland, RDI®️️ parent...
RDI®️️ At Home: Glove Experiment
It’s Wednesday—like no Wednesday we’ve ever known. Get ready to hold your breath. This mother, an expert guide, shares a simple science experience with every day kitchen ingredients. I found myself...