RDI (vent) | Autism PDD

I always get RDI and Floortime confused. Both have a Dr. G (Gutstein/RDI vs. Greenspan/Floortime). I have huge respect for Greenspan. He's still practicing and actually did the diagnosis for sunflowers' son ( http://www.autism-pdd.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=19841&am p;KW=Greenspan).

COOL thanks for the book rec CamCam - I have the book, which made me decide to go to the conference. It
is the book he held up saying"If you bought the book and do what's in
there you do not do RDI and you do not understand RDI- you can only do
RDI with an consultant"
Again - there was so much he said at that conference that totally
resonated with my beliefs and understanding of autism.But I wonder a bit
how much off this is running on his personality. He has a way with words
and connecting with people. Not that that is bad or a crime. But when his
wife (co-creator) talked for a while the whole thing just seemed to
deflate. I am also putt-off/concerned how inaccsessible they make the
program; How you have to go through their channels (conferences and
consultantes) at a huge expense to be going this route. Any other theory
or approach to autism can be studied in many ways. If I felt like I
understood - aba for example - I could teach a class on it. Not so with rdi
- they tightly control all aspects of it. It might be a good and legitimate
idea but the way the organisation is run feels like a scam. He would do
himself and the autism community a large service by opening it up to
outsiders and peer reviews.We were lucky to have a BCBA that wrote all our VB/ABA programs but also had RDI books and knowlege on implementing it in our programs..I like RDI too but feel her gains were huge in ABA so I couldnt give it up.

I do RDI and it is expensive. The training/seminars are too, but I could not imagine doing RDI w/o a consultant. Our consultant works her a$$ off, and w/o her, it would be nearly impossible to understand the hundreds of objectives the program presents. It is also impossible to be unbiased when looking at your kids' progress or lack thereof; that is another place our consultant comes in. I am in no way saying, "The leader is good, the leader is great," but Dr. G, who is probably very rich, also doesn't sleep much. His whole life is dedicated to helping ASD kids and their families. I don't think I would put another mortage on my house for it, I am lucky we have the money available.

Ou VB/ABA consultant puts RDI exercises into my son's program. She has the same book Cam sugguested and I know they touched on it in her grad program. While it may not be RDI to the sense that the authors want, I still think the exercises are beneficial. I feel like my son is getting the bulk of his improvement through VB/ABA and Floortime. And, we do have a Floortime consultant as well. Much more affordable than RDI and I find the benfits from Floortime great as well.

I hear you micki. Sometimes these programs can be a hard sell and you get that slimy, snake oil salesman feel with them (I ran into a few of these myself that I would be happy to share with you as they turned out to be pretty bogus). It is unfortunate though because, as you are aware, RDI has real benefits. I am sorry that you had this experience.

So often parents who are in a panic mode and have just entered the world of ASD buy into every therapy they can find rather than doing the research first. This is obviously not the case with you. New parents become prey for people looking to make money. I know that when I first began looking into interventions I called many an organization and different type of therapist before coming to what we do now...which I will never say does not need improving ;) We always need to work on and tweak what we do.

All I can say is...RDI works especially when used in conjunction with ABA (though they may seem paradoxical they are very complimentary when employed in proper context) and my guess is being that you are a smart lady...you will find what is good and right for you and yours. Always feel free to do a reality check here. We listen ;)

camusa39363.2213425926what a sucky experience to go through !!!!
I bet you can do a lot of stuff on your own - Infact littlebopeep has posted a bunch of really useful links on it

RDI is pretty stellar stuff, but I agree tha they do hawk it. We bought the DVD from rdiconnect.com . It is OK, but you could get most of it from a book. The therapists out here charge hundreds of dollars an hour (and several thousand for an initial consultation).

We too have been very lucky in that it is incorporated into BB's pre-school curriculum along with ABA, Floortime and more.

Someone here mentioned that there is not a lot of 1:1 time. This is simply not so. There is much done with the therapist, peers and with the family. The whole notion is social immersion so...the kid has to be with someone. IT comes down to the family to keep it going though.

I would say...start a program at home by yourself. You don't need the ridiculous fees to get this going. There is a great book of exercises on Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Relationship-Development-Intervention- Young-Children/dp/1843107147/ref=pd_bbs_1/105-4325697-031564 7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191798391&sr=8-1

This is put out by Gutstein and there are many others. You will note that it goes for about 20 bucks! You already know what the program is about so a workbook like this would be a great place to start.

I am a member of RDIconnect now, but this is simply because I bought the video. I agree...I hate the commercialism, but these people have to get funding somehow...I just wish they would make it more accessible.

ETA: BoPeep is the true vanguard here for this therapy and a great RDI resource for this board.

camusa39362.6722916667I got the book off ebay and it is really common sense to me..no need to pay $$$ to do this therapy. IMHO:)I want to start out by saying that I think RDI is one of the better
treatments having come around and much of it feels right and intuative
and I heard many parents say that there kids have made some great
progress with it. So my vent is not against the concept of RDI and I do not
want to scare anyone off it.
My vent: I went to one of the workshops and I was just really taken aback
at how much they push it as a product. Over and over we were told how
you need one of their consultants to implement it and how 'the husband
and wife' (hated that exclusive language too - the room was full of single
moms) need to go to the 4 days seminar to be better prepared to work
with their consultants (whose training is one or two weeks). And both
training and consulatant training are really expensive - I overheard
desperate parents discussing if they coud put another mortage on the
house. Frankly, I do not see a reason why it should be so expensive other
than that there are many desperate parents out there who are willing to
pay any amount. But does that make it right? There were plenty of his RDI
books for sale but they kept saying that the books are 'not about RDI' and
if anyone thinks that they use RDI going by the books they are wrong -
you need to buy their consulting services to be doing it right. The whole
thing left a very bad taste in my mouth. Again - I like RDI , I don't think
consultants are a bad idea but it seemed to me much more about them
franchising their product than about this being the only way to make it
work for families.
I am just so sick of all these people making money of desperate families. Sounds almost like a cult. Hope you got something out of the seminar anyways.

I so understand what you are saying, I went to the parent seminar as well. I found it to make sense and that it is do-able in everyday life. I actually bought some books. Like you too, working with the professionals felt expensive to me. I actually did not use their professional.

It is the unfortunate story of autism that parents are loosing homes and going into bankruptcy to finance these therapies. People charge so much it is ridiculous. But since we are so desperate and we want the best for our children those who can go without a lot to finance these therapies. I am so in a state of give me a guarantee or you aren't seeing my penny right now. I do what I can but have resolved to be reasonable about what I pay for.

Concernedpa.

I actually like the concept of RDI as well. We are pretty committed with VB/
ABA as it really does work for my son. I will have to learn more about it.
I personally do not have any more money to hire yet another consultant.
Wouldnt it be great if the SD will have one consultant and parents be able to
access that consultant? Think about it, the parents are the ones trained to
do the therapy.I have been looking into RDI too, and also find it confusing as to why it's so expensive. It's not like ABA where someone is there 1 on 1 with your child for hours, most of the work is done by you the parent. You'd think there would be people out there who were not "certified" , like parents who have done the program, who could then go off on their own and charge a reasonable amt. to help some families in need. Maybe they have "anti-piracy" rules in place?? :) to prevent this?

I hate the way that this BUSINESS is running. Depite their claims about helping the families,... the only thing that does matter is money. On the other hand I like RDI concepts and am actually doing it on my son. A good concept in the hands of greedy people.

Daddy39361.4030555556

I know I'm a month late on responding to this but I just found the thread when I Googled "RDI cult autism." I have to wonder the same thing. We are working with a contultant--spent a ton on the eval--a few months ago. Have a few objectives we are working on and now they (Gustein) roll out with their own operating system. Cost to us? a month. Catch? You HAVE to subscribe in order to obtain new objectives!!!! W/o it, you are dead in the water.

I have tried to voice my conerns on various RDI boards and they never get posted (censored?). The only comments I see are from people RAVING about this system. They sound brainwashed to me and the fact that MY comments/concerns never hit the boards REALLY bothers me.

I think RDI has great potential if you can get past all the lingo (there is a TON of it) but am NOT happy with this mandatory subscription to their operating system.

I have sent emails to the Gutsteins and Connections Center as well as the Help Desk about this and nothing.

Darla