 |
| RDI Certified Consultant, Melissa Chan |
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” - Albert Einstein
This quote immediately had me thinking about RDI, especially in terms of how feelings of competence affect our engagement with others. Everyone has something to share and contribute, but if you feel like you are being judged or are anxious about the outcome, how willing are you to freely act? It would be nerve-wracking to say the least to communicate in a truly experience-sharing manner if you are constantly thinking about the outcome of the conversation or activity.
I recently took a beginner level improvisation class and the first thing our teacher told us was that he believed that we were all geniuses and that we were going to support each other because that was going to be our job as an improv troupe. He proceeded to go into an exercise where he said his name and created a corresponding body movement and we had to imitate him, and then follow up with our own name and movement. He stated that if we didn’t follow him with the same enthusiasm or level of silliness we’d make him feel stupid - so we all had to immediately let go of that feeling of anxiety or fear of looking silly and just jump in. It wasn’t easy but by the time we had gone through all our names in this way were all more comfortable. This is fast forwarding through a lot of RDI work but it is exactly the point of why we must feel competent first. In another exercise we took a sentence from a fellow student and created from it - not getting way off topic or trying to be outrageous or funny but building on each other’s thoughts. In other words we were staying co-regulated. What we created turned out to be quite funny and unexpected all because we were in tune with each other and we were careful to maintain a communicative pace to keep with the development of our story.
This experience gave me the perfect anecdote to share with my families about true experience- sharing communication. No one had any idea how that story would really begin or end. The entire engagement was based on us listening and sharing with each other and what was created was something new, something no one else could have created in the special way that we did. Each engagement with your child can be viewed in this way. No one can predict or know exactly how it will turn out. You can create something that no other two people in the world but the two of you can create, because you’re both geniuses.
----------
Melissa Chan, OTR/L RDI CC, has been an Occupational Therapist since 2001 and has worked for the past ten years at LearningSpring School, a school for children on the autism spectrum located in New York City. In 2012 she became a certified RDI consultant and is one of two LearningSpring staff members who work with families at the school. RDI has completely changed how I work as an occupational therapist and I love the family-based approach.