Through RDI, We Have Regained Hope

Funny, our only reference to autism was the stupid Tom Cruise movie. We were devastated. The future was now filled with trepidation. The more I looked for information, the more confused I became. We tried diet changes and the public school system with little success.

The school district recommended a special class that was a "blend" of students from typical to any range of special need.  We struggled through that for two years.  I wanted to know what to do for my son at home and got very little if any feedback.  Somehow I wasn't "qualified" to meet his special needs, and the school was.  We had frustrating IEP meetings where I would constantly ask about what I could be doing at home to help.  

After a VERY frustrated end-of-year assessment, I started looking for answers.  I was introduced to a mother who had raised one autistic son and had a boy my son's age who had been diagnosed with autism very early as they were familiar with the signs.  She would have answers.  She'd been here before.  She was bewildered with my questions, and had spent thousands on special schools and therapists but could not see any differences in the way her younger son was developing.  She'd given up on her eighteen year old.  He just was what he was.  She couldn't afford her ABA therapist anymore and told me it seemed to help some, or at least it would feel like I was doing something and warned that I would probably run into waiting lists.

I was beyond discouraged.  Our son is the youngest of eight.  I was homeschooling four of the children.  Where would I find time for appointments and hour from home.  In my search, someone recommended I find in-home therapy.  I found a name on-line for a therapist almost two hours away.  I hoped that they might know someone closer by.

I spent two hours on the phone that day on one phone call.  He asked so many questions about us and our son.  He asked what we knew about ABA therapy.  Then he asked me if I'd ever heard of RDI.

RDI.  We knew it was what we were looking for because it made sense. Malachi's development was dependent on us.  We were surprised and pleased to find that our consultant would be working primarily with us as parents. It wasn't like taking a child to a doctor to fix a broken bone. This was an every day, long term issue carried out by the people who loved and knew him best. For the first time since his diagnosis, we understood what the primary deficit was and what we could start doing about it. And we found something that was a benefit to our whole family, not a therapy that isolated Malachi from the rest of the family physically, emotionally, and financially.

After two years of working with our consultant I can't even begin to tell you how good it feels to be a competent parent.  It feels so good to no longer feel like I'm failing my child.  During our first year we had worked up a scenario of what we would like to see in our son in a year.  When I look back I can't help but cry.  He exceeded what our hopes were; partly because we were scared to hope.  Now our hopes are greater.  He is far more capable of having a good quality of life than we ever knew.  We are far more capable of helping him get there than we ever knew, and are looking forward to the journey.

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Scott Pryor has been working with families of children on theAutism Spectrum for 15 years.  He received a B.S. in Psychology from Brigham Young University and was then trained as an ABA consultant, starting his private practice in 2003. After seeing the positive changes made in families using the RDI program, Scott became an RDIÒ Program Certified Consultant in 2009. Based in Utah, Scott works with families in Utah, Idaho and Montana.  Email Scott