The RDI Book:: Forging New Pathways for Autism, Asperger's and PDD with the Relationship Development Intervention Program

Wonderful

This book was really helpful while working with my child who is on the Autism Spectrum. I am now a RDI consultant, andI recommend this as a compulsory read to all my clients.

This books explains how ADS affects the brain and why. It explains how the RDI program can help families when they know early that their child has autism.

I read this book and was thoroughly impressed by the succinct explanation of not only what autism is and what it does to the individual on the spectrum, but also what happens to the parent as they are thrown into this overwhelming situation which only produces feelings of incompetence and crisis. This book is a great beginning to understanding your potential resource for autism remediation as a parent. Finally I felt as if something was out there for me to have a distinct place in the recovery of my child. As an added, unexpected bonus, a pathway to real attainable quality of life for my family.

This book, based on research in the areas of Autism, psychology, child development, neurology and more, reveals to parents that THEY can guide their child towards remediation of their autism. It reveals how autism disrupts the child's normal developmental pathways and how parents can be empowered to overcome this. It goes much deeper than teaching a child rote skills, as some common therapies do, and shows how the child can be guided to become the sort of person, the sort of thinker who can not only cope with the world but actually enjoy an interesting, rounded and fulfilling life.In RDI, the parent doesn't give away their parenting role to junior therapists, they hone their parenting skills under the guidance of a consultant,the book provides a wonderful background for this.What a revelation!

This has openned my eyes to other reasons my children struggle. Not finished the book yet because it has lots of detail and can at times be overwhelming for me, when I have so many other stresses in my life, but everytime I am able to go back, it provides me more new insight.

This book does a great job of convincing you of the social and cognitive deficits of autism that need to be worked on. But it really lacks specifics about how to implement any of the objectives it talks about. I'm wondering if anyone can point me to a book that goes into more practical specifics. While this book has some good theory behind it, it is hard to know how feasible their approach is without any discussion of techniques. Its easy to say "we need to teach them to respond socially! But unless you qualify that with some information about the "how" then it is hard to trust that there really is more substance there.