The power of You
Essential Communication is excited to announce that
Atlanta has been chosen to be the host location for the
June 2-June 5, 2008
RDI® Program Intensive Parent Seminars 5.0,
a 4-day workshop that gives power back
to parents. This seminar is designed to be a positive,
empowering experience for parents, and to provide a solid
foundation as they get started on their RDIŽ Program. After
attending the RDI® Program Intensive Parent Seminars 5.0
many couples express greater confidence about being "on the same
page" with each other and relating to their child's remediation.
The primary mission of the RDI® Program has always been to
empower parents and we, the
Connection Center, have
continually focused on how to become more and more effective in
this area. If we are not good guides to parents, how can they be
good guides to their children? As we have evolved our work with
parents over the years, we have always tried to answer the
question, "how do we help many different kinds of parent
learners to feel competent and be successful even if they start
at different stages of readiness?" The latest evolution of this
answer is, of course, RDI® 5.0, which for the first time
introduces very specific, step-by-step parent objectives,
complete with mastery criteria for each objective. This means
parents can start from where ever they are and feel confident
they will be guided in a simple, gradual way to be successful.
Even if parents are currently in a state of crisis about their
child's diagnosis, we can now help them go from learning more
about what autism really is, to leaving the crisis, to being
pro-active rather than reactive, and to becoming ready to start
the RDI® Program with their child. If they are already at
that point, we can help them learn what they need to know to be
a real partner to their RDI® Certified Consultant during the
relationship assessment process, and help them become the most
effective guide for their child. Then, we help parents help
their child internalize the process, so parents can transfer
more of the responsibility of the relationship to their child.
Every step is now clearly set out for parents, with educational
support, tools and exercises, to help them succeed with the
guidance of their RDI® Certified Consultant.
The parent objectives are organized in a progression of
these six stages:
- Education about ASD (autism spectrum disorders)
- Readiness and Commitment
- Planning, which includes the Relationship Development
Assessment process (RDA)
- Apprenticeship
- Guided Participation
- Internalizing and Transferring.
Intensive Parent Seminars 5.0:
The 4-day Intensive Parent Seminars have been completely updated
over the last year to reflect the new Parent Objectives system
and covers much of the theory and education of the first two
stages. Each morning of the seminar parents attend group
lectures, and in the afternoons, they do hands-on exercises in
small groups, based on what was covered during the morning.
Parents leave the 4-day Parent Seminar with a good understanding
of the basic concepts of the RDIŽ Program, with a particular
emphasis on the concepts of dynamic thinking and communication,
how they relate to quality of life, and how to nurture their own
child's dynamic intelligence through guided participation.
Parents also learn how to recover from a "crisis state," and
restore a sense of balance to their marriage and overall family
life. As well, they have the opportunity to work on their own
mission previews which will become a well-used tool as they
progress in their RDIŽ Program and, they consider the strengths
and challenges of both themselves and their child. As in
previous versions of the Seminar, parents also meet one-on-one
with a Certified Consultant to ask questions and discuss their
own family.
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Here are some comments from parents who attended a recent
Parent Seminar based on RDIŽ:
Melanie [Smith, Director of Parent Training] is an excellent
speaker-funny, and engaging...I would definitely recommend this
to other parents. - Barbara Butler, (Chevy Chase, MD)
We applied what we learn from RDI seminars right away. We saw
immediate changes in ourselves and meaningful relationship
exchanges with our kids (including the normal ones). We feel
good about ourselves and competent as parents. We now\ know
what to do. Having a consultant to guide us made us feel better.
- Wei Wei Blaisdell, (Rockville, MD)
Great job of teaching core concepts and applying them in the
small group setting. We left feeling like we knew how to apply
the core RDI strategies with our son at home. Very informative
& empowering. - John Keeling (Reston, VA)
We really enjoyed the training and it helped to open our eyes
as parents of a child on the spectrum. The staff was extremely
helpful & knowledgeable. - Danielle Webster (Durham, NC)
RDI is an incredible process. I know of no other intervention
like it for children on the spectrum. I am so hopeful for my
child's future after this conference! Hope has been hard to come
by since our child's diagnosis. Thanks for allowing my husband
and I to find it! - William and Kristen Patterson
(Washington, DC)
This was wonderful, especially [the] small group. I was
wondering about my competency as a parent; I feel validated that
my relationship with my children is based on love and
understanding and will only improve once RDI becomes a way of
life for us. - Deborah Mueller (Fairfax, VA)
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