Success Stories Expanded
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Huntsville, Alabama
We were involved in RDI for the past five years. It turned out to be very successful and promising program for our family. Our kid has evolved from quite severe initial diagnosis into competent student with his own personality who is well respected both by the classmates and teachers, and certainly has a bright future. Much of this success should be attributed to our wonderful RDI consultant– Lisa Blackwood. She worked with us continuously within Family Consultation Program and Dynamic Intelligence module. During last four years she showed herself as very understanding, knowledgeable,organized professional and at the same time person with a great heart and as a very nice human being with whom we have developed a real friendship and high level of trust.
We covered a lot of important aspects of early child’s development as self-awareness, taking responsibility, basic Mental Apprentice Foundations. Currently in the DI curriculum we are addressing different areas showing social and high level self-awareness issues in a very dynamic and complex way: in the real life situations we are guiding our child, via modelling a lot of things in the safe home environment as well as linking them to the situations young kid is facing with siblings and us, at school, music school,
swimming classes, cub scout program, interacting with peers.
And in every aspect Lisa proved herself as a tremendous help in
finding right solutions, overcoming difficulties, and keeping us on right track. RDI is outstanding program that addresses individual neuro-psychological areas of child deficits and can be customized for the needs of the child. The outcome of RDI is way wider than any other intervention/therapy as it involves brain pathways formation and then application of child’s experiences in the further real life situations. Lisa is one of the few leading experts who are working under the guidance of Dr. Gutstein who is an RDI founder, in this breakthrough development of Dynamic Intelligence. We would highly recommend her expertise to anybody who needs a help in this
Area.
Milledgeville, GA
Working with a Developing Minds consultant through the RDI treatment plans, our family has benefited tremendously. I feel that the therapy does not solely benefit my child but educates us as the guides to help him progress. Having a RDI consultant makes the stress and worry of researching best methods and treatments for my child an easy progress because having one reliable source is reassuring that you are doing the best you can for your child. It is comforting knowing that families in the Middle Georgia area are involved in this program and that it works!
London, England
Our son Sam, 22 with autism, suffers from a high level of anxiety, very low self-esteem and self-confidence, typical of people on the spectrum. Using the Dynamic Intelligence programme, RDI consultant Jennifer Perry’s thoughtful approach, intuitive understanding of autism and her extensive RDI knowledge has greatly motivated Simon to believe in himself and so further his independence. Jennifer’s skills lie in excellent communication and empathy with both parents and the young person: she listens carefully and tailors activities and suggestions to the individual, so there is never a “one-size fits all” approach. A huge thank you, Jennifer for your patience and for all you have done for our family!
Nanjing, China
It is so lucky for me to have this international predestination with Jennifer ! She brings the hope to me in the hopeless time, making dawns break through the darkness, and become more and more brighter. As an excellent therapist, she is intelligent, patient and merciful, caring both kids and parents. Having seen so many successful cases and working with her during this time, the feeling that choosing RDI is the wisest decision becomes stronger and stronger.
California
Our children have made an incredible amount of growth under Jennifer McCaskill's guidance as our RDI consultant a I have nothing but joy in writing and sharing about our journey. The children's growth is steady. They are different people. They went from up and down emotional states prior to working with Jennifer to regulated states now since working under Jennifer. In fact, we just returned from a 10 day trip in Hong Kong with only one minor issue where Gabriel got upset when a new toy broke, but he didn't have a meltdown, he just talked about his sadness for about 15 minutes and then went to bed that night. The boys traveled across the world, went to small islands with us with no cars on them, and even learned a bit of Cantonese. They handled many, many moments of uncertainty and unexpected moments. We were blown away.
Jennifer's work has been outstanding! Once the children started working with her, tantrums stopped almost immediately because she worked with me on how to guide the children to develop their episodic memory in very concrete, creative, tailored and specific ways. They would review memories that I would take on my phone for instance and see how many different feel good feelings they have. In this way, Gabriel wouldn't get as upset when he had to stop a favored activity because he would be able to remember that he had other ways to have fun, too. They learned to save meaningful experiences in their mind- uh ohs to okay, keep on trying, worth it, set goals, etc.
Jennifer also led us to do a tremendous amount of work with both my children to develop their self concepts, helping to greatly increase their self esteems. They went from tantrums to far more regulated states, from talking about make believe stuff in "Gabriel and Nathan land" to talking about real moments from their lives, Nathan learned about having more than one plan. They learned about focusing and doing things independently as well as how to collaborate with others. They have come so far. We have roads yet to travel and plan on helping them learn even more under Jennifer's guidance, but we are thrilled with how much they have learned. Although they are still beginners at learning to play and do things independently and beginners at collaboration- just this morning, they made breakfast on their own and cleaned up! They have been also having playdates and designing board games together, listening to what their friend's want, too AND a friend gave them a huge remote control car for keeps and Nathan gave that friend his favorite basketball in return, for keeps. So dynamic and amazing!
Nanjing, China
The professional instruction given by Jennifer has brought changes to me and my child. We laugh more, and it is easier for me to accept the deficiency of my son, as well as helping him to cover the shortage from the fundamental. As a spiritual mentor for me, Jennifer has consistently encouraged and helped me, creating peace in my extreme agitated heart.
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Nanjing, China
Instead of chicken soup for the soul, we have effective practical strategies to fight with difficulties and to heal the pain. This is what I learned from Jennifer by working with her to provide RDI treatment to autism families.
What impressed me most is the solution given by Jennifer to deal with noncooperation. When a kid refused to be recorded in the clip, yelling, forcing, explanation and persuasion from parents did not work. Jennifer shared her photos of making funny faces, and asked for the amusing moments from the kid. In this lovely way, Jennifer expressed an acceptable message that being recorded is an enjoyable activity. Moreover, she made a modification for the RDI process practiced with this kid—she substituted a lava lamp experiment for the previous one, and told her that she is a little scientist. This made the kid be willing to show the procedures to audience.
This experience shows the excellent expertise of Jennifer, and let me realize that although some challenges are hard to describe, we still have some concrete methods to overcome. This gives me a great confidence to live better! As the translator, the more I worked with Jennifer, the deeper I understand the principles of RDI program. Different from behavior adjustment, it insights the inner part of autism individuals, and discusses what they really try to express beneath the inappropriate performance. Jennifer told me as soon as you understand it, the most effective way you could get to help them. RDI focuses on building the engagement to the world, to other people, to the life for the kids with autism obstacles, and also restoring hope for our normal person.
The improvements made by the families that I witness give me an incredible achievability. Many thanks to professional, lovely and warm Jennifer who offers a new access for me to feel that my work is valuable and important to someone.
Nanjing, China
My daughter Niuniu, a little Chinese girl, was diagnosed as autism individual at 4 years old, and has consistently received ABA training in recent years. It was the first time to touch RDI concept when Jennifer’s team visited Nanjing for the conference. Being touched by the scientificalness, humanity of the theory system, and witnessing several successful cases that offer integrated experience for individuals from infant to adolescent, I began to receive remote RDI training. It is so lucky for me to meet beautiful and intellective Jennifer who is industrious, warm hearted, full of imagination and dedicated herself to her job, and the intervention is quite practical. Ying, working as the translator for us, also shows expertise and excellence that provide natural and smooth training for Niuniu each week. In these days, Niuniu has gradually been used to the intervention and made an obvious progress. Little by little, she gets her own experience, paying more attentions to the surroundings and loves me more and more. As a mom, I followed Jennifer’s instruction and began to start a journey of experience and study. I trust Jennifer’s team and hope Niuniu and me will persist, develop and love for each other.
California
I have been working with children with ASD for several years, and have learned from a variety of experts. Jennifer is one guide that stands out to me. She is among one of the few experts that teaches the learner to become the expert, rather than just a follower. As I continue to learn from her, I have the confidence to appraise a situation and extract from the knowledge I have gained to successfully guide the children I work with. The efforts Jennifer puts in is apparent through her constant renewal of the latest research and the creativity of the assignments she provides every week. I am constantly inspired by Jennifer’s teachings, and truly enjoy the time spent collaborating with her.
Georgia
My son was diagnosed with Aspergers at age 19. He and I were both floundering in our attempt to find a solid base point to begin planning and setting goals for his future. Thankfully, we found Developing Minds and Allison McCaskill in 2013. She has worked with him and with me since them using the RDI program. It's an ongoing process but the results so far have been priceless.
Georgia
I was very skeptical at first about RDI therapy because I had never heard of it and since it’s relatively new type of therapy there were not many clinical studies out there. I am a mother of a 4 year old with Autism who has all the other diagnoses that go along with that.. global cognitive delay, OCD, language/receptive processing disorder, etc. She is mostly nonverbal. Just like most Autism moms I am willing to try anything if there is a chance that it will improve the quality of my child’s life and our home environment. We have been in all the therapies, ST, OT, PT, early intervention starting very early. I often found my self questioning what the point is because she was often unwilling to participate and engage to get anything from it. When starting the RDI program in March I was very surprised because it is was completely different from any other therapies we had done in the past. The goal wasn’t that she could stack a certain number of blocks, say a certain word or do any certain task, it was so different. The goal was to help her learn to engage to and feel comfortable doing so and in doing that the other things should fall would fall into place. Previously the last 2 years of her life she was “stuck” in a very distressed state mentally, constantly crying or whining, just wanting to be held all the time. It was very difficult at home not being able to do anything around the house or be there for her sister and going out of the house did not happen. It was hard for us that lived with her not knowing how to help her. After starting the RDI therapy and learning how to be a parent guide with so much support from our RDI therapist Allison her quality of life has improved more than I ever imagined. I really didn’t know what to expect starting the program but have been very impressed. She is no long crying for hours, she seeks me as a parent guide for her needs, she seeks out mutually engaging tasks and we are now able to leave our house and join the rest of the world. She seems truly content now and is able to engage at her other therapies. I love the flexibility and that you are able to do it in your own home if needed. I know that every autistic child is different and different things work for different children but I am here to tell you RDI alone is the best thing I have come across that has had proven results with my child. I am able to take the skills I’ve learned and use them in all of our daily activities. I do not believe that this is a coincidence and I highly recommend RDI therapy for autism families.