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"We have been at the shore all week and I just got your e-mail. Nicholas is
doing awesome! I was wishing I had my video camera everywhere we went to capture his natural referencing (different
from my set up lab time activities). For example, today and Thursday Nicholas and Luke actually went swimming a little
in the freezing ocean. He would look over his shoulder to reference my okay and approval, to share smiles and to make
sure he was near me. This is new as he did not do this last year. Also at the Cape May zoo, Nicholas referenced me with
excitement to share seeing animals and at the reptile house he referenced me for information at every display. I am
so excited I want to just move to the shore and live the RDI lifestyle (haha…definitely easier to be relaxed and on
RDI all day when on vacation). Something else interesting is happening too. Nicholas is now starting to comment and
laugh appropriately when Luke and I; or Anthony, Luke and I are talking. Typically he has little reaction but this
seems to be changing developmentally. For example we were out to dinner and a news camera was videoing. Nicholas
laughed as we talked about how silly it was that a camera was filming the dinner trays he laughed and said, “The story
of bread” and we all laughed together at his joke. When driving in the car Luke and I take songs on the radio
and change the words to silly words to sing (Luke is a weird Al fan) and now Nicholas is laughing right along with us and
even saying some silly words! RDI is great!" – Amy, PA
“Nicholas is initiating and emotion sharing everywhere! We see a real difference
in him – Also, your stand up / sit down procedure is a miracle!! Thanks
so much. We have to do arms up / arms down instead sometimes & he is 99%
yelling free!” – Amy, PA
"I am back in RDI mode and things are going VERY well. Last week and even this weekend there were a few times
that Jack did something that annoyed me and when I would talk to him about it he would apologize but for the first time I
really think the apology was truly sincere. This morning I have an example: He has become a candy/fruit snack freak and EVERY morning he asks
if he can have candy for the walk to the bus (this walk consists of 6 houses) and EVERY morning I tell him no. So this
morning, here comes the question and I looked at him and with INCREDIBLE eye contact on his part, I said Jack, I am not going
to tell you this again, there is no candy in the morning. He makes this noise when he is disappointed and the noise
happens right before he throws himself on the floor, so the noise was starting to come out of his mouth and I looked him right
in the eye and said, I do not think you are about to that are you? He stopped immediately and looked at me and said
"Mommy, I am sorry, I did not want to make you mad" He walked over to me, gave me a huge hug and said he was sorry again.
THEN, he says, "I will not ask this anymore Mommy, I promise." I explained to him why he cannot have candy in the morning
and he accepted it well and told me he was sorry and the morning went on without a hitch.He
really has been communicating well and I can see that he is a little more intuned to other people's emotions and not just
doing what he has been taught in certain situations, but truly caring that these emotions happen and trying to handle them.
Moments like this make me really excited so I had to share!"-Tracy, NJ
"I am impressed with how quickly Maya is able to understand non-verbal communication.
She is much more likely to be calm and attuned to me when I do not bombard her with verbal commands. I also feel more connected
with Maya during our interactions using non-verbal and short, simple phrases. I used to get worried about weekends and breaks
as how to spend the day with Maya. Now with RDI I actually look forward to weekends and breaks!"-Unkyu, NJ
"I have been thinking about your feedback
regarding the importance of Maya seeing me as a pattern in our activity. The more I think about it the more I realize how
important this is! Maya is intelligent enough to see the pattern pretty quickly but does not see me (other person) as a part
of it. Therefore, once she figures out what the pattern (task) is she will tend to complete it all on her own. If I made the pattern a bit more challenging so that she needs my help, she will have no problem asking for
help and include me in the pattern (e.g. if I moved the materials we are using for the activity up on a high shelf)---but
the interaction will then become instrumental. This is in fact what happens also with her language--- mostly instrumental.
I realize now that how crucial this point is. These (non-verbal) interactions are really the prototype of verbal interactions
(communication). The key is to find a way to make her want to include me in the pattern to simply share the experience. We
have done the laundry swing-and-toss activity that you showed us and Maya consistently initiates the role-sharing interaction. I will really focus on more of these role-sharing activities from now on."-Unkyu,
NJ
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