Courage

As I was sitting at my computer this morning trying to decide what to blog about today my eye fell on my desk calendar and the word courage jumped out at me. Courage is such a powerful and meaningful word. There are so many things that we do in life that take courage. Some of us have greater stores of courage than others, but we can all find courage when it really counts.

I had the opportunity this week to talk to a mother of a child that is going to be evaluated for autism. This mother said to me she didn’t really care what the label was or if he had autism her biggest concern is that he have friends and social abilities. She is willing to do what it takes to help her son be successful. I saw a lot of courage in this mom to take what life had given her and make the decision to look at the positives her son has and used these to improve the negatives. I have great hope that this child will have a great quality of life.

Courage is what leads us to expand our horizons and give ourselves new and better experiences. Without courage we would all be stuck in a rut.

That is why I love RDI® so much it forces all of us to use our courage everyday. By us I mean not only consultants and parents, but our children on the spectrum as well. I think our children with autism must have great stores of courage just waiting to be tapped into. By using guided participation we ask our children to be courageous, but also provide the support they need to be competent and successful which leads them to be courageous again the next time we ask. How great is that!

So here is to all of you who are using your courage daily to face challenges or try new things.

Talk to you soon,
Erin

Either Row or Get out of the Boat!

Have you ever jumped into a canoe and tried to paddle on your own? What about joining another person and they aren't rowing correctly or you are working harder than the other person? Either you work together or you'll end up spinning in circles, getting nowhere. In order to be successful you need to be able to coordinate your actions and work together. It takes a lot of work! Practice is extremely important in order to figure out appropriate turning techniques and other canoeing strategies. If the person in the back rows too hard, they will begin to turn the boat, if the person in the front is rowing on the wrong side, they could keep the person in the back from being able to steer appropriately. Teamwork and practice are both essential!

The same idea applies with working on correcting the core deficits of autism. Often families enter our Center looking for a quick fix. They want to pay some one to fix their child or run into the school and advocate for them and these things will magically make things better. Others make it to the point of hearing and knowing what they need to do, but choose not to implement it. Some families have one person willing to work hard and are implementing strategies, but the other person drops their role. Others want to become the perfect coach to their child, but don't want to practice or are unable to accept guidance in order to become good at implementing the strategies they've learned into their home. Unfortunately none of the above strategies will get you where you want to be or at least not as quickly as you want!

In order to see progress with your child, a lot of work is essential. you'll never hear any of us say that implementing a remediation life style into your home is easy or fast! The more time you put in, the more practicing that you do, the more mistakes you make (and learn from), the quicker both you and your child will make progress. Sitting back and watching your spouse do the work or hoping that just because you know the stuff that your child will make progress just won't work! Just like with canoeing - you either learn and work together or getting to your goal will take much longer! You may get to your intended location, but not nearly as fast if you haven't practiced, planned and implemented what you've learned.

Do you relate to any of the above scenarios? What will it take for you to get in the boat and row or row more effectively?

Until next week!
Michelle

Survey Update

Ok - there is no way after yesterday's post that I can top it with a quote to inspire you. So, I thought I'd give you all an update on how our survey is going.

Since word got out about our survey around noon on Wednesday we've had a tremendous reply. I have the privilege of receiving all of the results and compiling them together to see what you are all saying. Even though I've had a full inbox for the last couple of days, I want to thank all of you who have already filled out our survey and want to urge those of you who haven't, to please take just a few minutes to do so. Your opinions do matter and they help us make things better.

So, here's to another full inbox when I return to work on Monday!

Have a good one - and don't forget - www.horizonsdrc.com/survey.html

212°

Recently my sister showed me an inspirational video that I felt not only described the staff, but also the parents we work with at Horizons. The video was entitled 212°.

212° is the point at which water boils. The point being that at 211° water is merely hot, but by going that one extra degree water goes beyond hot to boiling. When applied to life that one extra degree makes all the difference. This is what our parents do when they begin their RDI journey.

The video goes on to say that, “You are responsible for your results.” It also says, “To get what we’ve never had we must do what we’ve never done.” It takes great courage to go that one extra degree that places us beyond ordinary or keeps us in the safe static pattern that we are used to.

I have always prided myself on being the kind of person who gives my all to the things I am passionate about including my family, friends and my work. I feel so blessed to have found people to spend my days with who think and do the same. It is so exciting to work in a 212° environment with 212° coworkers and 212° families. Going that extra degree will make all the difference in the lives of the families we serve. I truly believe this and will continue to give that extra degree.

I would like to leave you with one final quote from the video (which you can check out at the website www.simpletruths.com).

“The only thing that stands between a person and what they want in life is the will to try it and the faith to believe it possible.”

Help us go the extra degree and take our instructional program survey. A link to the survey is located on the left.

Talk to you soon,
Erin

Awesome Work

I think I have the most incredible job. It is such a privilege working with such an array of families. Each family comes with their own challenges and each come with their own strengths. I have learned from each family and thoroughly enjoy each of the unique qualities they provide. The children are such a blessing as well. Each child also comes with their own challenges and strengths. It's an amazing process to figure out what each child/parent/family needs and guide them to a happier more fulfilling home. Thank you Dr. Gutstein and Sheely for developing such an amazing program! You've truly changed hundreds of families' lives through your hard work!

In addition to the families that I work with, I get to work with the most amazing people. My co-workers are such a joy to work with and I learn from all of them daily. Every week new ideas are generated and new approaches formed. Nothing ever remains static or boring around our center!! This keeps the work that we do challenging and very exciting. Often I leave work with my head spinning, but am always so excited to return to work. What a unique privilege to have!

One of the things that helps us to continue offering top of the line services is to receive feedback and ideas from others. Especially those who live with a child with special needs. As Nicole mentioned yesterday, we have developed a survey for families to fill out to help us better understand the educational needs of their children. I am so thankful for the thirty people who already filled this survey out! What a wonderful response so far. (That was just in the first 3 hours since the survey was posted!!) For those who haven't filled it out yet, take a few minutes to do so now. It doesn't take long and the information helps us to continue offering services that are the most meaningful to our families. There is a link on the left side of the page called Instructional Program Survey. We appreciate your feedback!

Until next week,
Michelle

Take Our Survey!

There has been a lot of talk around our office lately about school-related issues and options for children and families. We have a number of families for whom school is a major stressor and, in some cases, is creating very tangible obstacles to remediation efforts. As a professional who began my career in special education, I feel torn about school-related issues. On the one hand I understand the very real constraints public schools face in developing individualized programming for children. On the other hand I understand the very real needs of children and their families to have programs that go beyond compensation and getting through the curriculum.

Those of you who know us as a staff know that we like to think creatively and dream big! “Out of the box” thinking is pretty common around here, and we are beginning to do that in relation to school / instructional options for children and young adults who need a different type of setting and instruction in order to be successful. To assist us in this process, we would like to gather as much information and ideas from families as possible. We have created a short survey on our website that asks questions related to schooling and instructional options. The survey should not take more than 5 minutes to complete, and will provide us with some data as we move forward with planning new and innovative programs. We want to provide educational programming that will assist families and schools in meeting the needs of learners who are not flourishing in traditional general or special education settings. Establishing our own program will also give us a way to provide hands-on training to school professionals who want to begin implementing principles of remediation and a dynamic intelligence focus in their own settings.

If you are the parent of a special needs child please use the link below to access our survey and provide us with information that will move our planning process forward. We will certainly keep you updated through the blog with our progress, and look forward to unveiling some great educational options in the near future!

Click Here for Survey


Until next week,
Nicole

Prioritizing Your Future

Again, I have to thank everyone else for their previous posts this week for my inspiration into finding a quote to give you all to think about. There was talk about prioritizing treatment for your child and future plans. Thinking about these 2 topics together led me to this quote:

The future is always beginning now. ~Mark Strand

Now - you must figure out is important and the top priority to work on so you can have quality of life in your future.

Future - you have to be thinking about this constantly. It must be your priority. Quality of Life depends on this. If the future is always beginning now you have to start thinking and prioritizing. Don't wait one more day!