our consultant
Before writing about our first RDA (next time!), I wanted to write a few words about how we chose our consultant. I've already written about why I think it's a good idea to work with an RDI Program Certified Consultant, but I never did say how we ended up choosing ours.Not long after starting to read about RDI (like, maybe the next day...) I started looking for a consultant to work with. I found out that there were (at the time) 3 choices within what we considered a reasonable drive (2 hours from our house). I knew from the relative that told me about RDI that her consultant (one of the 3) was full and not taking new clients. So I chose the closest consultant on advice of another RDIing family I'd met. We didn't click when I first spoke with her, but I went ahead and set up an appointment with her a month or two down the road for Jacob's RDA. Subsequently we had a few more phone conversations which didn't go as well as I would have liked, and by then I'd gained a better understanding about RDI and had started implementing some of the principles. So even tho the consultant I already had an appointment with came very highly reccommended, I decided that we would do better to work with a different consultant, someone who I felt more of a connection with.
So I wound up calling my relative's consultant and basically begging her to take us on. (It didn't get quite to the point of begging, but I did have to convince her of my commitment to and knowledge of RDI.) She gave us an RDA appointment in April, 6 months from when I was calling her. I snapped it up. And set my mind to getting to work on Stage 1 in the meantime so that we had a chance of going into the RDA with that first stage already mastered.
My plan worked beautifully, and I think the time spent waiting for the RDA truly prepared us for it when we did go, so I'm actually glad it took awhile to get an appointment. By the time we went in April 2005, we were ready to hear what our consultant was saying and learn from it.
Since that time, many more consultants have been certified. A full list of RDI Program Certified Consultant can be found on the Connections Center website.
posted by Harvest Moon Farm @ 11:50 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Harvest Mom, I hope you don't mind my asking - is your son's School District helping you pay for the RDI consultant? I was wondering if RDI is being offered by any School District or State agency besides the traditional ABA, Speech and OT therapies.
I agree - it's incredibly important to find a consultant you connect with. I spent 6 months trying to make it work with one I had a difficult with, and didn't make any progress. I finally did some interviewing and found one I could work with. Thanks for the post.
Leila, we are paying for everything out of pocket, and I mean everything (our insurance won't cover anything either). We did NOT try fighting the school system to get the services (although we did pursue it for a year intially, when we actually had him in school). One of the only reasons we put him in school to start with was to get "services", there was no sense leaving him there if they weren't going to actually provide the services he needed (and they so totally weren't, even the speech/language and OT they were providing weren't appropriate for his needs). But there ARE some school systems in my state that DO pay for RDI services, and I know the same is true of a couple surrounding states as well. So even in New England (where RDI is still mostly unheard of) it's possible to get it covered by the schools. I should think in the states where RDI is better known that it might be easier to get coverage.
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