Gutstein Workshop

[Guest guest]

Hello! Thanks for all who attended. I hope you left wth some valuable

information in regrds to Relationship Development.

I think the main thing I learned is that It just isnt enough to Use motivation

to TEACH...but ALSO to TEACH motivation.

What Dr Gutstein spoke of was Social development at a completly different level

than what we typically know of it. Taken it a step further to not only KNOW how

to intercact but WHY we do so.

I wish he could have done his longer presentation that really gave us a more

detailed explainations on HOW TO develop specific plans, but I beleive that is

what his books do. in regards to activites. We are looking into bringing him

back for his 4 day workshop for professionals on actualy doing an assesment and

making a program and making individual goals for our children. If there is one

important thing I learned is THAT YOU CAN do activities that enrch a child's

abiltiy to EMOTIONAL share with and regualte their actions and language (verbal

and non) . NOw with this consciously in the back of our minds, we have ANOTHER

aspect to be aware of.. an aspect which we ASSUMED could NOT be taught

specifically. So long as we are attuned to this deficit in our children and

acually making it as a GOAL to touch upon (a critical one at that , that may

mean that we prioritize their emotional development over some other acedemic

skill that we are trying to get to perfection) I left the conference today with

ANOTHER perspective on what to pay close attention to when intervening and

engaging with him.. I hope you all did as well. I actually am happy to say we

will be meeting with dr gutstein in length tomorrow to get a more intense

evaluation and understanding of RDI. I will post WHATEVER information I find

valuable to pass on.. HE did (later in the day for those who have left)

explained how other interventions that we touch upon are still valid, and RDI

can be used as a a SEPERATE entity enhancement to your existing porgram. HE

wouldnt suggest doing it ALL at the same time under the same circumstances..

THough many of us feel that ABA Is a way of life and NOT a related service, I

personally with my own knowledge , do not see this to be conflicting with what

we are already doing. We are targeting the goal of emotional reinforcment

(which is beyond our EXTERNAL reinforcment ) system.

What we will want to maintain the behavior of " joint attention or refrencing " is

through , WHAT I WOULD HAVE CALLED in a behavioral sence, stimulus -stimulus

paring.. where you are conditioning your self and the act of engaging wth YOU

(the parent/caregiver /teacher) THE Reinforcment...

Implementing the teaching procedures that we use to ilicit willing learners and

functional language is the same frame work I saw Dr Gutstein impleenting with

his RDI model.

The goal not BEING language at that moment or learning to do a visual

sequence.. but using the SAME behavioral principles to get the emotional

attunement.

My son happens to be a quite undermotivated child. I look forward to seeing what

Dr gutstein will suggest I do during my training session with my son, being as

FLLETING and unwillling to emotional bond as he is..

I will share all this with you tomorrow.

Until then, I THANK YOU ALL FOR COMING.. we had a great time. Deb and I made

notes on HOW TO make our next workshops even more comforatble (ie MORE COFFEE

after lunch ) please bear with us as it was our first workshop . We had a

great time putting FACES with the listers!

I especially was SO excited to meet in person Mr Reg Reynolds!

HELLO REG! IT was an honor! I cherish your posts and your brilliance!

I hope to see you again!

Thank you again for all attending and we look forward to meeting with you all

again.. Please any input on the workshop would be greatly appreciated! We want

to be as detailed oreiented and make our guests as comfortable as possible!

My Blessings!