Autistic adults & RDI
If you are an adult who was recently diagnosed with autism, or someone who has “aged out” of typical autism interventions such as Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA), you may be looking for alternative strategies.
Unfortunately, the conversation around autism, especially in regard to therapies and interventions, seems to stop when a child reaches a certain age, leaving many people on the spectrum without resources to navigate their life in and entering adulthood.
If you feel like this world can be too demanding and challenging at times, book a free 30 minute initial consultation with me. I would love to hear your story and see if we are a good fit to work together.
Many individuals don’t know why they are having so much trouble in life, but they feel that something is not quite right.
What type of struggles may adults on the spectrum face?
Helping learn how to cope and manage these struggles is not an indication that you’re in need of being ‘changed’. All people can benefit from therapy, coaching and a better understanding of themselves to help them live a meaningful and happy life.
- Lack of self belief and confidence
- Lack of self regulation
- Inability to get and/or hold a job
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Suicidal thinking
- Trauma
- Non-flexible thinking
- Breakdown of relationships
- Extreme black and white thinking patterns
- Extreme stress brought on by the inability to manage their experiences
- Addiction and Substance Abuse
- Repeated self-injury
How does RDI help Adults and Teens?
Dynamic Intelligence
Dynamic intelligence is central to independence and quality of life, and RDI builds on this perspective. Look at the complex world that you live in, there is much to cope with! Challenges and change are constant in life, but the development of dynamic intelligence gives you the ability to think flexibly and understand different perspectives in life. This can help you cope with change, and to integrate information from multiple sources.
Here are the six areas of dynamic intelligence universal to every person on the autism spectrum. Each can improve the quality of life and make independence possible:
Emotional
Referencing
The ability to ‘read’ and learn from the emotional experiences of others.
Social
Coordination
The ability to observe others and self-regulate behaviour in order to participate in social relationships.
Declarative
Language
The ability to use language and non-verbal language for expression, interaction, and to share feelings and ideas with others.
Flexible
Thinking
The ability to adapt when life’s circumstances change.
Relational Information Processing
The ability to think situations through to obtain solutions when there are no “right or wrong” answers.
Foresight and
Hindsight
The ability to reflect on past experiences and use them as a tool for present experiences and to anticipate potential future scenarios.
More than Skills
There is substantial reason to believe that cognitively higher functioning teens and adults can learn a wide range of sophisticated skills. However, significant obstacles are found when the individual tries to apply these learned skills in real-world, complex, dynamic settings, or when skills must be modified or adapted “on-the- fly” to meet circumstances that were not covered in the training curriculum.
The problem, then, is not learning specific skills per se, but their application in a more dynamic manner, to progressively more complex, “messy”, unpredictable real-world problems and settings. This real-life application is incorporated into the Relationship Development Intervention Program’s Dynamic Intelligence curriculum.
Basically, if you understand Dynamic Intelligence and are able to take on your learning, you will be able to become more flexible. This can help alleviate the stress and anxiety that often comes when an individual on the spectrum navigates the neurotypical world.
How to Get Started with RDI®?
I would love to help you when you are ready to start your RDI® programme! If you would like to be connected with me to see if I could help you, you can sign up for a free consultation by clicking here.
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