I mentioned, in the two posts just above this one, the founder of Autism Movement Therapy (AMT) and developer of the aut-erobics DVD, Joanne Lara. In the past, Lara taught in a Moderate/Severe Special Day Class (SDC) Autism classroom for over 10 years in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and has a Master’s degree in Special Education: Moderate/Severe and Multiple Disabilities. In late 2008, it was announced that Lara would be joining the new Gilbert Hall School (GHS) in Culver City, California, a school that applies the principles of Dr Steven Gutstein’s Relationship Development Intervention (RDI) to classroom based learning…
…The focus of the model is on brain development , which Dr. Gutstein argues should be the primary focus in all of education utilizing “best practices.” [In a 2009 Open House for the new private school,] Dr. Gutstein discussed the downfall of the typical educational system’s focus on measuring success by tracking specific skills learned or academic milestones met. This focus doesn’t allow for the development of flexibility to solve “fuzzy problems,” to improvise or deal with “grey areas,” or to come up with alternative solutions. A repertoire of skills is not enough to make it in the world; rather, individuals have to develop what Dr. Gutstein refers to as “neural integration,” which is what allows all of us to problem solve and adapt in new situations.
Neural Integration was defined by Dr. Gutstein as a “lifelong process in which the brain’s different processing centers learn to work together in increasingly more sophisticated and efficient ways.” The brain basically grows and forms with experiences that present mental challenges, and most children develop nueral integration through “guided participation” by their parents. Children learn not only how to address the specific situation they are faced with, but in addressing that situation, they are learning how to think through the next, unique situation.
What does all of this have to do with special needs kids? Dr. Gutstein explained that in 100% of children on the Autism spectrum, the process of developing neural integration breaks down. Despite the fact that children on the spectrum are diverse in so many other ways, this is the one thing that unites them…
Dr. Gutstein’s model for the Gilbert Hall School is focused on using dynamic and innovative curriculum to specifically address the development of neuro-integration. The GHS school day is focused on intensively developing specific dynamic processes. Classroom activities and academics are a part of the program, and these activities are used not only to teach the specific skill addressed in that lesson (math, reading, etc) but also as a means of teaching the students to think, problem-solve, relate, etc. The curriculum is competency based , and the program operates on a “level” system, very similar to the levels within the RDI program, in the sense that it is an assumption of the program that an individual must reach competency on one level before they will be able to be successful on the next.
This is the core uniqueness of the program - it doesn’t focus on the typical measures of academic progress that we see in educational programs, but on the bigger picture of learning - learning to learn, learning to think, problem-solve, and relate to the world. Like the RDI model focuses on underlying relationship functions rather than superficial social skills, the GHS model focuses on the underlying components of thinking and learning rather than on skill sets and achievement markers.
Another unique aspect of the school is the parent involvement component. The RDI program, which forms the basis for much of what the GHS model is, focuses on parental involvement in the development of the child’s ability to problem solve and relate to others. The GHS model incorporates this focus, in that the learning goes beyond the classroom and into the home setting. Parents are integrally involved at GHS, and must have a willingness to incorporate new ways of interacting with their child at home in order to allow their child to truly develop and grow…
Indeed, Relationship Development Intervention (RDI) focuses on the dynamic processes involved in cognition and does not advocate training students to perform a certain behaviour (which is more what Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) sets out to do). RDI also strongly advocates a strong parent/community involvement - in that the parents must be actively involved in this remediation. Clinical Psychologists and husband/wife team Dr Gutstein and Dr Rachelle Sheely are founders of the internationally known, Houston, Texas-based Connections Center for Relationship Development…
(sources: Sign in ; Joanne Lara Joins Dr. Steven Gutstein as Master Teacher at RDI Treatment Program ; Special Education and Disability Rights Blog: The Gilbert Hall School: A New Perspective on Learning to Learn ; http://www.rdiconnect.com/pages/About-Us.aspx )