This RDI Thing. ...

It's like magic, it really is.

Before we got started with our consultant, Nik and I sat down and watched the five hour intro to RDI DVD. I remember saying to Nik that if Oliver could even accomplish a little bit of what we saw on that DVD then I would be happy. At the time, so much of it seemed out of our reach. Out of Oliver's reach. But in the last 8 months Oliver has come so far that I can hardly remember what it was like when I had to chase him for every article of clothing that I wanted to put on him.

Yesterday, Oliver and I played a game together that we haven't played since he was just a little guy, back before the regression when there seemed to be so much more social give and take with him. And the best part is: Oliver initiated the game. As I was sitting on the floor in the hallway, Oliver rolled a big yellow truck right to me and then sat looking at me, waiting for my response. Surprised, I rolled it right back at him. He turned it around and the game had commenced. Soon Sam wanted in on the action (of course!) and the three of us spent at least 10 minutes rolling the car to each other. The whole game was totally dynamic. We often didn't know who would get the car next. Sometimes it wouldn't go far enough or in the right direction and someone would have to get up and get it, correcting the action. Usually that was Oliver, and he always did it without being asked to. He was definately doing more than 50% of the action to keep the game going. Nik and I were stunned. Later, after the game kind of collapsed because Sami was being such a pain in the neck, Oliver found another truck and spent some time rolling them both around the hallway, deep in play. Also a first.

I know that to some this won't seem like a big deal. But trust me, it is. We have been working on coordinated actions with Oliver over the past couple of months: turn taking, doing the same thing together, doing the same thing in parallel, doing different, complementary, things to complete the same activity, etc. And it has been slow going, especially the turn taking part. But here today it all came together as if by magic. And Oliver initiated the game. And he often did all of the work to keep the game going. It was breath-taking! And heart-warming. And motivating!!