Changing Gears

I went to the YMCA today to pick up my girls from camp and on the way out there was a basket of 'thoughts of the day'. I decided to take one because I can always use some inspirational thoughts. Unfortunatly I misplaced the paper now and can't remember the exact words but it said something about 'Think of the dreams of the future and forget about the history of the past'. I will never forget about the struggles we have been through over the past year but I feel our family is changing gears. Our RDI consultant, Jennifer, and all of the reading I have been doing on RDI has changed some of my ideas about my sons needs and his development. While I am just beginning this journey with RDI as our therapy and still know very little about it, I feel like I have finally found a way of life and a tool to help me help my son along a developmental path that is good for him and my whole family. I am starting to think maybe some of those dreams I had for Gregory before all of the worry set in could still possibly come true. It makes so much sense to me that instead of being in his face 24/7 he needs some room also and his brain needs time to process things. Before we began RDI I had the idea that every second I wasn't engaging him that was a second lost. I had no idea really how to help him. I felt lost. Basically I was just following him around and trying to entertain him, get him to look at me and laugh or smile. I had no idea what to work on except to try and get a back and forth interaction. I needed more structure. That is why RDI has been so helpful to me so far. I know what I need to work on and right now that is making patterns and using less verbal language and more nonverbal . Just making patterns and keeping Gregory with us in the pattern has brought even so much more to our interaction. I have been getting tons of referencing and more emotion sharing also. I have a lot to learn but we are so excited to have Jennifer and RDI.