By Lisa
It has been an exciting week having Philip's essay published in
The Buffalo News and subsequently picked up by The Mighty and Yahoo News. We have received so much love and positive feedback, a few skeptical comments (and that's ok), and lots of questions. Today, I'd like to give you my overview of what RPM is.
The essays Philip has written in this blog were typed letter by letter
on a keyboard and saved onto a tablet computer.
Earlier essays were spelled on a letterboard and transcribed by me, his
mom, into a notebook. Philip was unable
to express his thoughts until our family learned Rapid Prompting Method (RPM)
from Soma Mukhopadhyay. Prior to RPM,
Philip had many therapies and interventions standard to autism: Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA), speech
therapy, occupational therapy, alternative medicine, Relationship Development
Intervention, and special education.
Although he gained something from each thing he tried, it wasn’t until
we used RPM that Philip could express what he was really thinking and feeling
in ways most others could understand. It
finally bridged the communication gap between Philip and us.
RPM was developed by Soma Mukhopadhyay, (affectionately
called “Soma” by people who have come to know her) to teach her own autistic
son Tito in India. In India there were
not the many therapy options I have had in the United States. According to
Soma, when she asked the doctor what she should do for her son after receiving
the autism diagnosis, the doctor replied, “Keep him busy.” So Soma took him at his word and made the most
of her time figuring out her son and coming up with a way to teach and reach
her son. After spending some time with
Soma through organizing workshops in my area and then training with her in
Austin, I have come to the conclusion that she is one of the smartest people I
have ever known. Her observations about
how Tito interacted with his environment through the different senses, as well
as her understanding of his movement differences, helped her come up with the
practice of what is now known as RPM.
When Tito was 12, he wrote his first book. From then on, mother and son were to be
recognized and sought out for understanding autism and how to harness the
hidden potential from autistic people who could not communicate in a
conventional manner.
So what is RPM? RPM
is a teaching method that addresses the difficulties in sensory processing and
executive functioning that often accompany autism and other disabilities. An RPM session consists of an age appropriate
lesson such as a lesson in science or social studies that a typical developing
child might take at school. The lesson
is given in a way that stimulates the senses to focus on what is being
taught. Interesting lessons are told in
engaging ways, like a story, rather than in a monotonous droning way. Key words or illustrations are written on
paper in front of the student to stimulate visual learning. The student is asked to respond in a back and
forth manner to demonstrate understanding of the material. The student responds first by making choices
between two written answers. Eventually
the student learns to spell on a letter stencil, flat letterboard, or
keyboard. Prompting is often necessary
to keep the student focused, initiate movement toward the letterboard, and
encourage the completion of the task. Contrary
to what might be thought, physical prompts are not used to help lead a child to
an answer. You won’t see hand-over-hand
contact in RPM. The teacher treats the
student respectfully by believing he is capable of learning at an age
appropriate level and using regular conversation that is not reduced to
commands and praise for compliance. The
combination of knowledge through a broad education, reasoning skills from
interactive learning, and respectful treatment through presuming intelligence
and competence in the learner, provides a springboard to meaningful
communication of original thoughts and feelings.
What is RPM not? RPM
is not a cure for autism. Its goal is
not to make a person lose his autistic qualities. Rather, the goal is to work in cooperation
with the autistic neurology with its stims, alternate sensory patterns, and
movement differences to accommodate regular learning and communication. Ironically, the results of RPM have helped
Philip alleviate the most distressing aspects of his autism. Over the 3 years of doing RPM, Philip’s
self-injury diminished to where he has not banged his head in over a year. Philip finally completed toilet
training. The boy who could not tolerate
going to loud places like an auditorium or trying new activities is now fully
immersed in going to concerts, sports events, and theater, and getting involved
in biking, ice skating, and soccer. He
is also able to be included in mainstream learning and activities. RPM is not an easy miracle. Because the child cannot help himself in the
beginning, success is really dependent on the child’s primary caregiver, often
a parent, being committed to spending time learning how to implement RPM,
making good lessons, and practicing regularly with the child. Gains come only with consistency and hard
work.
We will be forever grateful to Soma and Tito for sharing RPM
with the world. We would not be where we
are today without them.
To find out more about RPM, visit
HALO's website. You can also view
videos showing Philip's progress so far using RPM.
Meeting Soma for the first time- October 2012
