As Tony Robbins would say, “You don’t whip a U-turn with the Queen Mary”.
But if you make small daily improvements in whatever you do, then over the years you will arrive at a completely different, more desirable destination. Conversely, small detriments can turn into big detriments over time.
“Real-World” Training aims to set your Child in motion in the right directions, which having been set do not require constant monitoring and teaching. In fact the aim is to get the Child to want to “Own” the Training, so he.she becomes basically self-motivated to keep entering the Real World when possible, and to gain the Rewards which, via the Training, you have made more tangible.As an example, I only infrequently discuss the concepts of Own and Real World with my son, now 13, (in 2013). He knows the distinction between the two Worlds, and I can see him formulating his own mixture of the two, with the aim of increasing the Real World component when possible.
He is self-motivated and his direction is plain.
Chart (1) below describes the Real and Own World mix that we all use:
The frame shows Real-World-Living at the top, Own-World-Living at the bottom. The ascending line shows the average of the amount of time spent in each World, at various ages, for example the first dot shows almost entirely Own World Living as a baby. Later on, the highlighted dot at around age 6 shows where you would be if you spent half your time in the Real World and half in Own, equidistant between the two Worlds.
The progression over time shows an increased tendency for everyone towards Real World Living, as we all appreciate more and more the benefits of interaction with others. We are all on this chart, and those whose personalities are more outgoing have all their dots plotted at higher levels than those who are more self-absorbed.
Chart (2) below shows the increasing divergence of two orientations over time. The thing to note is that while the lines both head upwards towards more Real World Living (because your Child does get more Real-World aware too) the difference between them becomes greater:
The final Chart (3) introduces two different “Training / Intervention” paths. Both paths improve the Child’s Real-World contact. But they diverge, depending on the relative success of the Training undertaken. I (naturally) consider “Real-World” Training to be the best for you, because as I said on the Home Page video, “since we are clearer on what we want to achieve, we are more likely to get the Results we want”.
I should add that with “Real-World” Training, there is no “outside-expert” involvement required (and the accompanying huge costs!) that puts therapies like Floortime, Son Rise and ABA out of most peoples’ financial reach. A fair amount of those therapies involve encouraging Real-World-contact too, (eg the former two base a large amount of their therapy on Copying the Child, and drawing him.her out of Own World, which are also pillars of “Real World” Training, – though there is more to our Training than that) but with the Real World Training programme you are the therapist, you learn the strategies, and it is the use ofyour time that produces the successful results. If you have the finances to support the above therapies, I would go for the Son Rise or Floortime ones, as they are more in sympathy with the Real World Training approach, and those practitioners can learn valuable extra techniques from our therapies, and so add to their affectiveness.
You might notice that the “Real-World” Training line at the age of around 8 takes an upward-bump and heads more sharply towards the “neurotypical” line. How come?