Scientific research into Soma RPM

 

Cornell University approached me about conducting some research and I was happy to agree because they were a team of Neuro Scientists. They selected to do a research project titled:

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‘Harnessing repetitive behaviors to engage attention and learning in a novel therapy for autism: an exploratory analysis.’ 

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link: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00012

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https://www.longdom.org/open-access/occupational-therapy-using-rapid-prompting-method-a-case-report-2165-7890-1000165.pdf

Our upcoming data-based research:  

Soon We will announce the published paper here and share the link when it is published. We are excited about the results. 

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What to consider while requesting a data based research

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1.  There is a wide variety of ages of the student: RPM can begin at any age - 3 till 70+

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2.  Students begin with different skill levels. There is no baseline for student response. Different students come with different motor skills. Some students can navigate a letterboard because of their generalized Kinesthetic (or motor skills). Some students cannot and the teacher will teach the student how to respond by making choices and then by pointing at letters and spelling. The motor skill is acquired with practice and the teacher will not give touch/physical support. There are some verbal students who prefer to say the answers aloud. There are some selectively verbal students who have hyper-imitation/echoing back, scripted speech, request- limited speech, OCD- related speech or limited social speech – they will need to be taught to spell their responses and gradually learn to make their speech more purposeful. 

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3.  Students have different open learning channels. The RPM teacher will adapt the implementation of a lesson according to how the learning channels manifest. These individualized adaptations are required for the best student performance and mean that the way the same lesson is presented may be very different from one student to another. The learning channels are the vision, auditory, tactile and kinesthetic and then within each there is a further classification of generalized, selective and global. One student may have generalized vision, selective auditory, global tactile and selective kinesthetic learning channel, another may have a completely different combination.

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4.  Students have unique impulses, OCD, emotions, excitatory stimulations. A student’s learning and responding may be interrupted by these and the teacher will have to adapt the session accordingly. 

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5.  RPM has no skill ceiling. There is no skill plateau in RPM. A student progresses from 2 choices to spelling on a letterboard with 26 letter choices. The skill extends to spelling on the keyboard, handwriting, navigating the environment and other environmental activities which including self-help skills (navigating the three dimensional surface of one’s body). 

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