Relationship Development Intervention

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There are very few or no other articles that link to this one.
Please help introduce links in articles on related topics. After links have been created, remove this message.
This article has been tagged since March 2007.

Relationship Development Intervention (RDI) is a trademarked proprietary treatment program for autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

RDI is based on a belief that building intelligence competencies is the key to improving the quality of life of those with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder. The program's core philosophy is that individuals with autism can participate in authentic emotional relationships if they are exposed to them in a gradual, systematic way. The goal of treatment is to systematically build up the motivation and tools for successfully interacting in social relationships, to correct deficits in this area that are thought to be common to all people with autism.

RDI focuses on cultivating the building blocks of social connection -- such as referencing, emotion sharing, and experience sharing -- that normally develop in infancy and early childhood. After a child's level of social skills are assessed, a program is prepared, and therapists are trained to implement the program and support the acquisition of skills.

1 How RDI came about
2 How RDI differs from ABA
3 Research on RDI
4 References
5 External links

[edit] How RDI came about

The RDI program is based upon a model of dynamic intelligence developed by Dr. Steven Gutstein. Gutstein studied the means by which typical children become competent in the world of emotional relationships. The developers of the program describe it as a parent-based clinical treatment for individuals on the autistic spectrum or with other relationship-based disorders.

[edit] How RDI differs from ABA

Proponents of RDI believe that while conventional autism therapies such as Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) teach discrete skills, the social outcomes that result often lack the emotional components of communication as they rely on scripted and predictable actions. They believe that such training may result in improved discrete skills, such as eye contact, emotion recognition (of static images) and turn taking, but that it does not teach social intelligence.

RDI is a developmental style of autism therapy and has a similar approach to other developmental interventions such as Floortime, the Developmental Social-Pragmatic model and Responsive Teaching.

Instead of trying to directly alter behavior, RDI focuses on skills that normally develop in infancy and early childhood that lead to social interaction. The RDI program provides a path for people on the autistic spectrum to learn friendship, empathy and a love of sharing their world with others.

[edit] Research on RDI

Preliminary research of RDI's effectiveness indicates that this approach, which addresses the dynamic intelligence deficit of people with ASD, may be effective.^[1] When compared to a control group, children whose families had participated in RDI showed greater improvement on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) and greater increases in independent functioning in educational settings.