Relationship Development Intervention

Relationship Development Intervention (RDI) is a trademarked proprietary treatment program for autism spectrum disorders (ASD), based on the belief that building intelligence competencies is the key to improving the quality of life for individuals with autism. 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, coregulation, and experience sharing -- that normally develop in infancy and early childhood. After a child's level of social/emotional/cogntive development is assessed, a program is prepared, and parents are trained to implement the program and support the acquisition of skills.

History
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 autism spectrum or with other relationship-based disorders.

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 and flexible, dynamic thinking. The RDI program provides a path for people on the autism spectrum to learn friendship, empathy and a love of sharing their world with others. Equally important, RDI seeks to pave the way for future meaningful employment and an overall "quality of life" for individuals on the spectrum.

As with many autism therapies, more research is required to establish it as a fully qualified evidence based practice. Unlike ABA   RDI has not been experimentally verified as a proven treatment for autism.

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. In a recent study, children whose families had participated in RDI and who had relatively high IQ at start of treatment showed dramatic changes in diagnosic category on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) and Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R), though the study represented a non-experimental study without a control group and whose evaluators were not blinded to time in treatment.