The Hope Source, Inc.

Relationship Development Intervention (RDI®) is the product of an ongoing program of clinical development and research begun in 1996 by Dr. Steven Gutstein. Our mission is to produce powerful methods to remediate the core deficits of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Our goal is to provide individuals with ASD the cognitive, emotional, communicative, and social tools to obtain the quality of life, which their disorder typically deprives them of.

RDI® represents a new generation of autism treatment. It is different that the “first generation” intervention programs because it is geared towards remediation and not compensation. A primary assumption of RDI® is that we can, through focused guided participation in challenging activities, increase the flexibility and complexity of neural pathways of people with ASD.

RDI® objectives were developed based on review of research findings in typical development and careful study of the critical differences in the development of children with ASD. A treatment objective is chosen only when there is research consensus concluding that the deficit area is universal to people with ASD and is an essential building block to eventual quality of life. Universal deficits of autism fall into the categories of dynamic analysis, experience sharing, episodic memory, flexible thinking, and self-awareness.

RDI® is a family-centered treatment program. The bulk of treatment resources are invested in preparing parents to act as “guides”, creating daily opportunities for their child to succeed in increasingly challenging settings, characterized by ongoing variation and unpredictable change. Both fathers and mothers are essential participants (estimates of father’s participation in RDI® is over 90%).

RDI® emphasizes constructing safe, but challenging experiences, motivating child with ASD to give up their static safety. Safety in dynamic systems emerges from perceiving and managing the regularity of patterns, amidst ongoing change and novelty. Prior to introducing uncertainty, children first participate as co-regulators and so perceive themselves as having the ability to actively and successfully manage potential disruptions and changes. Experiences of successful mastery of uncertainty are stockpiled, as parents ensure the child captures these critical moments to use later for experiences in more complex environments.

Parents are trained to implement RDI® through the following methods: education (individual and small group), consultant modeling, regular evaluation and planning sessions, sample videos, and regular video-tape review of home application.

Parents learn to implement the following critical steps of coaching/guiding:

1. Slow down, simplify and amplify the information feedback system to allow adequate processing time for both partners to understand the other’s actions and have the opportunity to develop mindfulness.


2. Alter the communication environment to emphasize that communication is:


• based on thought and mental engagement,
• oriented towards experience sharing and,
• enables the child to process broadband elements of communication including prosody, facial expressions, gesture, context, and language.


3. Carefully modify daily activities to enhance their potential to provide safe, but challenging opportunities for mental discovery, based upon the child’s developmental readiness. The child's entire day has the potential to function as a remediation setting.


4. Gradually increase the child’s participation as a more equal partner in the ongoing co-regulation of naturally occurring interactions, which require participants to adapt their actions on a moment-to-moment basis, based on the prior and anticipated actions of their partners.


5. Spotlight competent actions when faced with situations containing uncertainty and alterations from expected outcomes, to make sure that the child retains episodic memories to guide future actions and provide increased self-efficacy.


6. Generalize the guided participation process into all aspects of family life and then into new and more complex settings in a gradual systematic basis.

RDI® is highly cost-effective, with yearly treatment costs approximately 1/5 that of one-on-one behavioral intervention programs. Once parents are trained to function as effective guides to their children, need for secondary support staff is minimal. Parental success increases their sense of competence and empowerment, allowing for an easier generalization of program principles into every moment of the family's daily life.

Research on RDI® Program effectiveness is limited, but promising. Within 18 months, over 70% of children in the initial study improved their diagnostic category on the ADOS. 70% of the RDI® Program group moved from a special education or home setting to a regular classroom without any special support. On the contrary, not a single child in the comparison group (of children receiving 2x the amount of other intensive interventions)improved their diagnosis, nor progressed into a regular classroom without an aide. This is the first study to ever demonstrate that a clinical intervention can change children's diagnostic classification on the ADOS.

For additional information on RDI®, please visit their website at www.rdiconnect.com.