Relationship Development Intervention (RDI)®
Developed by Dr. Steven Gutstein and Dr. Rachelle Sheely, RDI® is a program for educating and coaching parents and adults who interact with individuals with autism and other similar disorders.
It is specifically designed as a program for systematic, long-term remediation of the core deficits of autism, which impact an individual’s capacity to engage fully in relationships and develop competency in navigating the dynamic world.
Parents overwhelmingly report significant improvement in quality of life for themselves and their children.
About RDI®
What to expect
Sessions will be tailored to individual and family needs. Typical sessions emphasize:
Building real-world competence for an individual by participating as an active but junior partner - an Apprentice
Inviting parents and caregivers to guide a child to master complex problems and settings, despite increasing levels of uncertainty
Guiding the child to capture and encode critical memories that build an experiential repository of success in gradually more complex environments
Teaching parents and caregivers to re-think their daily lifestyle, structuring activities throughout the day to provide their child with safe but challenging opportunities for discovery
Our RDI® therapists are RDI® Program Certified Consultants and received their training from Dr. Gutstein and Dr. Sheely, co-creators of the RDI® program. Therapists stay current the program through ongoing training, education, and re-certification, and have presented extensively on RDI® for schools, autism and parent groups, as well as professional groups.