What is Relationship Development Intervention (RDI)

Research demonstrates that somewhere in the early years the relationship between the parent and a child on the autism spectrum breaks down.  RDI views this as the infant not developing 'growth seeking' abilities.  What this means is the child is not emotionally or socially engaging with their parent to gain vital information that will enhance their developmental growth.  Although the parent is offering opportunities for the child to expand their 'mind' the child is unable to engage and make use of the sense making experience. 

How can RDI Help?

The RDI programme initially aims to help parents to move away from feelings of desperation and chaos to a sense of parental empowerment.  Parents are helped to gain an understanding of how their child's autism has impacted them as a family and how they can move to what they had envisioned parenting to be.....  guides that can help their child's emotional, social and cognitive growth. 

As parents begin to trust in themselves as guides to their child  their RDI programme focus will begin to shift to enabling their child's problem solving and challenge / growth seeking abilities to grow.

As the child develops trust in their own capabilities and that their parents will add an element of challenge, but not overwhelm them,  a steep increase in the child's motivation, confidence and competence levels is seen.  The child will begin to continually seek out and learn from the new challenges that their parent guides offer, through joint exploration and experimentation within their everyday lifestyle.