What is RDI^®?

RDI^® uses a family systems approach to remediate the effects of autism spectrum disorders. Its principles are based on the way typical children learn and grow through a continual discovery process guided by trusted adults. RDI^® is both a parent training program and a systematic, objective-based, learning program tailored to help each child to develop the dynamic thinking abilities critical for real world success.

Parent Training Program. A family that chooses to begin the RDI^® program recognizes that all children learn to navigate the world around them first within the safety of the family system. Parents are the most trusted and constant figures in a child's life and they know the child better than any therapist ever could. Unfortunately, most parents of children with ASD have struggled to guide their child through everyday life for years, trying in every way they know how to be the best parent to their child. They may feel lost, tired and worried about the future.

A certified RDI^® consultant helps parents acquire the tools they need to successfully guide their child into the future, one step at a time. The tools available to the consultant are based on the most current brain research, on initial and subsequent assessments of the family system, and on the child's unique presentation and stage of development.

The parent training program is holistic. Issues related to communication, stress monitoring and relief, extended support systems, individual learning styles, short-term and long-term goals, and creating learning opportunities in everyday life are some of the areas that the parent training program will address.

The goal of the parent training program is to provide parents with the tools they need to become more competent guides to their child with autism. Parents will learn to focus on the growth that they hope to foster in their child and to worry less about the behaviors that have impeded growth thus far. Parents who experience success with the RDI® program soon come to see that as their child is more able to function in a dynamic world -- to process rapidly shifting, context-specific meanings -- that the child also needs to employ static coping systems less frequently.

The Dynamic Thinking Program. As you and your spouse learn to become better guides, the child is also learning to make discoveries about himself and about the nature of his relationship to the world around him. Just as a typical child learns to make many developmentally appropriate discoveries through the course of living and interacting with his environment, so will your child. As a guide, you will know how to help your child make these discoveries in a systematic way, ensuring that he feels competent about the discovery process and motivated to continue learning.

Child objectives are chosen with parent input and might focus on things such as:

• Learning to take responsibility for keeping an interaction going
• Learning to coordinate his actions with his partners
• Learning to study an uncertainty without fear, without running away
• Understanding many kinds of communication (gesture, prosody, facial expression)
• Understanding that the child's partner may perceive something differently than the child
• Understanding the intention behind another person's actions
• Learning that two people must agree upon a plan of action if they are to collaborate together

No matter the specific learning objective, you will be guiding your child to become a more dynamic thinker. Parents who participate in the RDI® program report dramatic changes:

• Children are significantly more motivated to accept guidance
• Children value time interacting with parents over other activities and objects
• Children are more interested in how parents and other family members feel
• Couples report a significant reduction in conflicts and stresses related to the child
• They feel more hopeful and less fearful about what the future holds
• They feel a decreased need to act as a buffer and advocate for the child
• They perceive their children as engaging more in planned, thoughtful action and see a significant increase in their ability to generate productive creative ideas and responses
• Their children show a strong desire to take greater responsibility in their daily lives

2½ years after starting RDI^® less than 15% of children were still in special education classes (compared to over 90% prior to RDI^®)

Parents reported an increase in age-appropriate flexibility and adaptation from 16% to over 70%, while over 90% of children were rated in the “autism” range by the ADOS prior to RDI^®, after 2½ years fewer than 10% received the “autism” rating.

Because of RDI^®, thousands of parents and educators have now realized that we can give our children and ourselves a second chance.

We can provide our children with the opportunity to become dynamic thinkers and communicators. We can create pathways to success and a quality of life.

Steven E. Gutstein, Ph.D.

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