Upcoming Events
Introduction to RDI; group sessions Not sure if RDI is right for you? Join us for a an introduction to the program in a group setting. You will learn about autism, how RDI addresses the core deificits in autism as well as walking away with some concrete strategies designed for your specific child that will improve your child's ability to manage real world situations. This is a great way for parents to get their feet wet without making any long term or financial commitment. Please contact us for more information. Mommy and Me Winter Sessions Our Mommy and me classes are designed to address developmental milestones in a group setting while providing parents the skills to carry over at home. |
Check This Out!
This is a link to the article evaluating RDI in the journal, Autism in 2007.
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Research on RDI
In the world of evidence based practices, The National Autism Center's Nations Standards Report (2009) considers Relationship Development Intervention and "emerging" therapy for autism. This is due to promising, however few research studies that have been done.
There is a study coming out of the Tavistock Institute in London. The preliminary results demonstrating the effectiveness of RDI are extremely promising.
There is peer reviewed research that was published in "Autism" in 2007. This research has been criticized as it was co-written by Dr. Gutstein, who developed the RDI program. The results however are impressive and cannot be ignored. You can find a link to the article in the check this out section.
The more recent study out of the Tavistock clinic in London looks at 18 children with autism that undergo RDI therapy for 18 months. Children were assessed prior to therapy and again at the end of 18 months.
Relationship Development Intervention's primary goal is to improve the relationship between parent and child with autism. The goal of the study is to assess if the child's social communication impairment (measured by the Autism Diagnostic Observation Scale) would improve based on the improved quality of parent child interaction (measured by the Dyadic Coding Scale) after engaging in 18 months of RDI.
Preliminary results have shown that, compared to the baseline measurement, at 18 months, there was significant improvement in the parent-child scores on the Dyadic Coding Scales. This sample of children with autism's scores on the DCS were compared to 2 other groups of children; one typically developing group and one group of children with autism. At baseline, the research group compared more with the group with autism while after 18 months of RDI, their results were more closely aligned with the group of neurotypical children. The ADOS results and comparisons are currently still being coded.
It is important for parents to know what is required for a therapy to be considered, "evidence based" and become an accepted and funded treatment. These studies, although they demonstrate the effectiveness RDI has on children will likely not catapult RDI into the category of "evidence based treatments" There are still just not enough studies for it be considered so.
As a parent, educate yourself on what is out there. RDI is one of so many options for your child. Don't accept it if the system tells you there is the only one therapy for autism. The only reason ABA is the only funded therapy is because it has been around for over 40 years. Lovaas started his work in the 60s and did not publish his first research paper until 1987.
Only you can truly know what is right for your child and family, make an informed decision. In America, unlike some other countries, families do have options. Do you want to wait for the research to be accepted and a treatment to be considered "evidenced based?" Or do you want to help your child today?
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