Introduction to Relationship Development Intervention

A recorded workshop on understanding the impact of coregulation on the mental development of a child

Relationship Development Intervention (RDI)

“Slow down your delivery of information enough for the child to effectively process what you have said and respond.”

  • What is RDI ?

    RDI is an individualised programme, customised for each family. The RDI consultant gives parents the understanding and tools to work with their child. Parents are guided by their RDI consultant to provide learning opportunities using everyday situations within their family life. Parents initially concentrate on areas such as the early foundations of social interaction and dynamic thinking skills. This mental processing helps child step away from the black and white thinking patterns. The parents provide the child with many learning opportunities to set up new thinking pathways.

  • Why RDI ?

    Foundations of the adult mind are developed during the first years of life through the “Guiding Relationship”. From the middle of the first year of life, hour-by-hour, day-by-day, children interact with parents and other important adults in deceptively simple encounters, constructing the architecture of the child’s mind and brain. Some children are born with vulnerabilities that in early development serve as a “tipping point,” interrupting developing foundations needed to participate in and benefit from the Guiding Relationship.

  • Why Guiding Relationship ?

    The early differences for children with autism may shift foundational parent-child communication. These early disconnections make it more challenging for many parents to provide the thousands of hours of safe, productive guidance needed to foster their child’s dynamic development. The RDI consultation programme seeks to provide renewed opportunity for parents and children to develop this essential relationship.

  • What is RDI used for ?

    RDI gives parents the ability to establish or re-establish the Guiding Relationship with their child, which is lost in autism spectrum disorder. RDI is used to help parents develop children who are strong and flexible enough within themselves to cope with the changing world around them.

  • How does RDI work ?

    The programme involves both, parent and child developing new ways of thinking and perceiving in a carefully guided and personalised way. An individual plan is developed that first focuses on reducing family or personal obstacles. Following this the guidance and tools are provided in order to achieve a successful parent-child guiding relationship.

Transform Your Relationship with Your Child to Witness your Child's Potential

  • Why Coregulation is important ?

    If we are looking at building spontaneous communication in our children then it is important to work on Co-regulation as conversations (verbal or non-verbal) is highest form of coregulation. Thus, coregulation should be achieved before we work on speech and language. Without coregulation, chilren tend to become rote learners hence they are not able to generalize their langauge for spontaneous conversations. For succesful conversations with our children, it is important that they learn through natural guiding relationship from their parents. After a point, Speech Therapy needs support of coregulation to work on collaborative conversations, as mere having a vocabulary and language does not address it.

  • How Coregulation helps ?

    Co-regulation is also the most important foundation to help our children regulate themselves and have intrinsic motivation for various social tasks, communication and feeling sense of competence. A new connection in the brain is formed when child gets an experience of feeling competent through his/her own thinking (not when told or instructed by others). This is the model of typical brain development human beings have acquired through thousands of year of evolution and AUTISM does not change it.