RDIconnect
Through its innovative Relationship Development Intervention (RDI) Program, RDIconnect gained a worldwide reputation for designing family-based programs. Currently, RDIconnect provides programs for an entire range of developmental difficulties.

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Dr. Rachelle SheelyHi, My name is Dr. Rachelle Sheely and I am the author of the RDI Community blog. We have quite a few features, programs and tools and all that info can be a little daunting. I'll try to help you feel more at ease while you're learning. Welcome, welcome.

Dr. Rachelle Sheely serves as the co-director of RDIconnect as well as the head of professional training and supervision. For the past fifteen years she has been a leader in the development and logistical implementation of programs for both families and professionals working with children, adolescents and adults with developmental disabilities. Along with her extensive clinical training, Dr. Sheely brings an accomplished background in education, art, music and poetry allowing her to inject creativity and originality into the teaching, training and management of the thousands of professionals and families she reaches on a daily basis. Profoundly effecting, Dr. Sheely has spent a lifetime working with children on a professional and personal level. With a gift for moving from observation to intuitive precision, her work extends far beyond treatment, and into the everyday moments that resonate in the lives of her clients.

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  • To Gaze or Not To Gaze, That is the Question

    Gaze aversion in autism has been the subject of many scholarly articles and therapeutic interventions. I remember a well-known speaker suggesting that a nanny had been especially helpful by saying, “look at me”, while using just the right pressure on the chin to ensure that the child would look at her eyes. Other early interventions included “quiet hands” along with admonitions to stop stereotypical behavior. As RDI became more developmentally based...

  • FAQs About the Family Consultation Program

    The cornerstone program of RDIconnect is the Family Consultation Program (FCP). Developed by Dr Steven Gutstein, the FCP has helped many families find hope and help when struggling with a child with development needs. The following are a set of FAQs to give an overview of the program. What is the Family Consultation Program? The RDI Family Consultation Program was designed to help families restore the natural "Guiding Relationship" when it has been disrupted or...

  • A Compassionate Stranger

    We have all had the experience of being in the super market with a difficult child, our discomfort exacerbated by the eye aversion of well-meaning adults. For parents of children with special needs, whether physical or neurological, this aversion of gaze can sometimes have the unintended effect of further isolation. Recently I was talking to a mother whose 10 year-old with autism had a meltdown at the grocery store. He wanted the toy car, she said "no" and he threw...

  • A Different Easter by Rachelle Sheely, Ph.D.

    Just as the seeds of autumn germinate and bloom in the rich Easter soil, so do our efforts bear fruit for the children we love. As the Christian world approaches the most holy of days, I remember two young autistic boys and their unraveling, perhaps retelling, of the Easter Story. Jacob and Will began their communication journey from similar points but different capabilities. One had almost no language; one extreme verbosity. Both lacked conversational ability and a paucity...
    Published 3 Apr 2012 9:06 AM

  • Sink or Swim #21

    Family chores, a lackluster favorite of all children and parents, often took front and center in Ellen’s family, mostly for what went undone. Both Ellen and her brother tried to get out of their jobs, one difference being that when her brother agreed to and set about doing his job he completed them quickly. Ellen, on the other hand often started with the same determination but lost focus and wandered off midstream to do something that else that caught her eye. It was...

  • Sink or Swim #20

    Sink or Swim: The continuing adventures of Ellen by Rachelle Sheely, Ph.D. As Ellen's parents became increasingly better in their ability to set up decision making opportunities, she continued to become a better apprentice. She was more confident and there was a notable inverse relationship between her burgeoning competence and the controlling behaviors that had previously marked their interactions. They later laughed as they remembered that every step forward seemed...

  • Competence the Antidote for Everything: The Card Catalogue

    Competence, The Antidote for Everything The Card Catalogue Googling information on an unfamiliar syndrome a few weeks ago, I found volumes of material, opinions, treatment suggestions, possible medications and their side effects. This is something I have come to expect and it is no longer surprising to quickly find obscure information when I search for it. What is unusual is for information to not be immediately available. A true disappointment, as I have come to depend more...
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  • An RDI Parent Shares her Journey

    The following letter was written by an RDI parent to her colleagues. She has given me permission to upload it onto my blog. I hope you enjoy it. Dr. Sheely I promised an update on our foray into a new therapeutic approach to helping our kids (ages eight and twelve) who both have high functioning autism, Asperger's syndrome. We are very early in the process, but it has been an interesting adventure. We are seeing significant improvement in both kids after only a short...

  • Competence, the Antidote for Everything by Rachelle Sheely, Ph.D.

    “You are my princess” Nearly 12 years ago now, I had the privilege of observing the guiding relationship between a father and his little girl that stretched my understanding of the power of love, the gift of time and the determination that stemmed from belief that limits were not for him and his “princess”. It unfolded during a part of our assessment where we ask each parent to spend time with their child to help her get comfortable in our setting...

  • Competence the Antidote for Everything: A Different Easter

    Just as the seeds of autumn germinate and bloom in the rich Easter soil, so do our efforts bear fruit for the children we love. As the Christian world approaches the most holy of days, I remember two young autistic boys and their unraveling, perhaps retelling, of the Easter Story. Jacob and Will began their communication journey from similar points but different capabilities. One had almost no language; one extreme verbosity. Both lacked conversational ability and a paucity...

  • Competence the Antidote for Everything: Those Aha Moments

    We are so pleased to post this week’s blog from Mitali Vaidya, guest author and RDI parent, who shares her journey of discovery with her son Tanmay. Mitali’s story is inspiring, touching and full of "aha" moments. As you read, I hope her words resonate and encourage you as they did me. --Dr. Rachelle K. Sheely Getting back to Parenting Our lives changed when my son was two years old – Autism took centre stage. We followed the prescribed route:...

  • Cardinal Principle

    Competence, the Antidote for Everything The Cardinal Principle Sitting as I do with my desk against a window, it is easy to appear deep in thought even as my focus is on the nesting cardinal, a family of blue jays, the flirtatious mourning doves or an occasional off-beat pilgrim parrot. My tree-level window frames an ever-changing, 15-foot mini nesting environment created by various gardeners who believe the overgrowth on the fence is better pruned by someone else. Thus,...

  • Competence, The Antidote for Everything: The "Bad Boy" Poet By Rachelle Sheely, PhD

    Competence, the Antidote for Everything The “Bad Boy” Poet There are moments in time when we realize the untapped potential of those with whom we come in contact. Tapping their potential often releases our own. At a school in New Jersey where I taught for nearly 10 years, come spring my principal would drop into my classroom before she finalized class lists. There was a child, she knew, I would love to teach next year. Unlike many inner city schools in the late...
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  • The RDI Program in Warsaw, Poland, March 26-27

    Join Dr. Steven Gutstein for an exclusive 2-day parent and professional workshop in partnership with Fundacja Rozwiązać Autyzm in Warsaw, Poland. Please copy and paste this link in your browser for details, http://rozwiazacautyzm.pl/index.php/en/rdi-workshop-main.
    Published 3 Feb 2011 7:32 PM

  • Betty Adkins Published in Autism Classroom Magazine

    Congratulations to Betty Adkins and her colleagues, Daphne Brindle and Heather Partanen, who published RDI 101: The Next Generation of Autism Treatment in Autism Classroom Magazine . To begin the journey back from autism, one must address its core deficits. If not addressed in a systematic manner, these deficits (in the areas of social connectiveness, flexibility in thinking, co-regulation, experience-based communication, and episodic memory) will impact the child’s...
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