It's the most reasonably priced program available, and for me the only program I've felt really in sync with. The max cost would be $5,000 per year. That's with a consultant. I would, based on a friend of mine, highly recommend getting a consultant. You might be able to go it without one, as for me I couldn't. I really need her.

Now, before you say you can't afford it, which we also couldn't but planned to put on a credit card forever if need be....DO check and see if your school (as with JungleMcButterBabe) pays for it. In our case, it turned out our state (Wisconsin) paid for it.

You get an assessment about every 6 months. As far as I know, consultants will come to your home. I'm guessing they all don't, but so far the ones I've heard about (and the one I have) does. I chose our consultant from the list on the rdi site. She has been twice certified, is one state away BUT the one in our state just started, and I wanted one with experience.

The assessment is the bulk of the cost. You then every other week go to (or if it's far away send video tapes) every other week of 30 minutes of you doing the RDI with your child for the consultant to tell you what you're doing right, wrong, and the consultant is there to answer all your questions. That is $95 for each 30 minutes every other week. So, not hellacious by comparison to anything else I know of. But yes, still costly. Again, see if your state or school district covers RDI. So far, I'm not aware of anyone paying for it out of pocket.

I loved the initial consultation....it took 3 days, and covered things never before covered in any other assesment we'd done. Here is what an assessment covers:

What is a Relationship Development Assessment?

The Relationship Development Assessment (RDA) is an assessment and training process. During the first appointment, the RDA is administered to the child with the child and parent interacting in a structured and fun way with the guidance of the clinician. During this two-hour appointment, the RDA helps measure several areas such as:

Ability to reference others.
Handling transitions and changes
Regulating, coordinating and pacing with others
Level of emotional response and range of emotions
Episodic and emotional memory
Referencing others non-verbally
Attention span
Persistence on a project
Imagination and Imaginary play
Ability to give and receive understanding
Communication style
Integrating others ideas and point of view
Flexible thinking
Ability to reflect on past experiences and anticipate future scenarios
Curiosity

This session is video taped. Following the session the clinician reviews the tape and scores the RDA – this takes about three hours.

The second session is called the hypothesis session. After the RDA is scored, the clinician develops a series of hypotheses regarding what elements are needed for the Relationship Development Intervention (RDI) plan. During the second appointment, the clinician and the child go through parts of the treatment plan to see what parts may need to be adjusted. This session is also video taped and the tape is then reviewed by the clinician. The second appointment takes forty-five minutes to one hour.

During the third session, the clinician reviews treatment plan with the parents. The parents, and other caregivers, are trained in the intervention plan to work on at home. The treatment plan is demonstrated with the child, parents and clinician. This session is also video taped and a copy will be sent to you. The total time for this appointment is 1 ½ hours.

I would recommend learning about RDI yourself, and planning to begin in the new year, 2007. Why in the new year? Because they made changes in the way things will be done, as with any good program, it changes and grows...I think it would be better to start with the new changes being implemented in 2007 rather than now. I'd hesitate to buy any materials from the site, despite me loving the cd I can't justify the money for it seeing as how all these 'changes' are supposed to start in the new year. However, the basics and core of the RDI program will be the same. I just love it...even where it has not helped my son at all (yet) it immediately helped me to finally feel competent as his mother. I mean, wow, what a feeling. Finally.

I do still feel overwhelmed a lot, but it's almost completely adhd related, the autism part isn't nearly as challenging to me as the insane hyperactivity, yeesh.

One more thing...someone (may have been you) was asking about ABA advice. Although I praise RDI to the mountaintops, it will not help with food allergies, or other problems along those lines. So, while I do still swear by RDI being the one thing our kids cannot do without, that does not apply to a child who for instance, has such severe food intolerances or allergies that they cause autistic 'behaviors' and once removed the child would no longer be considered autistic. Does that make sense? So, if you are certain your child's autism is of a neurological nature, go for the RDI head on...but don't forget to look in other areas too. RDI is not a cure all, it's not a quick answer, it's just the thing that for our family makes more sense than anything ever has. And I really from the bottom of my heart feel it would be the foundation of developement for every child on the autistic spectrum. But I do not feel it's the ONLY answer, or ONLY piece of the autism puzzle. If autism were a pizza, I would consider RDI to be the dough - imagine a pizza with no dough???

Mili