2019 Volume 2019 Issue 29 Pages 581-590
The purpose of this paper was to examine the effect of applying Relationship Development Intervention (RDI) and clarify the feature of the modification processes in a family through RDI. The participants were one family with a child who has Autistic Spectrum Disorder（ASD）. The child was a 6-year-old boy, and he has a sibling. The family have continued to do RDI for the last two years.
Parent-child dyad activities were videotaped three times as Relationship Development Assessment (RDA). Three aspects of relatedness (Larkin, et al, 2010): 1) attention engagement, 2) interactive regulation, 3) interactive engagement, were assessed. And the modification process of the mother’s reflection through 63 video clips with her child in daily life, for example, cooking, making something or cleaning, was categorized. The results are as follows. Firstly, three aspects of relatedness between both parents and the child have changed three times in RDA. Secondly, the contents of the mother’s reflection could be categorized into five groups: 1) positive, 2) negative, 3) analysis, 4) challenge, 5) question. Category “positive” increased while “negative” decreased. During the latter half, she focused on the relatedness with her son more than the individual. Therefore, it was suggested that RDI has influenced the relatedness between the parents and the child. Furthermore, the author discussed the feature of RDI which fosters interpersonal engagement and promotes the affected individuals’ initiative and flexibility and the difficulty of assessment of relatedness.
