How is RDI different from ABA?
A. ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) is a teaching philosophy/strategy with the goal of shaping appropriate behaviors, teaching socially significant skills, and/or extinguishing inappropriate behaviors. The learning paradigm of ABA is skill-based and involves reinforcers to help shape behaviors. The teaching method of ABA is generally directive (instructor)/passive (learner). Although parent involvement is recommended for the best results, in many cases ABA therapy is delivered primarily by outside interventionists. ABA works well for many individuals on the autism spectrum for teaching some skills. However, parents and professionals in many cases find that the individual has difficulty generalizing the skills to new situations and environment. Generalizing, by its nature, usually requires dynamic processing. Also, for areas such as social competence and adaptability to new situations, there are so many dynamic factors involved that it becomes difficult or impossible to teach these compe
