We were recently invited to attend the Floortime Coalition of California’s Fourth Annual DIR/Floortime® Conference: From Research to Practice, in Lafayette, California, and thought our community members might be interested in what the conference speakers had to say. (We are sharing rather than endorsing DIR-specific information.) For those unfamiliar with The DIR® Model, or Developmental, Individual-Differences, Relationship-based Model: it is “an interdisciplinary framework for assessment and intervention developed by Drs. Stanley Greenspan and Serena Wieder. It is used to guide parents and professionals in designing a program tailored to each child’s unique strengths and challenges and support developmental progress.” We live-tweeted most of the conference speakers’ talks, and collated those tweets into Storify posts for easier reading. We’ve pulled out a quote from each speaker to give a sense of their presentation. There is so much potentially useful information in these talks about rethinking parents’ roles, parent/child & therapist/client relationships,…
Tag: Floortime
Jennifer Minnelli, M.S., CCC-SLP www.autismsphere.com When your child first gets diagnosed with a developmental disorder, you, as a parent, are in a very vulnerable place. Regardless of your area of professional expertise, it’s almost as if you start over again, as a beginner. A beginner to parenting, and a beginner to this new world of diagnoses, specialists, medications, teacher opinions, and therapists. When we started down the road of diagnosis for my quirky oldest child, I was reluctant. It was hard for me to submit to other peoples’ opinions, when I felt I knew exactly what was going on with her and how it should be treated. Also, I felt, I knew the dark under-belly of the world of allied health professions. Several years out in my career, I had already worked in a variety of settings, from public school to inpatient hospital, and everything in between. I had worked…
Sara Chapman, MA www.playconnectlearn.com Navigating the world of autism is no easy task for parents, particularly with so much information — and misinformation — currently available. Parents spend hours searching for what is best for their child, understandably so, often confused or uncertain about what will truly help their child learn, develop, and grow into a warm, independent, and emotionally connected individual. The DIR®/ Floortime™ model provides a framework for helping parents better understand their child and to re-establish those early connections that once seemed lost or unattainable. It is about finding the “gleam in the eye” and falling in love with your child all over again, no matter what your child’s challenges might be. In turn, this will lead to healthy foundations for social, emotional, and intellectual development. What is the DIR® Model? The DIR® Model, or Developmental, Individual-Differences, Relationship-based Model, is an interdisciplinary framework for assessment and intervention…