DIR/Floortime Course, Potomac, Maryland

Hi all,

I've been absent from blogging for a while, thinking about what to write and how to use this blog. I enjoy reading articles and summarizing them, passing on information, but have begun to think that's too impersonal. How to make an autism blog more personal without compromising the content, particularly when I am not an autism parent? That's the main question I have right now.

I am in Potomac, Maryland, attending the DIR/Floortime Course. I want to learn as much as I can about this method, its science, its techniques, its results...Yesterday was a bit of a blur, as I travelled from room to room, trying to figure out the locations of all my groups, meeting new people over meals, listening to the speakers. Today I will take more notes and blog tonight.

I turned to DIR/Floortime because while I love ABA as a technique, a tool, a method for increasing skills in children with autism, what was missing to me was the emphasis on becoming involved in a relationship with the children. I've seen terrific teachers using ABA AND also engaged in laughing, enjoying, smiling and playing with the children. I've also seen bored teachers simply 'running the programs', then leaving the children alone to wander the room unproductively. There's got to be a better way. When you teach children, you've got to like them first of all...and like to be with them. That's true whether the children are neurotypical or have ASD. So I am drawn to the relationship piece of DIR, and am busily trying to define 'relationship', 'capacities', 'development'.

If DIR/Floortime can enhance a child's development, increase his thinking and relationship skills, teach parents to have fun with their children, then I am all for it. To see a child initiating play, communication, action with an adult or even preferably with another child is a gorgeous thing. So we shall see what happens today!