Autism Thoughts: Quick thought: ABA, DIR/Floortime, and Play

Welcome!

Does the world need one more autism blog? I think so. There is so much to be considered, so many points of view,and ways to think about the best ways to educate and live with children on the autism spectrum. In this blog, I plan to add my thoughts, writing, and musings. I welcome comments and thoughtful discussion. Although I am not a parent of a child on the spectrum, I have over 30 years' experience in the field from several perspectives. I still have the same energy for the education of children on the spectrum as I did in 1974 (I think!). Hope to hear your thoughts.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Quick thought: ABA, DIR/Floortime, and Play

Today I had the opportunity to attend a good workshop conducted by a colleague who is extremely well-versed in ABA....just about all my colleagues in the Autism Spectrum Disorders program were there, new hires and very experienced staff. The workshop was on Discrete Trial Training. (I often wonder why teachers don't cringe at the notion of "training" their students, rather than educating them, but that's just me).

Now that I have completed two Floortime classes, one Summer Institute and am on my way to becoming DIR/Floortime certified, (in addition to my teacher certification and ABA certification) I am more alert to the way we treat children and the importance of guiding children on the spectrum to play constructively. While I sat with about 25 ASD teachers and assistance while we were all being "trained" to do discrete trials, I became nervous. How can I as one person, with both points of view (ABA and Floortime) have an impact? Am I just a drop of water in a very large pond? I think that ABA is here to stay and needs to find its place; I also think we as educators need to expand our thinking about what constitutes 'teaching', 'training', and 'learning'.

And I don't mean this next statement to be inflammatory, but I am wondering if people are drawn to ABA because it is simple, it's fairly easy to learn (at least at the beginning stages), and by taking meticulous data ad graphing it, they can see a child making progress, albeit slow. It is harder to measure progress in Floortime, harder to see the results.

So I think my question for this blog this year is: How do we meld the two? Or, perhaps it is, how do I meld the two?

2 comments:

ÄitiSep 2, 2010 06:07 PM
I have another thought: if ABA attracts a certain type of personality/teacher (which I think it does) and other methods, such as DIR/Floortime attract a different type, there's a layer beyond the differences in the methods which needs to be brought to light in order to facilitate dialogue.

I'll be interested to see how this process goes for you. I was grappling with this question in a more general way (how to integrate not only Floortime, but any other methods and not just ABA) when I left teaching almost ten years ago. I'm a little discouraged that there hasn't been a more significant shift in the pedagogy in that time.
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Susan GurrySep 14, 2010 02:58 PM
Shirley,

Yes, I agree. I am hoping to do a small study interviewing ABA and DIR people, trying to get at that layer beyond the differences in methods...And yes, it is somewhat sad that there hasn't been a more significant shift in pedagogy in ten years. ABA is getting more and more strong....

I wonder if the lack of shift in pedagogy is a result of people getting older and not craving learning new things anymore...being satisfied with what is, rather than what might be.
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