Affect Autism

This topic comes up when people haven’t heard of DIRFloortime®. They ask, “What about research? Can we justify this approach with research?” ⁠Dr. Diane Cullinane joins us this episode to review some of the research supporting DIRFloortime. She is a developmental pediatrician and an Expert DIRFloortime® practitioner in South Pasadena, one of the founders of the⁠ DIR® Coalition of California⁠ which advocates for DIRFloortime® and the author of Behavioural Challenges in Children with Autism and other Special needs: The Developmental Approach⁠. Dr. Cullinane wrote a white paper summarizing the research to date in 2017 which is on the research page of the International Council on Development and Learning. Link to the full blog post with links to key discussion points and other ways to view or hear the podcast here: https://affectautism.com/2020/10/11/research/Caregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents

Italian evolutionary psychologist, functional psychomotorist and DIRFloortime® trainer Serena Suman shares her insights on using individual differences in the sensory system and sensory processing to inform Floortime in the pool and all of the benefits it brings in promoting a child's development.Link to the full blog post with links to key discussion points and other ways to view or hear the podcast here: https://affectautism.com/2020/09/28/pool/Caregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents

Jehan Shehata-Aboubakr joins us this episode. She is a Speech-Language Pathologist at Clinical Communication Consultants in Thornhill, Ontario (just north of Toronto). She is a DIRFloortime® Expert Training Leader faculty with Profectum. We did an episode last year on scripting and she’s back today to discuss what to expect from developmental, relationship-based speech-language therapy.Link to the full blog post with links to key discussion points and other ways to view or hear the podcast here: https://affectautism.com/2020/08/31/slp/Caregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents

 Dr. Stephen Porges joins us this episode to discuss the Polyvagal Theory, its implications for autism and the quarantine, and its therapeutic listening application, the Safe and Sound Protocol, which was designed to restore a calm physiological state.Link to the full blog post with links to key discussion points and other ways to view or hear the podcast here: https://affectautism.com/2020/08/24/polyvagal/Caregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents

Advanced DIRFloortime® practitioner Stephanie Peters joins us this episode to discuss the phase that those new to Floortime go through, especially when coming from other approaches to autism supports. Stephanie is an occupational therapist and has been coaching parents online during the pandemic. We discuss the differences in the way we see our neurodivergent children and how that affects our relationship with them and their capacity to thrive.Link to the full blog post with links to key discussion points and other ways to view or hear the podcast here: https://affectautism.com/2020/08/10/realizationCaregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents

Colette Ryan joins us this week to discuss meaning making. She is a Expert Training Leader in the Developmental, Individual-differences, Relationship-based (DIR) Model with the International Council on Development and Learning (ICDL), the Parent Support Specialist at ICDL’s DIR Home Program, a New York State endorsed infant mental health therapist, and an infant mental health fellow at Montclair State University in New Jersey working with Dr. Gerry Costa.Link to the full blog post with links to key discussion points and other ways to view or hear the podcast here: https://affectautism.com/2020/07/27/meaning/Caregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents

DIRFloortime® Expert Training Leader and mental health professional, Gene Christian returns to interview Daria Brown, the person behind Affect Autism. She has a Masters degree in Personality Psychology, holds an DIRFloortime® Advanced Provider certificate from the International Council on Development and Learning (ICDL), and has been a researcher in the public sector in health and education for over 25 years. She shares her story about finding Floortime, creating Affect Autism, and how it brought her hope and inspiration in raising her autistic son.Link to the full blog post with links to key discussion points and other ways to view or hear the podcast here: https://affectautism.com/2020/03/29/meet-daria/Caregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents

DIRFloortime® Expert Training Leader, Clinical Psychologist, founder of the developmental transition service called Dirty Hands Developmental Alliance, and co-author of Respecting Autism, Dr. Gil Tippy, returns this episode. We are discussing an important distinction: that between the strategies that we use to get through day-to-day activities versus actual developmental work that supports our child’s growth. Link to the full blog post with links to key discussion points and other ways to view or hear the podcast here: https://affectautism.com/2019/12/09/growth/Caregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents

Clinical psychologist, author, and father, Dr. Robert Naseef joins us to discuss the ambiguous loss parents feel when their child is diagnosed with autism and how to move that towards acceptance of the child you love, while making a difference in their life and becoming a better person because of it.Link to the full blog post with links to key discussion points and other ways to view or hear the podcast here: https://affectautism.com/2019/11/11/acceptance/Caregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents

This episode, we follow up our feature on schools that are using the Developmental, Individual differences, Relationship-based (DIR®) model, or DIRFloortime®, by interviewing Jackie Bartell, DIRFloortime® Expert Training Leader about applying the model in a public school setting for children with developmental differences including autism.Link to the full blog post with links to key discussion points and other ways to view or hear the podcast here: https://affectautism.com/2017/10/30/public-school/Caregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents

This episode, Licensed Mental Health Counselor and DIRFloortime® Expert Training Leader, Gene Christian in Spokane, Washington is back with us to reiterate the importance of the preverbal affective gestural system to development. Gene says that this preverbal affective signalling, or nonverbal communication, was the most important aspect of the Developmental, Individual differences, Relationship-based (DIR®) model to Dr. Stanley Greenspan, especially in the first four functional emotional developmental capacities (FEDCs).Link to the full blog post with links to key discussion points and other ways to view or hear the podcast here: https://affectautism.com/2019/09/30/preverbal/Caregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents