Here is a short summary of the DIR -- Floortime model.
DEVELOPMENTAL
The approach focuses on helping the child climb the developmental ladder and master nine milestones – what are called functional developmental skills – that underlie our intelligence and interactions with the world.
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCE
This refers to the unique way the child processes information – sensory modulation issues (hypersensitive, hyposensitive, or sensory seeking) visual and auditory challenges, and motor skill (gross and fine motor)/motor planning issues.
RELATIONSHIP-BASED
A child’s biological challenges influences how he/she interacts with others ad in turn how parents and other significant people react and interact with him/her.
THE IMPORTANCE OF EMOTIONS
Underlying all this is a theory that places emotions in a primacy position in understand how development occurs. Emotions are the driving force. How well the child establishes intimacy and warmth, communicates with emotional expressions, and uses words and symbols with an emotional intent are considered basic abilities. These abilities when missing, partial, or not functioning in an age-expected manner may indicate that something has gone awry in the developmental sequence while at the same time providing us with a roadmap on how to develop an appropriate treatment approach based on a functional emotional development approach. This approach is different from the usual cognitive remediation approaches both in its focus on emotions and on the careful delineation of functional emotional developmental milestones.
The functional emotional developmental approach gives primacy to the emotions -- emotions lead the way. When we see, hear, touch, taste, smell, and move, we are providing input to our physiological system. Emotions are the first receivers of this input . They are the motivators that drive the child’s interests in the world. It begins simply, the child is aware (level 1) and then emotionally involved (level 2). Soon on the nonverbal level, two way communications begin to take place (level 3). Level 4 is shared problem solving -- signaling what he or she wants. Next the child learns to create mental pictures or images (level 5). And then he or she is able to connect ideas in a logical fashion (Level 6) -- “ I want some cookies, because I am hungry.”
An important level (they are all important but one that causes lots of problems for some children is level 3). In Level 3 children begin to substitute ideas for actions. Instead of hitting, they might say “ I am angry.” Emotions are the key players in all of this and all that follows. Understanding how the emotions shape our thinking is the key component of the developmental approach.
A simple test to see if your child is at level 4 on the developmental ladder is to find out whether he or she is capable of expressing emotions. Watch your child in situations where they do not get what they want or they are upset at someone. For example, your child is mad at his sister and you see the anger (do this before the meltdown because then you move to the no talking stage). You could ask --“how do you feel when your sister upsets you?” If your child says “I am going to hit her” or cannot respond at all and just want to bite, kick, swear, or hit, then he is not showing any ability yet to use emotional ideas in place of actions. If he can say “she makes me mad” or “ I want to hit her,” he may have reached the stage where he can use emotional ideas in place of actions.
One of the first steps in developing a plan of action for your child is to determine at what level he or she is functioning at consistently (they may have moved up the ladder but it is not a stable one and it crashes every time the child feels stressed). So the goal is to determine the lowest level the child is firmly at and develop the major part of the treatment program at that level. All the while you will also be working and strengthening the other partially accomplished levels.
Stanley Greenspan developed the DIR model and had written extensively about it. He died in 2010 shortly after finishing his latest work -- a book called The Learning Tree. In his works,he did not directly address PDA but if one reads across the range of books he published -- challenging children, the child with autism, with ADHD, with childhood mood disorders, with special needs -- one can develop a sense of how the model applies across a wide range of syndromes and how it may be useful in the conceptualization of a treatment program for children with PDA
The website for DIR Floortime is
http://www.icdl.com/dirFloortime/overview/index.shtml
DEVELOPMENTAL
The approach focuses on helping the child climb the developmental ladder and master nine milestones – what are called functional developmental skills – that underlie our intelligence and interactions with the world.
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCE
This refers to the unique way the child processes information – sensory modulation issues (hypersensitive, hyposensitive, or sensory seeking) visual and auditory challenges, and motor skill (gross and fine motor)/motor planning issues.
RELATIONSHIP-BASED
A child’s biological challenges influences how he/she interacts with others ad in turn how parents and other significant people react and interact with him/her.
THE IMPORTANCE OF EMOTIONS
Underlying all this is a theory that places emotions in a primacy position in understand how development occurs. Emotions are the driving force. How well the child establishes intimacy and warmth, communicates with emotional expressions, and uses words and symbols with an emotional intent are considered basic abilities. These abilities when missing, partial, or not functioning in an age-expected manner may indicate that something has gone awry in the developmental sequence while at the same time providing us with a roadmap on how to develop an appropriate treatment approach based on a functional emotional development approach. This approach is different from the usual cognitive remediation approaches both in its focus on emotions and on the careful delineation of functional emotional developmental milestones.
The functional emotional developmental approach gives primacy to the emotions -- emotions lead the way. When we see, hear, touch, taste, smell, and move, we are providing input to our physiological system. Emotions are the first receivers of this input . They are the motivators that drive the child’s interests in the world. It begins simply, the child is aware (level 1) and then emotionally involved (level 2). Soon on the nonverbal level, two way communications begin to take place (level 3). Level 4 is shared problem solving -- signaling what he or she wants. Next the child learns to create mental pictures or images (level 5). And then he or she is able to connect ideas in a logical fashion (Level 6) -- “ I want some cookies, because I am hungry.”
An important level (they are all important but one that causes lots of problems for some children is level 3). In Level 3 children begin to substitute ideas for actions. Instead of hitting, they might say “ I am angry.” Emotions are the key players in all of this and all that follows. Understanding how the emotions shape our thinking is the key component of the developmental approach.
A simple test to see if your child is at level 4 on the developmental ladder is to find out whether he or she is capable of expressing emotions. Watch your child in situations where they do not get what they want or they are upset at someone. For example, your child is mad at his sister and you see the anger (do this before the meltdown because then you move to the no talking stage). You could ask --“how do you feel when your sister upsets you?” If your child says “I am going to hit her” or cannot respond at all and just want to bite, kick, swear, or hit, then he is not showing any ability yet to use emotional ideas in place of actions. If he can say “she makes me mad” or “ I want to hit her,” he may have reached the stage where he can use emotional ideas in place of actions.
One of the first steps in developing a plan of action for your child is to determine at what level he or she is functioning at consistently (they may have moved up the ladder but it is not a stable one and it crashes every time the child feels stressed). So the goal is to determine the lowest level the child is firmly at and develop the major part of the treatment program at that level. All the while you will also be working and strengthening the other partially accomplished levels.
Stanley Greenspan developed the DIR model and had written extensively about it. He died in 2010 shortly after finishing his latest work -- a book called The Learning Tree. In his works,he did not directly address PDA but if one reads across the range of books he published -- challenging children, the child with autism, with ADHD, with childhood mood disorders, with special needs -- one can develop a sense of how the model applies across a wide range of syndromes and how it may be useful in the conceptualization of a treatment program for children with PDA
The website for DIR Floortime is
http://www.icdl.com/dirFloortime/overview/index.shtml