Schedule

What it's like to spread DIRFloortime in Ukraine.

The importance of developing a professional Ukrainian Floortime community.

Impressive achievements of Ukrainian Floortimers. Difficulty of measuring the result.

What exactly does DIRFloortime develop? In a child, in parents, in a family?

How can parents consciously choose the approach that will help their child's development?  What should doctors know when diagnosing a child and recommending interventions? Let's take a look at how strong the evidence of DIRFloortime is.

Attendees will learn about the efficiency criteria of the DIRFloortime approach. This presentation will be useful for parents of children with ASD and other developmental differences; doctors working with children with ASD; self-advocates.

This presentation will provide an overview on how DIRFloortime® is being utilized more than ever around the world. As the home of DIRFloortime, the International Council on Development and Learning (ICDL) has been challenging how many think about child development and developmental differences such as autism. Many simply focus on the observable behavioral differences, but ICDL and DIRFloortime help us all understand the core developmental processes and how to promote development for all children. Every child deserves the opportunity to develop to their fullest potential and DIRFloortime gives us a way to ensure this happens.

Participants will learn about the core foundation of DIRFloortime® and about the international impact DIRFloortime is having. People from at least 150 countries around the world have obtained DIRFloortime training. This is having a profound impact on how people support autistic children and children with other developmental differences.

Play and Executive Functioning Skills

How to support play in a developmental manner, and why play supports learning

Attendees will learn about functional emotional developmental capacities (FEDCs), gain an understanding of how each capacity creates the foundation and influences the ability to learn, communicate, and be socially active and successful in life. The report will be interesting for parents and professionals working in the field of supporting children's mental health.

Often professionals complain that parents are not interested in the child's development, do not want to attend sessions, do not take responsibility for the child's development, and shift all responsibility onto professionals. Let's look at this relationship between professionals and parents from both sides in order to build a trusting cooperation that will be the basis for interaction between professionals and parents.

The presentation will help attendees understand the views of both sides – professionals and parents. Attendees will learn what difficulties can hinder joint effective work. We will analyze simple, effective and absolutely accessible strategies for building trust between the two parties, how to carefully involve parents and support them. Useful for professionals.

The report on working with parents is an opportunity to summarize the experience of the last two years of working with families.  The purpose of the experimental multimodal group is to support families with children with autism in the context of war and temporary displacement. Regulating and supporting the mental health of parents so that they, in turn, can support their children in trauma and loss, and solve the existential dilemmas of fleeing war or surviving in new circumstances, and ultimately regaining resilience and building new skills. 

Attendees will learn how DIRFloortime strategies can be adapted and used in a variety of settings.

Differences between frustration and manipulation through the perspective of FEDCs. What leads to the emergence of these states. Safely getting through frustration and manipulation together with the child. Child's development and parents' mental capacity (resource).

The report will be useful both for parents of neurodiverse children and for professionals who work with these children. Attendees will learn about the difference between these states, what to do and what not to do to support the child and themselves, and how this can promote development, preserve parents' mental capacity, and improve the parent-child relationship.

1. What are special interests? Why are they important?

2. What you can achieve by joining a child's favorite activity.

3. How do you follow the child in their interest and develop their capacities at the same time?

4. Case studies and developmental strategies.

This presentation will be of interest to both parents and professionals. During the presentation, attendees will learn about the role special interests can play in the life of a neurodiverse child and how Floortime professionals develop children's communication and cognitive skills using these interests.

Hiking can support many aspects of child developments.

Attendees will learn more about the program, perhaps integrate it into their own work and report the results. 

Since the beginning of the war, many families with neurodiverse children have fled abroad. Forced migration is stressful for any person, but for families with neurodiverse children it is even more so. The report covers the problems of refugee families from Ukraine who are living abroad now. The report is based on the author's personal experience in supporting families and children affected by the war in Ukraine.

Listeners will learn about the dynamics of family's adaptation abroad, adaptation crises typical for adults and children; the adaptation crisis in families of children with developmental differences, ways of remote support for such families.

1. My own experience of accepting my child's neurodiversity and my acquaintance with different approaches and methods.

2. Searching for answers in the biographies of people with autism who have managed to socialize and adapt well, studying the experience of previous generations.

3. The influence that previously acquired knowledge and the worldview of the mother of an autistic child have on her choice of a therapeutic approach.

Attendees will learn what influences the choice of mothers when they choose a therapeutic approach for their Child. Parents will be able to see the importance of experiencing emotions, interacting and building relationships – all of which is part of DIRFloortime. And I hope it will be interesting for professionals to learn about the experience of entering therapy from the mother's perspective and see a non-standard view of the techniques used at sessions.

1. Non-verbal means of communication and forms of their manifestation.

2. The role of non-verbal means in different steps of the cycle of communication (opening, maintaining, closing).

3. How non-verbal means of communication are connected to attunement and self-regulation.

4. Case study and demonstration of the theoretical part based on practice.

Attendees will learn about non-verbal signals and their crucial role in establishing communication.

Focus on the Individual Profile to Support Co-regulation, Engagement , a Back-& Forth Flow of Engagement Across a Range of Settings.

• How individual differences (sensory regulation, auditory processing, verbal expression, visual spatial processing and praxis) of the child & the parent/caretaker is important to support relationships.

• How to "tailor your interactions" to the child & caregivers to support relationships .

• The importance of Affect in an interaction, recognizing the dual coding of sensation & emotion.

• Become aware that DIR is more than work in the clinic but can be integrated into every day life in the family, in the park & in the community.

This presentation will be informative for Parents and Clinicians, both DIR informed and for those who are new to DIR.

1. Two main aspects of language acquisition: receptive and expressive.

2. Style of language development by form. Comparison tables. What are gestalt processors (GLP-Gestalt Language Processing)

3. The German concept of “GESPENST” (GHOST) is based on the naturalistic acquisition of speech. Six levels of language acquisition by gestalt processors.

Attendees will learn about the stages of speech development, the nuances of intervention at each stage, and gain some practical experience of working with the form.

Expectations of parents; the limits of competence of a pediatric neurologist; possible medical examinations of a child with differences in psychological and speech development and how useful they are in helping the child.

When and which doctors to contact in case of suspected developmental differences; what kind of help you can expect to receive; what medical examinations can help the child and how.

1. Put a good plan in place. Medications cannot fix a bad plan.

2. There are many non-medication approaches to helping autistic children who have emotional upset or irritability.

3. If medications are used, there are safer, milder medications to try before using more powerful medications. 

This talk is for professionals and families and autistic people alike. Listeners will learn what kinds of approaches they can consider before using medications to reduce irritability, anxiety, aggression, depression, ADHD, and sleep in autism. Listeners will learn about side effects of antipsychotic medications and how to avoid them. This information will help the listener to effectively help autistic people with irritability and upset more safely and avoid some the typical side effects of medications.

How to understand what autistic communication is and whether it's present where it seems that it isn't, due to the different ways it can manifest itself.

What autistic communication looks like and how it differs from neurotypical communication.

1. How the caregiver influences the development of the child's self-regulation.

2. Co-regulation of caregiver and child.

3. How being aware of one's own sensory processing and the child's sensory needs affects co-regulation.

4. The child's physical health and the mental capacity (resource) of the caregiver. 

Attendees will learn what self-regulation is and how co-regulation of the caregiver with the child affects the child's development. How knowledge about oneself (sensory processing, emotions, physical health) can help the caregiver promote the development of the child's self-regulation. Examples from practice.

Family involvement is a critical component of the success of DIRFloortime, as it fosters emotional relationships and provides a supportive environment for child development. Parents can support their children by understanding their individual differences and strengths, building a strong relationship with them and using non-aggressive parenting strategies to manage frustration and aggression. By taking an active role in their child's development, parents can make a significant contribution to their child's progress and overall well-being.

Attendees will learn about the importance of family involvement in children's development. In particular, they will understand the advantages of family involvement and the strategies for empowering parents in this process. The report will emphasize the importance of non-aggressive parenting and provide practical examples of how to respond to "problematic behaviors".

The lecture will be useful for parents of children with autism, as well as professionals working with children with autism.

1. The specifics of working with teenagers within DIRFloortime

2. The importance of individual differences and children's understanding of them

3. Meetings with parents

Attendees will learn about the specifics of supporting teenagers and working online.

• Group activity within playback theater as a space for the development of neurodiverse adults.

• How to use the opportunities provided by group work in a playback performance for the development of FEDCs of adults?

• Analysis of group dynamics and exercises aimed at strengthening self-regulation, quality of contact and interaction, problem-solving, symbolic and logical thinking.

• The art of improvisation is the art of life

Attendees will learn about existing theater practices that provide a wide range of opportunities for the development of neurodiverse people. The presentation will be useful for parents of neurodiverse people, professionals (both DIRFloortime and other fields) who work with neurodiverse people and their families, and teachers who are interested in implementing inclusive projects.

1. Does the child want to communicate with others?

2. What may cause difficulties?

3. Development of communication with peers through the lens of DIRFloortime (observations and experience of DIRFloortime professionals)

4. How to help the child be successful in communication – strategies for parents

Attendees will learn about the organization of group Floortime sessions. Parents will learn how to support their child in communicating with peers, how to create a safe and supportive environment for the development of interaction.

• What is affect and what kinds of affect are there?

• How relationships are born

• Expanding communication with the help of affect

• Speech development – where to start

The report will be interesting for both parents and beginner professionals. It is very important to emphasize the emotional background of relationships and its crucial role in the development of the child. The way caregivers interact with their child should appeal to the baby and encourage the baby to take further initiative. The awakening of interest in the environment, discovering new things, personal experiences and achievements that occur in the process of interaction with parents are what makes development possible.

Goals of DIR Flooritme Summer Camp; Training Floortime Players,  Support for Campers & Players in the Moment; Reflective Supervision each Morning of Camp.

• The importance of Reflective Supervision to Support Floortime Players.

• Ways to support peer interaction in the moment.

• Conflict Resolution with the focus on Brain Body Connection to move from being driven by the body to thinking.

• Flow & development of peer relationships  over the 4 weeks of camp.

This presentation is for Parents and other caregivers including teachers, professional who may be DIR Clinicians and all new to DIR.

The majority of society is wrong about the core idea of DIRFloortime.

The importance of freedom for the development of the child and building a healthy relationship.

The importance of structure for the development of the child and building a healthy relationship.

How caregivers can find and maintain balance.