RE: acceptance of ``A``, Floortime

[Guest guest]

Floortime was the therapy of choice for my son when he was younger.

However, I have to disagree that it has anything to do with going into their

world, in order to bring them into ours.

It is a play based therapy that is led by the child and their interests.

However modeling proper behaviour with toys is a huge part of the therapy.

I never ever stimmed during floortime with my son. On the contrary, if it

was a car that he wanted to play with then we would play with the car. If he

would only move it back and forth repeatedly, then I would move mine and do

a chewy to act like I was squealing the breaks to avoid hitting his. He

would love that and copy it. I knew how to pull him ahead, while still

taking his lead in what he wanted to do

Furthermore, it is a great therapy for expanding vocabulary because you take

what they are interested in and use it to get their attention. Once you

have the child's attention in a positive way, the manding is next to follow.

What kid doesn't love their parent or caregiver to interact with them in a

positive fun manner! It is a wonderful way to relearn how to play, a skill

that many of us forget as grownups and NT kids have a blast as well.

The techniques I learned I have used again and again at the preschool, in

the neighbourhood, any where I play with kids and they all love it.so much

so that I never end up socializing with the grownups on my street, the young

kids come and call on me to play with them outside, which is great if you

are working on social skills with your own child!

You can Google Dr. Stanley Greenspan, Floortime for more info or check it

out on youtube.

Lori

_____

From: [mailto: ] On Behalf Of

jenniferelrod83

Sent: March-20-11 10:26 PM

Subject: Re: acceptance of ``A``

Hi and All,

I've been lurking and have not properly introduced myself yet (read the

book, trying to decide what to do next), but I want to jump in on this

discussion to say that Wyatt has made excellent progress with Floortime, too

He never leaves me alone anymore. He is always initiating. Just a year

and a half ago, he would not interact with me while he was playing, even

though he would always follow me if I left the room.

I wish I could say his OCD has gone away, but it comes and goes in waves,

and it gets worse from multiple factors including lack of enough sleep,

hypoglycemia, and constipation. We still have a lot of work to do

biomedically. But several times when he has made a quantum leap in his

communication skills or social skills, he has gone through an intensive OCD

phase where we spend hours interacting around his fixations. And then he

comes out of it and transfers his new skills to more varied and

sophisticated pl ay. Right now he seems to be honing his social turn-taking.

He really, really wants to take turns with me - and lots of them. His

attention span is becoming really long. And it's beautiful to see it get

transfered to things besides his obsessions, as it is now starting to be.

Thankfully he's getting bored with lights and he played with me with his

stomp rocket for a long time today, going as long as he does with his

fixations. I've never seen that kind of attentiveness before, and it was

totally driven by h im with no prompting from me.

For those who aren't familiar with Floortime, its mantra is that to bring

them into our world, first we have to play with them in their world. It is

child-led, but the parent or therapist is always challenging the child while

being led by them. The reason why it is child-led is because that way the

child is motivated and things are emotionally meaningful to them. Here's

what that can look like.

When he was at his worst with his fixation on lights, his speech therapist

brought over a toy that had gears that went around in circles and lit up

while playing music. She would turn the button off on the bottom of the toy

and dump all the gears off. He'd try to turn it on and when it wouldn't

light up, he'd say, " Uh oh, broken. " She'd say, " Can you fix it? " And he'd

have to put all the gears back on. After they were all on, she'd turn it on,

without him noticing. While he was putting t he gears on, she'd have him

choose which color, indicate whether he wanted one or two gears, say the

word " gear " and other things. She would put her hand on the gears until he

said, " Move " . She would have him put a stuffed animal on the gears to go for

a ride on them. While he was busy " fixing " his gears he learned about colors

and numbers, he learned to say several words, he learned to be assertive

( " Move! " ), and he learned the concept of " fix " . More import antly, he

learned to think dynamically and to problem-solve. Most importantly of all,

he was engaged, and in the parlance of Floortime, the ST got lots of

" circles of communication " out of the activity.

This is one way to play with a child in a way that is led by them without

being passive. There are numerous other ways to do that.

>

> I just need to say thay you really need to have a proper consultant and a

firm background in these therapies before you can really see if they work or

don't work.

>

> I, for instance, love the idea of RDI. I read the book and thought the

program had a lot of good qualities that could really help my son. I didn't

want to hire a consultant though so I just added it to our floortime

program. What a freaking mess! Mason had no idea what I was doing, I had no

idea what I was doing, and it really just confused him further.

>

> My point is that in order to say a therapy works or does not work you cant

just read the book, or hear the concept, and say it doesn't work. It needs

an investment in time and understanding before being able to fully apply the

concept.

>

> The notes about stimming. I just want to clarify. My son when he was first

diagnosed could not tell we were even in the room. He had a ridiculous

regression from typical toddler into severe autism within 2 months. We could

jump and dance in front of him and he wouldn't notice. He was too busy

stimming. We could however do ABA with him no problem, put a block in his

hand and tell him to put it in the bucket, sure, he got the concept. But

really he was doing it just so we would stop bothering him . We quickly

realized he needed something different. Even his ABA consultant recommended

something like floortime, sonrise, or RDI- they are all developmental and

not behavioral therapies.

>

> So, we started approaching Mason differently. While he was pulling things

out of drawers we would do it with him. The point is not about stimming, it

is just about joining them in their world. He loved it, felt like we were

doing something together, and then he would start to play with me doing

something else. If the goal is just for them to stop stimming then you are

not focusing on the root of WHY they are stimming. They are stimming because

something in their sensory system is off and they are going into their own

world. The goal is to gradually, and happily, pull them from their world

into ours. They don't stim when they are engaged in our world. They stim

when they are disengaged and in their own world.

>

> I hope that makes sense, because it can really be helpful. My son is a

success story of floortime. He has gradually come into our world. He is now

happy to play with us and engagement is not difficult. He rarely stimms, but

if he does it is normally due to a medical issue or a sensory issue that is

throwing him off balance. Now if he stimms he will spin in circles, so I

pick him up and we spin in circles together, or we play ring around the

rosie. He forgets about stimming and he plays with me. He is three so this

is developmentally appropriate play. We also do an ABA preschool, and now

that he is engaged it makes his therapy a lot more beneficial. He still is

autistic, but is functioning at a much higher level than he was.

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

It seems we agree on the main point that although Floortime is child-led, it is

not passive - that it is always challenging them to take one more step into

their zone of potential. It's wonderful that you do Floortime with all the

neighborhood kids!

>

> Floortime was the therapy of choice for my son when he was younger.

> However, I have to disagree that it has anything to do with going into their

> world, in order to bring them into ours.

>

> It is a play based therapy that is led by the child and their interests.

> However modeling proper behaviour with toys is a huge part of the therapy.

> I never ever stimmed during floortime with my son. On the contrary, if it

> was a car that he wanted to play with then we would play with the car. If he

> would only move it back and forth repeatedly, then I would move mine and do

> a chewy to act like I was squealing the breaks to avoid hitting his. He

> would love that and copy it. I knew how to pull him ahead, while still

> taking his lead in what he wanted to do

>

> Furthermore, it is a great therapy for expanding vocabulary because you take

> what they are interested in and use it to get their attention. Once you

> have the child's attention in a positive way, the manding is next to follow.

> What kid doesn't love their parent or caregiver to interact with them in a

> positive fun manner! It is a wonderful way to relearn how to play, a skill

> that many of us forget as grownups and NT kids have a blast as well.

>

> The techniques I learned I have used again and again at the preschool, in

> the neighbourhood, any where I play with kids and they all love it.so much

> so that I never end up socializing with the grownups on my street, the young

> kids come and call on me to play with them outside, which is great if you

> are working on social skills with your own child!

>

> You can Google Dr. Stanley Greenspan, Floortime for more info or check it

> out on youtube.

>

>

>

> Lori