Affect Autism

This episode I welcome back Stephanie Peters and a new guest, Courtney St. Germain. Both are occupational therapists who are DIRFloortime® Expert Training Leaders at ICDL’s DIR® Institute in New Jersey where Courtney is the Program Director. We are discussing their Continuing Ed. article Combining DIRFloortime and Sensory Integration for Children With ASD that was published in AOTA in January, the American Occupational Therapy Association‘s OT Practice magazine. The article focuses on sensory modulation and how combining DIRFloortime® and sensory integration treatment promotes social-emotional 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/2021/03/06/dir-si/Caregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents

Occupational therapist and Developmental, Individual differences, Relationship-based (DIR®) Floortime Trainer Keith Landherr of Little Buddies Pediatric Therapy in the Vancouver suburbs joins us this episode to discuss what sensory integration is and why emotional attunement and respecting the child's sensory experience is essential to it with helpful tips for parents.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/2021/02/27/sensory-integration/Caregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents

One of my biggest revelations from being a Floortime parent that I presented at the DIRFloortime® conference in November was that parents "accept reality". This episode, child and family psychiatrist Dr. Joshua Feder and I discuss why it is so important to emphasize that accepting reality is a process that parents need to be supported in, and the ways in which we can do this.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/2021/02/13/accepting-reality/Caregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents

Emile Gouws joins us this episode as Affect Autism’s first interview with a self-advocate! Emile is a special educator, a PhD student, vice chairman of the National Executive Committee of Autism of South Africa, and represents neurodiversity at the Commonwealth Disabled People’s Forum. It is a true pleasure to have Emile on the podcast and hear about his inspiring journey.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/2021/02/06/inspirationCaregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents

Dr. Gil Tippy has been thinking for years that the education system should just be shut down in order to start over. Then the pandemic hit and it shut down. This prompted him to wonder what people are seeing in education now, how did schools react to having to go online, and what began to be revealed in education? He wrote his upcoming book chapter on the topic "Good Autism Education is Just Good Education" because he wants people to know that there are other ways to educate people than how we are currently educating them and shares his thoughts and ideas.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/2021/01/30/good-edCaregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents

Infant mental health specialist, Colette Ryan returns this episode to discuss cues recognition. What does it mean to send and receive cues in interactions with our children? What factors impact cue reading and sending? How can we record these cues to help others understand our children? How do meaning making and co-regulation play in the mix?Link to the show notes with links to key discussion points and other ways to view or hear the episode here: ⁠https://affectautism.com/2020/12/19/cues/Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network or becoming an Affect Autism member for bonus content and support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: ⁠⁠https://affectautism.com/support/