Re: floortime

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 12/18/2004 9:58:24 PM Eastern Standard Time,

denisefano@... writes:

Jayne - I have been reading Stanley Greenspan's " The child with

special needs " for six months. It's all about children with

developmental challenges and floortime " playtime " interaction. I am

an avid reader of anything I can get my hands on, but this book is

tedious. It's not mind grabbing, in fact most of his advice is

common sense

Well, it's a lot more complex than that. And often very difficult to find

someone who does it right. But you're right ....the book is extremely

tedious. Reads like a text book. I didn't get my experience and

knowledge on Floortime from Greenspan's book. Stanley Greenspan (Alan's bro

BTW)

is my idol!!! I went to his conference; learned so much and was so rapt;

I plan on going again. However, I learned about FT mostly from Jeanetta

Burpee who gave Maddie private sensory integration therapy for 3 /12 years.

Jeanetta is another one of my idols. She's tremendous (and had done some

work with Greenspan). I stayed for every hour long session each week and

even brought some of my other kids in so Jeanetta could teach them how to do

it too. The biggest message Greenspan wanted everyone to get at his

conference is that with kids with autism and/or MR, you NEED to teach with

AFFECT.

Be bigger than life...VERY noticeable. He talked about ABA/DT and other

approaches also, saying that they are good for kids placed in the severe range

for MR, but that you must always go back to AFFECT. So many teachers and

therapists always approach Maddie so mildly and carefully. I tell them

you have to be bigger than life...and you can do that and still respect her

need for space.

It can be difficult to find someone comfortable doing FT. First of all,

many behavior people are totally against it because you follow the child's

lead. In the beginning, you imitate the child's behavior, which really goes

against the grain of a behavior therapist. But as I've explained to many of

them....GUESS WHAT guys? When we started dangling socks and copying Maddie's

every move, she NOTICED US FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME....she was interested in

what we were doing. The idea is that you mimic the child, and slowly

bring them back into our world. Greenspan believes that the only way to

true

learning is through relationships. We were able to build a relationship

with Maddie doing FT. Let me give you an idea of how it works. Allie

(who is only a year older than Maddie) was fabulous at doing FT (kids have no

inhibitions you know, and could care less about looking silly). I had her

follow Maddie around in her room one day, copying every single thing she did.

It was hysterical. Maddie started doing things just to get Allie to copy

her.....this is called a *circle of communication*. The goal to building

relationships is to get the child to close as many circles of communication as

you can. Closing a circle of communication can happen verbally (as with

some kids) or not, as with a lot of our kids. It happens when the child

responds to what the adult/or in this case, sister, does...therefore closing

the

circle. It can be extremely subtle with our kids, and easy to miss.

Another thing Greenspan does is to USE the object the child perseverates on

to close more circles, instead of taking it away as some other approaches do.

Let me give you an example. I listened to a tape Jeanetta gave me one

day of an evaluation Greenspan was doing with a little boy named Avi who had

autism. Avi's father was telling Greenspan that a big issue for them is

feeding time because Avi perseverates on the timer clock in the kitchen.

They'd tried moving it out of the room and it only led to tantrums. But the

boy

wouldn't eat his food....just would stare at the clock. So Greenspan says,

" USE the clock....pick it up and bring it to Avi....give the clock a taste of

food.....Hey, it's the timer's turn, now it's Avi's turn " . The way we did

it with Maddie when she would perseverate on her ball is to be silly with

it....put the ball on our heads, hide it in our shirt so she comes and takes it

out (a closed circle of communication), bounce it off the wall or the

ceiling. What happened was that she learned how to initiate interaction with

us.

She wanted to PLAY wiht us. I give 100% credit to FT for bringing Maddie

back into our world.

Now I'm a firm believer that you absolutely CAN do a FT approach with

ABA/DT. Maddie's first teacher at Melmark did it, even though she wasn't

aware

she was doing it. ABA/DT has taught Maddie many things, including eye

contact and responding to her name, putting on her own socks and shoes, her

coat,

her school bag. But it doesn't do anything for getting her to WANT to have

a relationship with you. Every time Maddie gets a new teacher at her

school, they are always amazed when I visit, especially with ALlie, to see how

alive Maddie becomes with us....they always think she's *flat*. We not

only get eye contact immediately now, but we place what I call *face games* and

the teachers are stunned. I make wide eyes, wide mouth...she does it too,

then convulses into giggles. I squint my eyes, she copies and same

thing...lots of giggles. And often she initiates it. Now that's what I call

interaction!!!!

Anyway, hope I didn't bore you Jayne. You can read about FT at

_www.floortime.org_ (http://www.floortime.org) but it IS hard to apply it if

you've

never seen it done. They do sell videotapes; may even have them at the

library. He does what they call a DIR (developmental individual relationship

based learning). Back when I thought there was NO PLACE appropriate for

Maddie to transition from EI to, we had spoken with Jeanetta about maybe

setting

up our own DIR at home (would have cost a fortune, but we were desperate).

The idea behind FT is similar to ABA/DT and other approaches, in their belief

in the program being intense. However, I have never believed that

intensity works for Maddie. She needs her space and down time.

So, I hope this helped somewhat.

Maybe one day I'll meet up with you at one of Greenspan's conferences.

;-)

Donna

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 12/20/2004 6:02:25 PM Eastern Standard Time,

Flornce397@... writes:

Donna,

DO you have any other suggestions on eye contact? I was very interested in

the one you gave...really, just a lot more animation? Thanks

Hey Florence,

Yea, lots of animation. If you get that fleeting moment...GRAB it.

Do something HUGE.......make a silly face...DON'T be afraid to be completely

silly. Somersault, come back up and giggle....Peek a Boo was always a

great way for us to get Maddie to make eye contact (in the beginning when eye

contact is raw for your child, you may have to be the first one to pull

away....do it in baby steps). If your child likes to throw a ball back and

forth, bring the ball up to your face before tossing it back....be very

expressive with your facial expressions...the idea is you want the child to be

INTERESTED...to want to look back there. Once we got Maddie's attention by

imitating her (via dangling socks or what not), we would bring the sock or item

up

to our eyes....and make it exciting....HEY MADDIE...wide eyed and

dancy.....get it? WE're at the point now where we just act remotely silly

and she's

IN...cute as can be!!!! I dance, do little motions and she copies

me...it's a stitch!!!! Especially because she giggles along...SEE what I

mean...a

relationship!! I just love Floortime. Heck, it's fun for all..LOL

Donna

[Guest guest]

Thanks Donna, It does help. It should be a very silly Christmas.

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 12/22/2004 7:30:17 AM Eastern Standard Time,

Flornce397@... writes:

Thanks Donna, It does help. It should be a very silly Christmas.

Sure Florence. BTW, every Thursday, Greenspan does a radio program that

you can listen to on his site. I've yet to do it (busy bee), but will get

around to it and report back to you all.

Donna