We chose play from Affect Autism

Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Alex Klein, joins us this episode from Oakland, California where he is both in private practice and works at the Kaiser Oakland Medical Center assessing and providing therapy to both children and adults with neurodevelopmental differences. He trained with Dr. Stanley Greenspan , Jake Greenspan and Tim Bleecker , and also with Dr. Gil Tippy and Tina McCourt at the Re...

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 Janu...

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 po...

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...

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 po...

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...

This episode, I’m speaking with clinical psychologist, Dr. Amanda Kriegel from  Floortime Atlanta  and Morgan Weissman from the  Rebecca School  about their presentation at the recent  DIRFloortime® conference  which was entitled, “ The “R” in DIR: The Heart of Supporting Connection and Growth “. Dr. Kriegel is also a mother of two teens and has been on the  Board of Directors  for the  Internatio...

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 poi...

This episode is part two of a two-part review of my recent  conference presentation  for the  International Council on Development and Learning  (ICDL). Retired special educator and DIR® Expert Training Leader,  Jackie Bartell , joined me to discuss my revelations from being a Floortime parent for 8 years now. We covered the first five revelations last time, and continue with the next five this ti...

Continuing on with the theme of  parent support , this episode is part one of a two-part review of my recent  conference presentation  for the  International Council on Development and Learning  (ICDL). Retired special educator and DIR® Expert Training Leader,  Jackie Bartell , has joined me to discuss my revelations from being a Floortime parent for 8 years now. We will cover the first five revel...

Clinical psychologist, author, and parent,  Dr. Robert Naseef  joins the podcast this episode from Philadelphia for our second podcast together. In our last podcast episode on  ambiguous loss  a year ago we discussed how we can unpack the  why’s  and  what ifs  that parents feel when learning their child is neurodivergent, how to see the strengths in our child, and be the energetic parent our chil...

I’m thrilled to welcome  Chris Hernandez  this episode for the first time after meeting him in March at the NYC DIR® Conference! He is an Ed Tech, coach, instructional designer, and a digital creator. He is also the Media Specialist at the  Rebecca School  in Manhattan, a  Developmental, Individual differences, Relationship-based (DIR®) model  school and he holds a DIR® Certificate from the  Inter...

Bridget Palmer  is a  DIRFloortime® Expert Training Leader  in the  Developmental, Individual differences, Relationship-based (DIR®) model  and a speech-language pathologist in Buffalo, NY. She runs a Floortime parent support group called  Floortime Families  which was in person but is now online during the pandemic. Link to the full blog post with links to key discussion points and other ways to...