Special Needs School in New York City

Floortime therapy has gained widespread prominence in the treatment of autistic children not only in the United States but also all around the world because of its simplistic but highly effective approach towards therapeutic play which can be used by both parents and healthcare professionals.

Each child with Autism is different, and because of their varying needs and demands, the therapy to be used is also different for everyone and is adjusted to their personal needs.

Floortime model or the DIR (Developmental, Individual Difference, Relationship-based) model works mainly by stimulating the natural interests of a child. It is one of the many therapy methods and procedures recommended by the National Institute of Mental Health, which also advises pursuing only any one form of therapy at any given time.

The reason for that is most probably the mixing up of therapies and getting the patient somewhat put-off, not to mention the high unreliability in case of developmental scores. Using only any one form of therapy at any given time is deemed the most effective way for therapeutic procedures and also for their effective development and progress monitoring.

Autism generally affects the two most basic but important deficits in children – communication skills and play skills.

Floortime therapy is basically hyperactive play which helps in the total engagement of the child who has difficulties in staying interested and focusing on something singular. It can be done by a licensed therapist, a suitable healthcare professional or even by parents themselves. The main aim is to get the child interested in something that’ll catch his/her attention and gain excitement.

It involves 20-30 minute play sessions where a child’s communication skills are slowly built up step by step. If done by parents, it helps in the bonding between parent and child. Autistic children do not play like regular children, so getting involved with their play on a deeper level is the key to their development. It’ll help the children flourish and the process has shown considerable promise and development during its implementation.

Floortime therapy was developed by Dr. Stanley Greenspan, one of the most decorated child researcher and author in autism history.

When a child is diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), it affects every member of the family, especially the parents. The parents face a tough time coping with the issues of the child which include speech and sensory issues. They fear that their child will be the butt of jokes and ridicule owing to his communication problems and stay away from enrolling him in any school.

Such children with learning disabilities are termed ‘slow learners’ since they don’t develop the necessary skills in the same way as normal children. They may not have the explosion of words like other children. Such children fail to respond when they are called by their name or make eye contact. They also find it tough to understand or predict people’s behavior.

Children with such neurological disorders need special schools to realize their education goals since they don’t fit in regular classrooms of traditional schools. These special schools are equipped with teachers and therapists who are trained in handling such special needs students. Such schools follow a special model to help children with their social, emotional, communicative and developmental challenges. It is known as the DIR (Developmental, Individual Difference, Relationship-Based) model, also known as Floortime.

This therapeutic intervention model was devised by Dr. Stanley Greenspan for helping children with autism and developmental disabilities. This model is used to develop in children a host of skills such as communication skills, social skills, emotional skills, attention skills and problem-solving skills.

The DIR model is used to solve developmental issues in children while Floortime is used with children having developmental, educational, mental- health and emotional disorders.

Let’s break down the DIR Model.

Developmental: If you understand where your child is from the development perspective, it becomes easy to target the areas which need to be worked upon. The Floortime approach has six developmental levels and the main aim is to locate at what developmental level the child is and then guide him to the next level using the Floortime methods.
Individual Difference: This refers to the individual differences which separate which separate one child from the other. Here, a child’s strengths and weaknesses, sensory differences, learning techniques are identified.
Relationship-Based: This model refers to the relationship of the kids with the parents. It encourages parents to use the Floortime techniques with their children every day. This model is used to strengthen the socio-emotional skills of a child.

The Developmental, Individual Difference, Relationship-Based Model (or DIR model) refers to a comprehensive foundational model which utilizes affect-based interactions and experiences corresponding to the unique needs of special students to promote all-round development.

Developed by Dr. Stanley Greenspan and Dr. Serena Wieder, the model aims to discover the true potential of special students by building meaningful connections, and through communication, love and engagement to lay a healthy foundation for social, emotional and intellectual capacities, instead of focusing on isolated skills and behavior.

The DIR model is constructed around three primary insights, regarding the development of mind and the brain, whose details are-

Interaction

The DIR model is based on the premises that language and cognition, along with social and emotional skills are acquired through emotionally meaningful exchanges between the child and the caregiver. Since the brain undergoes rapid development in early childhood years, such interactions are fundamental in providing a sense of connectivity to students.

Researchers believe that lack of connectivity not only affects language and cognitive development of children, but might also hinder their physical growth. While emotions and experiences lead all aspects of development, the objective is to educate special students in a community framework to ensure interactive experiences and relationships.

Varying Motor and Sensory Processing Capacities

Several researches conducted to gain useful insight into processing capacities in early childhood concluded that children differ in their ways of responding to touch, sound and other sensations, which considerably affects their auditory, language, visual-spatial, motor and sequencing abilities.

The objective of the DIR model is to identify those differences to help students adapt across a broad range of abilities, rather than developing skills and behavior separately.

It can be accomplished by tailoring classroom environments to suit the unique needs of special students. Regular counselling sessions with occupational therapists and speech pathologists are also effective in developing individual processing abilities in children.

Interrelated Development

An essential aspect of the DIR model is the inter-relatedness of various aspects of development. Therefore, the effort should be to ascertain how language, social and motor skills are integrated in a child and how the components work together, as a whole, rather than assessing such skills separately.

There is no dearth of behavioral models that target the developmentally deficient areas in children and adolescents who are on the spectrum. However, no model has come as far as the DIR Model in terms of efficacy and popularity. The popularity came only because this model, which was developed by Dr. Stanley Greenspan was sufficient and was able to effectuate noticeable improvements to the deficient areas as well as the challenges faced by autistic children.

Some of the key strategies of the DIR model which can be implemented very conveniently by the parents at home are-

Enumerate some real life experiences of your child’s life which he/she enjoys and play out those experiences using appropriate aids and toys.
Responding to the wishes and desires of your child by pretend play.
Role playing using props, puppets and costumes
Using figures and dolls in games to represent family members
Assigning symbolic definitions for objects in games
Replacing an object with another while using props in games and activities
Suggesting alternative ways to do a particular task/activity and when your child successfully completes the same using the alternate method, praise him/her for coming up with a new idea.
Using obstacles and break downs in the game.
Using figures of your child’s favorite cartoon character or superhero in the games
Employing unconventional ways to help your child overcome his/her fears like introducing the topic or idea gently in a game.
Focusing on the process as you play with your child by identifying the beginning, middle and end.
Reflecting on ideas, themes and feelings in a story and relating them with real life experiences.

These are some simple steps which are a part of the DIR Model that can be implemented by parents of children on the autism spectrum to help the children overcome all sensory, social, verbal, cognitive and intellectual challenges.

Yesterday in the subway, I met a special child. His cute smile, quirky eyes and the lovely voice he spoke in.. He was indeed special. After coming back home, I thought of children like him and realized that we so-called ‘normal’ humans, in chasing what is called a ‘normal life’, have somewhat forgotten about them. Regrettably, some members of our society perceive them as a burden, a problem. But I believe that children with special needs are not a problem at all. In fact the problem lies within our own society who perceives them as abnormal. I feel that all of us have the responsibility to make this world a better place for everyone, including them. A world where they can shape their own lives the way they want. For that, we need to help people become educated and aware of the major developments that are happening in the world of special needs services. Specifically, I recently learned about the DIR model (developed by Dr. Stanley Greenspan) that can help them become the best version of themselves that they can be. Many highly successful members of our society suffered from developmental delays. One example that comes to mind is Stephen Hawking, the famous physicist who became a leader in his field despite his disability.

‘D’ stands for – Developmental. According to the DIR model, there are six developmental levels that are quintessential for a child’s emotional as well as intellectual growth. These include two-way communication, complex communication, emotional and logical thinking, self-regulation and interest in the world, emotional ideas, intimacy, engagement and falling in love. So, ‘D’ denotes the method to identify the developmental stage the child is in and accordingly design his education plan.

‘I’ stands for - Individual differences. The model believes that there are certain unique qualities and talents that every child possesses. Each child is different in the way he/she responds to any given situation. The model thus recognizes and gives due significance to the individual differences that all children have. Hence, their way of learning should also be designed differently. Each child must be dealt with individually and should not be compared to others.

‘R’ stands for - Relationships based. It is an integral component because if you want to be helping a child with their emotional or cognitive development you first need to know how much he/she are comfortable with other children, their parents, caretakers, therapists, etc. This approach focusses on increasing self-esteem as well as the confidence of the child.

Floortime is very crucial element in the DIR model which is used for applying the model into practice. It accredits a greater role to the parents and family members in the development of the child as he/she have an emotional relationship with them. In the words of Stanley Greenspan, “Floortime is the cornerstone; the engine that drives the DIR model and drives the developmental process.

Children presented with Autism Spectrum Disorder largely show incapability of reflecting higher levels of empathy and creative & reflective thinking, no matter how much progress they make academically or with language. Autism is described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-IV) as a mental disorder that displays three critical deficits:

(1) Impaired development of social interactions

(2) Impaired development of communicative abilities and

(3) A restricted range of activities or interests.

The social interaction impairment is usually accompanied by a limited use of non-verbal behaviors (e.g. gestures or facial expressions) that restricts the child from regulating social interactions and communication. The severity of lack of these abilities can differ from person to person and can be dependent on variables like age and developmental level. A child with autism also often fails at developing peer relationships and lacks the ability to experience social and emotional reciprocity.

Dr. Stanley Greenspan developed the DIR Model (Developmental-Individual difference-Relationship Based) for providing care to autistic individuals. This model explains the various kinds of developments that take place during autism spectrum disorders. It acknowledges individual differences in children and puts stress on their unique physiological, psychological, neurological and communication differences. It focuses on relationship based interventions. The concept behind this is that children with autism miss critical developmental milestones that push their ability to connect. Due to these deficits, these individuals have a hard time in reciprocating interactions and therefore in establishing communication that is needed for abstract thinking and high-level social skills.

The DIR model is a comprehensive model that is designed to stress on individual strengths and challenges of each child based on his or her specific processing and developmental needs. It takes into account the child’s and family’s individual profile so to create a handcrafted intervention that is efficient for each child. Each component of the DIR model is based on the philosophy that all learning takes place through interactive relationships.

The DIR model provides the framework for implementing such a focus through daily floor time sessions supporting continuous engagement, symbolic play, thinking of higher order, as well as ongoing problem solving and reality based logical conversations, reflective “talk time”, play dates and friendships.

The kind of focus that the DIR model methodology puts on individuality of each person, therefore, offers a perspective that takes into account the individual’s intrinsic level of interest and then expands on that initial level of motivation to incorporate mutual interest of others. As such, these interventions prove to be highly effective for improving interpersonal skills, communication and personal responsibility in autistic individuals.

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