Affect Autism

The therapy trio from  Baby Steps Therapy, a DIR® clinic  offering physical therapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy in the suburbs of Philadelphia, is here to discuss their collaborative Floortime approach used within their strengths-based studio to support growth within the  Functional Emotional Developmental Capacities (FEDCs). Baby Steps embodies a true DIRFloortime® collaborative.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/2025/02/14/baby-steps/Caregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents

German Psychologist Sibylle Janert is a DIRFloortime® Expert and Training Leader who teaches courses in the UK in English, and in German in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. She also offers Floortime coaching to families over Zoom in both English and German, as well as offering family intensives in her beautiful village. She runs supervisions groups, a mastermind group, and monthly webinars on relevant topics in German. She has also published several books for parents and for professionals about autism from a relationship-based developmental multi-cultural and trauma-informed perspective. Her next book on early exploratory play is due to be published in early 2026. Link to the full blog post with links to key discussion points here: https://affectautism.com/2025/01/31/following/ Caregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents

On this edition of Parent Perspectives, I am interviewing three Buffalo area families about their struggles finding, accessing, and keeping DIRFloortime® services and how it has changed their view of their neurodivergent children and given them hope. Bethany is the mother six of whom two are neurodivergent, one with an autism diagnosis. They range in age from 14 to 32. Heather is the mother of three of whom two are autistic boys and one is a neurotypical girl, ranging in age from 3 to 8. Megan and Mark are the parents of one autistic son who is 7. They are all in Bridget Palmer’s DIR® parent support group, Bridget being a colleague of mine at ICDL who is an amazing DIRFloortime® Expert Training Leader and Speech Language Therapist. Link to the full blog post with links to key discussion points here: https://affectautism.com/2025/01/17/finding-dir/ Caregivers: Consider joining our DIR Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents

This marks the first edition of DIR® Dialogues from Affect Autism! This new podcast will include Practitioner Panels–the first one featuring parent practitioners! DIR® Dialogues will be an addition to the usual podcasts. I hope you will enjoy them! Link to full BLOG post with links to key discussion points here: https://affectautism.com/2025/01/03/dialogues-1/ Caregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents Thank you to Montreal recording artists the Ripcordz for the intro/outro song permission: https://ripcordz.bandcamp.com/track/cant-fool-the-kids

This week my returning guest is DIRFloortime® Expert Training Leader and Licensed Professional Counselor, Mike Fields where he is at several clinics including a Across All Ages, a new Floortime clinic in Avondale, a part of Atlanta. We will be discussing DIR® and the Science of Hope, a topic he presented on at the recent ICDL DIRFloortime® conference in October. This episode is dedicated, in loving memory, to our beloved colleague, Kasheena Holder. Link to the full blog post with links to key discussion points here: https://affectautism.com/2024/12/20/hope/ Caregivers: Consider joining our DIR Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents

This episode we are covering intensives at ICDL's DIR® Institute in New Jersey where families come for a week to just do Floortime and get Floortime parent coaching. My guests are two mothers of two children each. Daniela Bishop is in the Toronto area like me and Samantha Moran is from Colorado. Daniela is a registered nurse who has an 9-year-old daughter and a 5-year-old autistic son. Samantha is a stay-at-home mother of a 6-year-old neurodivergent daughter and a 3-year-old daughter. Link to the full blog post with links to key discussion points here: https://affectautism.com/2024/12/06/intensive/ Caregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents Thank you to Toronto recording artist Ayria for the intro/outro song permission: https://ayria.bandcamp.com/track/the-next-time

This episode my guests are Educator Becky Gottlieb who is the Floortime Intensives Program Coordinator at ICDL’s DIR® Institute in New Jersey, and Occupational Therapist, Gretchen Kamke, who is ICDL’s Accreditation Coordinator. Both are Expert Developmental, Individual differences, Relationship-based (DIR®) Training Leaders who teach certificate courses and mentor professionals as part of ICDL’s Institute team and who were both my Floortime coaches at my intensive with my son this past August. We will be talking about intensives at the DIR® Institute, and next episode I’ll be interviewing two parents who had their own family intensives. Link to the full blog post with links to key discussion points here: https://affectautism.com/2024/11/22/intensives/ Caregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents

My returning guest is Dr. Colette Ryan, an Infant Mental Health Specialist who is an DIRFloortime® Expert Training Leader and part of a group starting up a new Floortime school in Toyko Japan, The Neurodiversity School, as the Floortime Supervisor. Today we are covering a topic near and dear to Colette’s heart, parent self-efficacy, the topic of her recent PhD dissertation. She recently presented on this topic at the 2024 ICDL DIRFloortime® conference. Link to the full blog post with links to key discussion points here: https://affectautism.com/2024/11/08/self-efficacy/ Caregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents

There’s been a lot of talk about how autistic girls are not recognized and diagnosed and on social media around many women being diagnosed as autistic after their children are diagnosed. Dr. Robert Naseef has been diagnosing children and adults with autism since 2008 and especially after the pandemic, he has seen an increase in females seeking diagnosis. This episode we discuss diagnosis and examples of autism in girls and late-diagnosed women. Link to the full blog post with links to key discussion points here: https://affectautism.com/2024/10/25/females/ Caregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents

I am absolutely thrilled to have returning guest, Educator Kasheena Holder back, who is a DIRFloortime® Expert and Training Leader with the International Council on Development and Learning and owner and director of Legacy, an inclusive school in Barbados where about 60 percent of her students are neurodivergent and about 40 percent are neurotypical. Link to the full blog post with links to key discussion points here: https://affectautism.com/2024/10/11/signalling/ Caregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents

Brookes Barrack is a Speech-Language Pathologist and DIRFloortime® Expert Training Leader who has a clinic just outside of Kansas City, Kansas with Occupational Therapist Emily Tritz called Kansas City Developmental Therapies where they offer DIR® services. This summer they became an official accredited DIR® Organization. She originally trained in Floortime at "the Bunker" with Drs. Greenspan and Wieder in Washington, D.C. and in the PLAY Project with Dr. Rick Solomon at his home. This episode we are discussing Gestural development : The D, the I, and the R. Link to the full blog post with links to key discussion points here: https://affectautism.com/2024/09/27/gestures/ Caregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers by going here: https://www.icdl.com/parents