Who wants to jump into a cool pool on a hot summer day? Your child does! Since play is the main way a child learns, giving your child aquatic tasks designed with play in mind can be both fun and therapeutic! Aquatic therapy has been around since ancient times. The therapeutic benefits of the water are tremendous. While submerged in water we feel effects that mimic weightlessness. Exercising in the water provides relaxation and gives both proprioceptive and calming input. By adding some well-planned activities and games to your child’s summer routine, you can increase muscle strength, endurance, balance, and work on social skills. Coordination in all body areas can also improve greatly with pool games. Adding peers into the summer fun can also help our children with special needs to build confidence and lasting friendships.  · While there are a variety of products specifically marketed for aquatic therapy, you can easily duplicate them with a little creativity. Swim vests are critical if your child is not a confident swimmer. The added security of the vest is a good way for children to build up their confidence slowly. Aqua vests can be purchased at local swim stores or at websites such as aquagear.com orswimoutlet.com. · Purchasing a few differently textured pool noodles is a must. Since the skin is the largest organ in our body, providing a variety of textures is important. The more variety you can find in the shape and texture, the more different tactile (feeling) experiences...

Your child can have fun and benefit from therapeutic water play with creative activities that improve strength, balance, and social skills.

Fun and Therapeutic Water Play in Your Own Backyard or Neighborhood Pool

 The genius of Dr. Stanley Greenspan, author of the Developmental, Individual Differences, and Relationship model (DIR), laid in his ability to understand the development of the natural human mind and applying this progression to a model with techniques that actually work. Many families complete formal Floortime sessions in their home, though most of them also learn to apply the principles throughout the day. Though there are many techniques to Floortime; in this article we will highlight a few favorite ones.     Waiting   on the child seems such a simple concept, and we all like to think we are doing it, but if we objectively reflect on an interaction, we realize how many times we repeat an instruction or a question simply because we are “waiting too long” for a response. This judgment reflects more on our own patience than the actual processing speed the child needs to execute. To really wait on a child to process what he heard auditorily, then retrieve his response from the different storage files in his brain, after which he has to order his language sequentially, and then to send this formulated message to his vocal and facial musculature to be expressed, is a much longer affair for some children than for others. If we jump in too quickly with more words, more language, more expectation, we frequently add anxiety to the child’s performance, which may cause the child to retreat or give up, or simply answering a short...

Article explains Floortime, a technique by Dr. Greenspan for child development, focusing on waiting, pacing, and less language use.

Applied Floortime

 Lee R. Chasen’s book  Social Skills, Emotional Growth and Drama Therapy  is the resource for the clinically proven approach to enhance social and emotional growth for children on the autism spectrum.    Chasen gives a thorough introduction to pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) and how positive intervention like drama therapy can be the greatest treatment.   Drama therapy works by firing mirror neurons; through reenactment of dramatic circumstances, children are able to delve deeper into a “level of self-perception and social understanding regarding those circumstances.” Theatre visionaries such as Aristotle and Shakespeare knew of theatre’s ability to mirror real-life situations, long before neuroscience began. Drama is an art form but also inspires personal and social action.   Drama therapy itself emerged in the 1970s and includes role-playing, directing, scripting, improvisation, costume, set design, and other forms of creative expression. Drama therapy gives children with autism a chance for self-expression, positive attention from peer groups, and cognitive and emotional development.   Chasen describes drama therapy and exactly how it benefits children with autism by using his own experiences and facts from research literature. The book even describes treatment interventions and provides enough detail that therapists can use the book as a resource for starting their own drama therapy programs.    Told in a thoroughly engaging manner (as you might expect from a dramatist), readers will love Chasen’s story of turning a 2000-square-foot basement into a therapeutic center for individuals with autism. Through...

Lee R. Chasen's book promotes drama therapy as an effective tool for social and emotional development in children with autism.

Product of the Week: Social Skills, Emotional Growth and Drama Therapy

Often children who have been derailed by developmental delays like autism present for treatment with very poor or no apparent play skills. There is an equally low level of interest in engaging with play partners. This has led to a pessimistic view by psychiatric clinicians of the play capacities of children with developmental challenges. While currently there is no cure for autism, a neurological disorder that can impact multiple systems in a child’s neurophysiology, and which, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, impacts 1 in every 91 children, there is hope. DIR/Floortime is a developmental play therapy technique that has the capacity to reach a variety of children impacted by autism. Stanley Greenspan, a child psychiatrist in the Washington, D.C. area, designed a modern developmental/relationship-based model that helps chil- dren with a variety of problems. He called it DIR (developmental, individual-differences, relationship-based model) or, in practice,”Floortime” and made the approach available to the public with his colleague Dr. Serena Wieder in their book The Child with Special Needs (1998). In it, Drs. Greenspan and Wieder emphasize that success with any child is based on the ability of the play partner to meet the child on his developmental level, strengthen potential underlying neurological elements that may be impeding development and emphasize the critical emotional connection between the impacted child and the other player. The term Floortime refers to the actual process through which therapists, parents, and other caregivers make a special effort to tailor interactions to meet the...

DIR/Floortime is a play therapy for autistic children designed to build skills by meeting them at their developmental level.

DIR/FLOORTIME: A Developmental Approach to Play Therapy for Children Impacted by Autism Treatment

Often children who have been derailed by devel-opmental delays like autism present for treatment with very poor or no apparent play skills. There is an equally low level of interest in engaging with play partners. This has led to a pessimistic view by psychiatric clinicians of the play capacities of children with developmental challenges. While currently there is no cure for autism, a neurological disorder that can impact multiple systems in a child’s neurophysiology, and which, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, impacts 1 in every 91 children, there is hope. DIR/ Floor Time is a developmental play therapy technique that has the capacity to reach a variety of children impacted by autism. Stanley Greenspan, a child psychiatrist in the Washington, D.C. area, designed a modern develop- mental/relationship-based model that helps children with a variety of problems. He called it DIR (developmental, individual differences, relationship-based model) or, in practice, “Floor Time” and made the approach available to the public with his colleague Dr. Serena Wieder in their book The Child with Special Needs (1998). In it, Drs. Greenspan and Wieder emphasize that success with any child is based on the ability of the play partner to meet the child on his developmental level, strengthen potential underlying neurological elements that may be impeding development and emphasize the critical emotional connection between the impacted child and the other player. The term “Floor Time” refers to the actual process through which therapists, parents, and other caregivers make a special effort...

DIR/Floor Time is a developmental play therapy for children with autism, fostering engagement and building relationships.

DIR/FLoor Time: Play Therapy For Children with Autism

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Special Needs
Articles

Fun and Therapeutic Water Play in Your Own Backyard or Neighborhood Pool

Applied Floortime

Product of the Week: Social Skills, Emotional Growth and Drama Therapy

DIR/FLOORTIME: A Developmental Approach to Play Therapy for Children Impacted by Autism Treatment

DIR/FLoor Time: Play Therapy For Children with Autism

Find Providers Near You

Special Needs Articles

Fun and Therapeutic Water Play in Your Own Backyard or Neighborhood Pool

Applied Floortime

Product of the Week: Social Skills, Emotional Growth and Drama Therapy

DIR/FLOORTIME: A Developmental Approach to Play Therapy for Children Impacted by Autism Treatment

DIR/FLoor Time: Play Therapy For Children with Autism

Find Providers Near You

Special Needs
Articles