10-Week Trial Program | thekateclinic

D.I.R./Floortime 10-Week Trial Program

D.I.R./Floortime is a research-supported, overarching approach to developmental intervention that encourages principles such as play, connection, sensory, and relationships to help children progress in social, behavioral, academic, and language development. Learn the principles and try out the program in this 10-Week Trial Program! See weekly details below.

10-Week Trial Package Includes an FEAS Assessment; 10, 2-Hour In-Home Sessions; Weekly Handouts and Data Collection Programs; 3 Video Consults; and an Individual Program Design Roadmap.

Week 1: Basics/FEAS
The first week we will spend time reviewing a basic overview of D.I.R./Floortime. You will receive a lot of information that we will review in more depth in later weeks. We will also take a 15-30 minute video of you and your child playing together as part of the Functional Emotional Assessment Scale. This will allow the clinician to identify developmental levels, sensory preferences, and relationship strengths. These will be used to develop goals and training for the coming weeks.

Week 2: Regulation & Attention
During the second week, will begin focusing in on goals in the first level - regulation and attention. We will identify priorities and learn tools of the trade that help with regulation and attention. We will go over your child’s sensory profile and consider how to use this information in our interactions.

Week 3: Engaging & Relating
Now that we have the foundation set - with goals and regulation needs identified, we will begin to walk up the ladder increasing engagement in our interactions. We will focus on circles of communication and increasing the number and the quality of these circles. We will also take a video of you working with you child this week which the clinician will review with feedback and ideas.

Week 4: Two-Way Communication
Here we will focus in on how to increase your child’s communicative bids and their initiation and maintenance of social interactions. We will consider how we might strengthen simple communication circles and increase the use language, signs, and gestures in their every day interactions. We will talk about communication needs and how to work DIR/Floortime principles into current speech and language goals and programs.

Week 5: Complex Communication
We will continue to work on communication as a focus this week, considering how communication breaks down with high emotion. We will work on marrying communication and regulation - presenting problem solving situations and working on helping your child push the limit with their communication, engagement, and regulation.

Week 6: Behaviors
We will consider this week how behaviors result from the foundation of early levels. We will identify key behaviors that are difficult for your child and why they appear. We will then consider how to focus on these behaviors using a relationship-based approach that follows the child’s cues, considers the child’s experience, and uses motivating and naturalistic approaches to helping a child gain control over their emotions and behaviors. We will also take a video of you working with you child this week which the clinician will review with feedback and ideas.

Week 7: Peers/Social
We will delve into the world of relationships outside of the caregiver relationship and consider how your child may be able to extend interactions with siblings, friends, and people in the community. We will consider how peers can be used as play partners and how to create engaging and regulating activities that match the needs of multiple children.

Week 8: Symbols, Literacy, and Academics
Will we focus on how your child is doing academically - using symbols, language, reading, and basic academic skills in their daily life. We will talk about ways to maximize learning in a purposeful way, that provides motivating relationships, high connections, play, and meaningful uses to access curriculum and work with symbols.

Week 9: Mixing Programs/Combining Goals
We will spend time this week considering how we might be able to utilize DIR/Floortime principles with the myriad of other programs already at use. Can DIR/Floortime be combined with Speech and Language goals, ABA approaches, Educational Approaches and more? Yes! We will consider the child’s goals and activities in all areas and discuss how to infuse DIR/Floortime principles into every moment! We will also take a video of you working with you child this week which the clinician will review with feedback and ideas.

Week 10: Individualized Recommendations
We will close the program by considering individual recommendations for this child. Where are we on our goals? Would it be effective to do further training, have assistance in running a DIR/Floortime program, training school or other clinicians on DIR/Floortime principles? What are the next steps for your child and how can DIR/Floortime support their continued growth and development in all areas?