PHOTO CREDIT: Vika Glitter
On this Episode…
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.
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The make or break is how you react to him, not what he’s doing. It continues to change our life.
This Episode's Highlights
The podcast began with hearing some of the horror stories of dealing with early intervention practices that were less than neurodiversity-affirming and were, quite frankly, demoralizing. Then they found Bridget Palmer. Everything was different, and so comforting. Floortime has been life-changing for these three families. They found something that really worked in parenting their children, helping them understand their children, and finding connection with them. It helped them see the potential in their children and being astounded by things they’ve done.
We stopped feeling like everything is an emergency. It takes that sense of urgency away.
How do we handle this? How do we stay calm? How do we make this more of a back-and-forth and playing together instead of it being a distressing moment.
This episode’s PRACTICE TIP:
Let’s think about how we underestimate what our kids are learning and know.
For example: When you assume your child can’t do something, stop yourself and think again. Can you give them the opportunity to try it? When you assume your child doesn’t understand something, stop yourself and think again. Perhaps they do understand but don’t feel compelled to share that with you until they have a reason to!
I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to these three families for being vulnerable enough to share their stories of finding and embracing Floortime. We all hope that you resonated with their experiences and found something valuable. Feel free to share this episode on social media!
Until next time, here’s to choosing play and experiencing joy every day!
Thank you to Toronto recording artist Ayria for the intro/outro song permission.
