PHOTO CREDIT: @TherapyKeeper
Episode 295
On this episode, number 295, DIRFloortime® Expert Training Leader Kerri Ciskowski joins us to discuss different parent play personas she sees in her clientele. Kerri has been an occupational therapist for 20 years. She does in-home support in central New Jersey through her service Therapy Keeper and now has a DIRFloortime® studio as well for families who are typically raising autistic kids.
You can also subscribe on your preferred podcast app by searching, “We chose play from Affect Autism”
The Ten Play Personas
Everything in Floortime is relational, so Kerri likes to figure out how to be useful to a family in figuring out what feels like a fluid process and where there is friction. She sees these reoccurring themes with her clients and likes to provide support by being curious without judgment. Kerri wants to inspire reflection and intentionality with these profiles.
1. Obligatory Fun Factor
2. Playtime Referee
3. Chaos Catalyst
- Example of a parent learning to move away from being a referee towards an Attuned Player.
- Facilitating interactions between siblings
- Functional Emotional Developmental Capacity (FEDC) 4: Complex Communication and Shared Problem-Solving
- Developmental capacities in Floortime
- Floortime as a Family Approach
- Working on “reading the room”
- It’s all about affect
- Recognizing and shaping intent
4. Overthinking Player
5. All-Star Enthusiast
6. Momentum-Lost Player
- Parent Self-Efficacy
- Reading communication cues
- I in the DIR model: Individual differences
- Understanding your own interaction with your child
- Creating a clear, predictable schedule for your play time to create clear expectations
7. Verbal Overflow Contributor
8. Attuned Player
9. Playtime Outsourcer
10. Distracted Companion
- We Chose Play: Raising an Autistic Child to Thrive and Feel Understood
- Having self-compassion
- Working on predictable schedules to make play time with others clear to the child, including scheduling a planned “parallel screentime”
- Constrictions in our FEDCs
Play Personalities
After we recorded this episode, Kerri and I attended ICDL’s virtual DIRFloortime Conference where one of the presentations included a reference to the National Institute for Play and their Play Personalities, which you might find interesting.
Closing Remarks
We talked about other personas of a player who is a Director who directs the play instead of being present and curious, letting the child initiate. Kerri brought up the parent who is a Quizzer who asks questions that the child knows the response to, which can be helpful as a regulation tool in a doctor’s waiting room, but in general doesn’t provide meaningful interaction.
Connect with Kerri
This episode’s PRACTICE TIP:
Let’s reflect on our play personas we have with our child.
For example: Do you see yourself in any of Kerri’s 10 profiles? Do you resonate with more than one? Take the time to reflect on when you can be the Attuned Player.
Thank you to Kerri for sharing these insights on parent play personas! If you found this episode helpful and informative, please consider sharing it on social media!
Until next time, here’s to choosing play and experiencing joy every day!
