Affect Autism

Emile Gouws joins us this episode as Affect Autism’s first interview with a self-advocate! Emile is a special educator, a PhD student, vice chairman of the National Executive Committee of Autism of South Africa, and represents neurodiversity at the Commonwealth Disabled People’s Forum. It is a true pleasure to have Emile on the podcast and hear about his inspiring journey.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/2021/02/06/inspirationCaregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents

Dr. Gil Tippy has been thinking for years that the education system should just be shut down in order to start over. Then the pandemic hit and it shut down. This prompted him to wonder what people are seeing in education now, how did schools react to having to go online, and what began to be revealed in education? He wrote his upcoming book chapter on the topic "Good Autism Education is Just Good Education" because he wants people to know that there are other ways to educate people than how we are currently educating them and shares his thoughts and ideas.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/2021/01/30/good-edCaregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents

I’m thrilled to welcome Chris Hernandez this episode for the first time after meeting him in March at the NYC DIR® Conference! He is an Ed Tech, coach, instructional designer, and a digital creator. He is also the Media Specialist at the Rebecca School in Manhattan, a Developmental, Individual differences, Relationship-based (DIR®) model school and he holds a DIR® Certificate from the International Council on Development and Learning (ICDL), the home of DIRFloortime®. Everyone kept telling me I had to meet Chris who does the Rebecca Listener podcast. The more I learned about what Chris does, the more I realized I had to share it all with the DIR® world!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/2020/11/15/media/Caregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents

Bridget Palmer is a DIRFloortime® Expert Training Leader in the Developmental, Individual differences, Relationship-based (DIR®) model and a speech-language pathologist in Buffalo, NY. She runs a Floortime parent support group called Floortime Families which was in person but is now online during the pandemic.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/2020/11/01/parent-supportCaregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents

DIRFloortime® Expert Training Leader and developmental and clinical psychologist, Kathy Platzman from Floortime Atlanta is here to cover a few topics: the transdisciplinary approach, parent guilt, and navigating social circles for parents with neurodivergent children--a question from a Patron.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/2020/10/25/navigatingCaregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents

Dave Nelson's son's needs were not being met by the public school system, so he started a school for him. Come hear Dave's incredible story about starting Threshold Community Program that serves adolescents and young adults with developmental differences including autism using the DIRFloortime® approach, or the Developmental, Individual differences, Relationship-based (DIR®) model.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/2017/10/23/threshold-community-program/Caregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents

This topic comes up when people haven’t heard of DIRFloortime®. They ask, “What about research? Can we justify this approach with research?” ⁠Dr. Diane Cullinane joins us this episode to review some of the research supporting DIRFloortime. She is a developmental pediatrician and an Expert DIRFloortime® practitioner in South Pasadena, one of the founders of the⁠ DIR® Coalition of California⁠ which advocates for DIRFloortime® and the author of Behavioural Challenges in Children with Autism and other Special needs: The Developmental Approach⁠. Dr. Cullinane wrote a white paper summarizing the research to date in 2017 which is on the research page of the International Council on Development and Learning. 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/2020/10/11/research/Caregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a like-minded community of Floortimers here: https://www.icdl.com/parents