AUTISTIC Viewpoints⁠⁠ is a new podcast hosted by ⁠⁠Turrell Burgess⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Daria Brown⁠⁠. Two autistics, very different, yet aligned on many values. Join their conversation by tuning in to hear their viewpoints on topics from DIR® to professional sports, food, and pop culture to neurodivergent relationships and more! Learn more at ⁠⁠https://affecta…

Here is the trailer for our upcoming podcast, AUTISTIC Viewpoints, hosted by Turrell Burgess and Daria Brown. Two autistics, very different, yet aligned on many values. Join their conversation by tuning in to hear their viewpoints on topics from DIR® to professional sports, food, and pop culture to neurodivergent relationships and more! Learn more …

Dr. Angel Belle Dy is a DIRFloortime® Expert Training Leader in the Phillippines who started The Growing Brain PH, a DIR® accredited clinic that began as a social media page. She is a medical doctor who has a background in public health, community-based programs, and program development and fell into the world of infant mental health and parent coa…

This marks the first edition of Autistic Moms Chatting from Affect Autism. This episode features two autistic mothers and autistic advocates living in the United Kingdom. Autistic Moms Chatting is an addition to the usual podcast episodes. Link to the full blog post with links to key discussion points and other ways to view or hear the podcast here…

This marks the fifth edition of DIR® Dialogues from Affect Autism. This episode features Practitioner Panels–this one featuring five Speech-Language Pathologist DIRFloortime® Expert Training Leaders exploring Gestalt Language Processing. DIR® Dialogues is an addition to the usual podcast episodes. Link to the full blog post with links to key discus…

Returning guest, Clinical Psychologist Dr. Robert Naseef, and first-time guest, Autistic Self-Advocate and Professor of Special Education at Alephi University, Dr. Stephen Shore have recently published an article in Autism Spectrum News called Reframing Pathological Demand Avoidance: A Neurodiversity-Affirming Perspective which we discuss. Link to …

Maythe Martinez es una Líder Experta en DIRFloortime® en Mérida, México, donde fundó una escuela acreditada en DIRFloortime® llamada Senderos. Maythe es licenciada en psicología, tiene una maestría en Desarrollo Infantil y también es especialista en salud mental de la primera infancia. Senderos⁠ es una escuela bilingüe (español-inglés) de nivel pre…

Maythe Martinez is a DIRFloortime Expert Training Leader in Merida, Mexico where she opened a DIR-accredited DIRFloortime school called "Senderos" which means "path" in English. Maythe is a licensed psychologist and an early infant/early childhood mental health specialist as well. Senderos is a (Spanish-English) bilingual preschool and elementary s…

This marks the fourth edition of DIR® Dialogues from Affect Autism! This episode features Practitioner Panels–this one featuring five DIRFloortime® Expert Training Leaders exploring considerations around setting limits and boundaries with our children in Floortime. DIR® Dialogues is an addition to the usual podcast episodes. Link to the full blog p…

This edition of Parent Perspectives features a full-time mother, passionate advocate, and deep thinker, navigating life through the lens of a late ADHD diagnosis with her neurodivergent family. We discuss her family’s experience at their Floortime intensive at ICDL’s DIR® Institute. Link to the full blog post with links to key discussion points and…

This marks the third edition of DIR® Dialogues from Affect Autism! This episode features Practitioner Panels–this one featuring five international DIRFloortime® Expert Training Leaders discussing moving from being someone “doing Floortime” to becoming a “Floortime therapist.” DIR® Dialogues is an addition to the usual podcast episodes. Link to the …

This episode's guest is Tammy Bishop in Florida who has been an occupational therapist since 1999. She operates a service called Bicycle Lessons 4 All where she teaches autistic kids and individuals of all abilities to ride a bicycle. We met in a Praxis course at the STAR Institute and I like the idea of including a Floortime-adjacent topic on the …

Mary Beth Stark joins us this episode from Atlanta where she has been a speech and language pathologist for over 40 years at Floortime Atlanta and is a DIRFloortime® Expert Training Leader. Our topic is about pre-social abilities as pre-communication which gets into reciprocity and the development of communication. This is an update of an older pod…

Our topic for this episode is promoting agency and autonomy through the lens of DIR®-informed music therapy and how facilitators can practice within a more mindful, neurodiversity-affirming approach. Link to the full blog post with links to key discussion points and other ways to view or hear the podcast here: https://www.icdl.com/parents Caregiver…

This episode's guest is Simone Tiemann who is a Floortime-trained sensory integration occupational therapist on the north coast of Spain in Santander who sees clients with developmental challenges and differences in her clinic and runs an association for 15 years now called Disfrutar El Mar which means "enjoying the sea" that offers activities at t…

La invitada de este episodio es Simone Tiemann, terapeuta ocupacional de integración sensorial formada en Floortime en Santander, la costa norte de España. Atiende a pacientes con dificultades y diferencias en el desarrollo en su clínica y dirige desde hace 15 años la asociación Disfrutar El Mar, que ofrece actividades en la playa y el mar, incluye…

The International Council on Development and Learning (ICDL) Board President, autistic self-advocate, Dr. Emile Gouws and I discuss April’s month of autism awareness, acceptance, and appreciation, and the need to move towards action and inclusion. What does all of this mean and how does DIRFloortime® fit in? Link to the full blog post with links to…

En esta edición de Perspectivas de los Padres, Mary Santiago de Toronto, una madre practicante de DIRFloortime® conversa con Susana en Buenos Aires, Argentina, y con Lucia y Manuel en Atlanta, Georgia, sobre sus experiencias con Floortime y su participación en las reuniones virtuales de apoyo para padres lideradas por la terapeuta ocupacional y DIR…

This marks the second edition of DIR® Dialogues from Affect Autism! This new podcast features Practitioner Panels–this one featuring five international DIRFloortime® Expert Training Leaders discussing Floortime around the world! DIR® Dialogues will be an addition to the usual podcasts. I hope you will enjoy them! Link to the full blog post with lin…

The therapy trio from Baby Steps Therapy, a DIR® clinic offering physical therapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy in the suburbs of Philadelphia, is here to discuss their collaborative Floortime approach used within their strengths-based studio to support growth within the Functional Emotional Developmental Capacities (FEDCs). Baby Steps e…

German Psychologist Sibylle Janert is a DIRFloortime® Expert and Training Leader who teaches courses in the UK in English, and in German in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. She also offers Floortime coaching to families over Zoom in both English and German, as well as offering family intensives in her beautiful village. She runs supervisions grou…

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 …

This marks the first edition of DIR® Dialogues from Affect Autism! This new podcast will include Practitioner Panels–the first one featuring parent practitioners! DIR® Dialogues will be an addition to the usual podcasts. I hope you will enjoy them! Link to full BLOG post with links to key discussion points here: https://affectautism.com/2025/01/03/…

This week my returning guest is DIRFloortime® Expert Training Leader and Licensed Professional Counselor, Mike Fields where he is at several clinics including a Across All Ages, a new Floortime clinic in Avondale, a part of Atlanta. We will be discussing DIR® and the Science of Hope, a topic he presented on at the recent ICDL DIRFloortime® conferen…

This episode we are covering intensives at ICDL's DIR® Institute in New Jersey where families come for a week to just do Floortime and get Floortime parent coaching. My guests are two mothers of two children each. Daniela Bishop is in the Toronto area like me and Samantha Moran is from Colorado. Daniela is a registered nurse who has an 9-year-old d…

This episode my guests are Educator Becky Gottlieb who is the Floortime Intensives Program Coordinator at ICDL’s DIR® Institute in New Jersey, and Occupational Therapist, Gretchen Kamke, who is ICDL’s Accreditation Coordinator. Both are Expert Developmental, Individual differences, Relationship-based (DIR®) Training Leaders who teach certificate co…

My returning guest is Dr. Colette Ryan, an Infant Mental Health Specialist who is an DIRFloortime® Expert Training Leader and part of a group starting up a new Floortime school in Toyko Japan, The Neurodiversity School, as the Floortime Supervisor. Today we are covering a topic near and dear to Colette’s heart, parent self-efficacy, the topic of he…

There’s been a lot of talk about how autistic girls are not recognized and diagnosed and on social media around many women being diagnosed as autistic after their children are diagnosed. Dr. Robert Naseef has been diagnosing children and adults with autism since 2008 and especially after the pandemic, he has seen an increase in females seeking diag…

I am absolutely thrilled to have returning guest, Educator Kasheena Holder back, who is a DIRFloortime® Expert and Training Leader with the International Council on Development and Learning and owner and director of Legacy, an inclusive school in Barbados where about 60 percent of her students are neurodivergent and about 40 percent are neurotypica…

Brookes Barrack is a Speech-Language Pathologist and DIRFloortime® Expert Training Leader who has a clinic just outside of Kansas City, Kansas with Occupational Therapist Emily Tritz called Kansas City Developmental Therapies where they offer DIR® services. This summer they became an official accredited DIR® Organization. She originally trained in …

Kerri Ciskowski is a DIRFloortime® Expert and Occupational Therapist in central New Jersey who does in-home support through her service Therapy Keeper for families who are typically raising autistic kids. Today we’re talking about in-home Floortime coaching which supports parents in unpacking "behaviours" and finding connection and joy with their n…

ToniAnn Loftus is DIRFloortime® Expert and Speech-Language Pathologist. She trained at the Rebecca School and now owns and operates Seaport Speech and Feeding, a clinic in Manhattan. Today we are discussing inclusion in schools with a specific focus on speech and language and how she can bring the Developmental, Individual differences, and Relation…

The topic of this episode is trauma through a DIR® lens. Maude Le Roux recently did a course on this topic through the International Council on Development and Learning and here she covers how to work with trauma clients through the Functional Emotional Developmental Capacities (FEDCs). This complements the previous trauma-related podcasts I’ve don…

The topic of this episode is to give an overview and review of Functional Emotional Developmental Capacity (FEDC) 4 of the Developmental, Individual differences, and Relationship (DIR®) model from last episode, an overview of the FEDC 5, and to discuss how one moves through FEDC 4 into FEDC 5. Link to the full blog post with links to key discussion…

The topic of this episode is Functional Emotional Developmental Capacity (FEDC) 4 of the Developmental, Individual differences, and Relationship (DIR®) model, based on the presentation our guests in March at the New York City DIR® conference called, "The Spectrum of FEDC 4". Link to the full blog post with links to key discussion points here: https…

This episode we are discussing intentionality in Functional Emotional Developmental Capacity (FEDC) 3, which is called "Intentionality and Two-Way Communication" in the Developmental, Individual differences, and Relationship (DIR®) model, and moving from FEDC 3 into FEDC 4, "Complex Communication and Shared Problem Solving." Link to the full blog p…

This week our topic is one that is a top request by parents: sleep. Although neither this episode's guest nor I are sleep experts, we want to come at the topic from a Floortime lens and present some helpful information. My guest is Colette Ryan, an Infant Mental Health Specialist, who is finishing up her PhD with Fielding University on the topic of…

I’m speaking with Marla Cable, the Assistant Director of the Resource and Training Centre at Giant Steps Autism Centre in Montreal, Quebec, which houses the developmental approach, individualized private school in the public interest with both English and French instruction, serving students aged 4 to 21 with an autism diagnosis. We heard about the…

Andrew Klein is a DIRFloortime® Expert Training Leader and a pediatric Occupational Therapist at Emerge Pediatric Therapy in Durham, North Carolina where he has a specialized role in facilitating reflective supervision with his colleagues. He is also a certified trauma professional through PESI. He started his career at the Rebecca School in Manhat…

Our topic this week is DIRFloortime® in medically complex children with guests DIR® Speech-Language Pathologists Erin Forward and Taylor Anderson. Link to the full blog post with links to key discussion points here: ⁠https://affectautism.com/2024/05/10/trauma-informed-care/⁠ Caregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for support from a li…

This episode’s podcast features Floortime parent advocate Kim Kredich who has served as a volunteer advocate for hundreds of students with disabilities in East Tennessee, working with families to help their children gain rightful, supported inclusion in the general education environment in public schools through the IEP process. She has worked clos…

This episode features DIRFloortime® Expert Training Leader Nagwa Khedr, who is an early intervention specialist in Cairo, Egypt. She's been practicing DIRFloortime® since 2014 and was involved recently in opening a DIRFloortime® Center there called Etwasel, which means 'Connect' in English. We met in person last year at the in-person DIR® Internati…

This podcast showcases If I Need Help, a non profit that reunites those who might become lost, disoriented, or need assistance in a critical moment with their families, loved ones, and caregivers using modern technologies in practical, accessible, and affordable ways--so providing assistance for our loved ones with communication differences. I have…

This episode features returning guests, Special Educator Jackie Bartell and Speech Language PathologistBridget Palmer who are both DIRFloortime® Expert Training Leaders and teach courses at ICDL. Amy McMunn is the mother of two young adult autistic sons and a Spelled Communication Practitioner. Today’s topic is presuming competence, one of the pill…

This episode, returning guest, Occupational Therapist, Stephanie Peters, DIRFloortime® Expert Training Leader and Clinical Director with Kinder Growth discusses the developmental considerations around sharing. Link to the full blog post with links to key discussion points and other ways to view or hear the podcast here: http://affectautism.com/2024…

This episode, Speech Therapist, Sabrina O'Keefe, DIRFloortime® Expert Training Leader, discusses Gestalt Language Processing within a Developmental, Individual differences, Relationship-based (DIR®) framework, which listeners have been requesting for a long time! Link to the full blog post with links to key discussion points and other ways to view …

On this edition of Parent Perspectives from Affect Autism, we have a discussion with a mother and grandmother of an autistic son and grandson about navigating her support roles. Link to the full blog post with links to key discussion points here: https://affectautism.com/2024/02/02/roles Caregivers: Consider joining our DIR® Parent Network for supp…

On this edition of Parent Perspectives from Affect Autism, we have a parent discussion with an autistic parent of two autistic daughters about parent self-regulation with some great examples. 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/2024/01/19/self-care …

This episode, I bring you the live recording we did at the International Council on Development and Learning (ICDL) 2023 International DIRFloortime® Conference where I interviewed Dr. Ira Glovinsky who is a Clinical Psychologist in Michigan at The Glovinsky Center for the Child and Family, using a Developmental, Individual differences, Relationship…

This edition of Parent Perspectives covers content discussed in ICDL’s parent support meeting from Monday, October 2nd, 2023 with guest Autistic Self-Advocate, Kieran Rose. Kieran fielded questions from parents, providing a self-advocate’s perspective, which the group found very helpful and empowering. I invited autistic parent, Cass Griffin Bennet…