The Overview On DIR Model for Autistic Children

The Developmental, Individual Differences, Relationship Model or DIR model is one of the most successful methods of starting the schooling and learning needs of kids with special abilities. Out of all the ways and means developed by various institutes to help autistic kids lead a normal life and provide for everything on their own, the DIR model is the widely used ones with the best success rate. The model primarily involves helping the development of neurobiological factors that can otherwise create a barrier in between parents and kids.

The developmental defines making activities that can help in the communication of kids with their loved ones. The symbols, languages, and signs that can help them communicate the immediate needs are taken care of in this part. The individual differences include the use of things that catch their natural interest and attention and use them for learning.  R or Relationship refers to relationships with caregivers that are the vehicle for affect-based developmentally appropriate interactions.

The idea basically revolves around the parents, teachers, siblings and other loved ones engaging in a floor time therapy that is pleasurable and educational at the same time. Spending time in an environment that is comfortable for the child and doing things that are of his/her natural interest can open up their prospects of learning to a large extent.

This can further help the parents and the therapists to ensure that the steps taken in their learning and education are going in a positive way and develop lessons on the same path.

The sessions can either be taken in a formal environment or an informal one depending on the comfort level of the child. Most of the teachers in the special education school are very well versed with this model and adopt in on daily basis with their students to develop a long-term understanding of them.

The sessions also involve the presence of parents to a large extent so that they learn ways and means of communicating and learning with their kids in a constructive environment. This can open up a lot of barriers to communication that is otherwise present in between the parents and the child.

An Insight into the Common steps used in DIR/Floortime Therapy

Developmental, Individual-Deference, Relationship-Based model (DIR) and Floortime Therapy model are one of the most popular models for helping build healthy foundations in children with learning disabilities. The Floortime therapy model focuses specially on building social, emotional and intellectual skills rather than focusing on isolated skills and behaviors. It was developed by Dr. Stanley Greenspan.

The DIR/Floortime model focuses on speech therapy, occupational therapy and physical therapy involving specific educational programs tailored for children with specific disabilities. It can be described as:

• A method where 20 minutes are spent on parent-child interaction.
• Floortime therapy methods are incorporated into various education programs which include various therapy methods to achieve a set of specific educational goals.

Six Stages of Developmental Milestones in Autism:

• Stage 1: Self-Regulation and Attention: It involves improving and peaking a child’s attention with the help of interactive activities that involve movement, hearing, looking and touching to help improve their attention spans.
• Stage 2: Engagement: In involves developing a sense of engagement with the child to generate a feeling of security, intimacy, empathy and caring to improve their social interactivity.
• Stage 3: Two Way Communication: It involves gaining the child’s attention and interest in various activities and encouraging them to assist you in achieving a particular set of objectives specifically designed to induce the child’s involvement. It helps them gain a sense of fulfillment, thus encouraging them to act on similar tasks on their own or with others’ help.
• Step 4: Problem Solving: It involves building a foundation of problem solving skills to help them get along with their daily activities by walking them through a common task and then encouraging them to do it on their own. It enables them to do things on their own and ask for help if they get struck or do not know what to do next.
• Stage 5: Creating Ideas: It involves encouraging the child to relate to a general sense of life such as gestures, behaviors and conceiving ideas. It is usually achieved by prolonged communication to help them generate feelings and desires of their own.
• Stage 6: Logical Reasoning: It involves encouraging and teaching a child to help in logical thinking, which is essential for separating reality from fantasy by helping them plan, think and connect ideas.

Read More: DIR Model – The Preferred Model for Total Child Development

 

DIR Model – The Preferred Model for Total Child Development

In order to help young kids learn better, there are many schools in the US that employ a wide variety of proven learning methods. One of them is the wildly popular DIR model, which stands for Developmental, Individual Difference, and Relationship-Based model. It was developed by clinical professor and child psychiatrist Dr. Stanley Greenspan in 1979, and was first put forward in his book Intelligence and Adaptation.

So, how is it different from other educational models?

The main focus of DIR model is to build strong foundations for the development of intellectual, social and emotional capabilities of a child. The core of this model is Floortime, a unique technique that demands parent-child interaction in the grassroots level. It encapsulates the general philosophy of including other therapy, such as speech and occupational therapy, in-line with the features of Floortime.

Interaction is one of the key features of the DIY model, which can help the child gain focus and obtain insightful ideas on development and learning. It is widely believed that the DIR/Floortime model has a set of pre-defined milestones that must be achieved for effective growth of a child. These milestones include:

1. Evoking Interest: The child should be interested in his/her surroundings and follow it up with interactions involving movement, touching, sight and hearing.
2. Ability to Relate: The child should try to develop a sense of intimacy, caring and empathy in his/her relationship with family members, teachers, classmates and other people they come in contact with.
3. Ability to Communicate: The child should be able to respond to someone communicating with him/her, including ability to express emotions and desire, which should be reciprocated by the person he/she is communicating with.
4. Advanced Communication and Problem Solving: A child should be able to communicate in a series of steps, such as asking help in different stages to achieve a final need. It helps them develop social attributes and improve problem-solving skills.
5. Creating Ideas: Encourage the child to relate themselves to the real world, such as engaging in communication, invoking desires and emotions, creating ideas and collaborating on such aspects by the attributes of logical reasoning and concentrating on planning and modulating impulses.

Hence, the DIR milestones ensure that the child is on the right path in terms of complete development. These act as a developmental ladder, with each milestones adding a new layer of capabilities in children.

Read More: What Makes Floortime Therapy Effective?

Rebecca School: Learning Through Relationships

I have visited many special education schools in New York. I can easily recall all my visits, because they all were quite similar. Noisy hallways, little windows in the classrooms, trainers, therapists interacting with children. But there was one therapeutic school that was different. Beautiful classrooms, hallways decorated with the paintings and drawings of talented students. The play area created and designed to encourage wonder, curiosity, observation, experiments and lots of fun. That school was Rebecca School.

Rebecca School, located at 40 East, 30^th street, New York, is a private therapeutic day school for children of ages 4-21 with autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disorders. The school utilizes the DIR methodology developed by Dr. Stanley Greenspan, who believes that relationships are the foundation of learning.

Teachers at the Rebecca School were not solitary like I have encountered in many other special education schools. In fact, they were constantly interacting as an ensemble.

The 35,000 square foot facility has five floors and 14 classrooms. Classrooms are carefully organized into different areas including sensory, symbolic and semi-structured. Near each of the classrooms are ‘Quiet Areas’ for use when students feel like they need a calming refuge. This Autism school also has an art studio, three music studios, a library, two sensory gyms and a rooftop playground, among other amenities.

All programs at Rebecca, one of the best schools providing special education programs and services in New York, are adapted to the DIR/ Floortime model developed by Dr. Stanley Greenspan. Their main focus is to enable every child affected with ASD and other neurodevelopmental disorders to relate, communicate and think with the help of emotionally meaningful interactions.

Specially designed programs like ‘Thinking Goes to School’ involve various exercises that may help improve the motor, visual-spatial and sequencing skills of the students.

During my many years as an educator in NYC, I have visited various special education programs in New York. I feel that  Rebecca School, which is no doubt one of the best special education schools in New York, is making a difference in the lives of their students and their families lives.

Autistic Spectrum Disorder or ASD affects essential human behaviors such as social interaction, the ability to communicate ideas and feelings, imagination, and the establishment of relationships with others. Autistic disorders have lifelong effects on how children take care of themselves, how they learn to be socially responsible and responsive. This is where special education makes the difference.

The Faculty of Rebecca School works collaboratively with parents to initiate emotionally meaningful interactions with the children. Every child processes information in a unique way. At Rebecca, importance is given to the understanding of relationships that helps in the holistic development of child.

My Brother Has Autism, and He is the Best

Hello. My name is James. And I am writing this blog to tell you about my brother’s condition. My brother, Justin, has autism. He is a 5 year old kid, and I have seen him struggle with the condition every day; struggle to make friends, to understand what’s goes on around him. This stresses me out. I am 16, and I want to do something to help him.

My parents got Justin enrolled in a school which specializes in taking care of kids with special needs. The school has teachers who are experts in taking care of children with disabilities. They have different programs and activities. One such activity that really caught my attention was the DIR (Developmental, Individual-differences, relationship-based) treatment model, which is also known as the Floortime therapy approach. I think that Floortime therapy is more of a strategy that uses emotionally meaningful learning activities that help in establishing developmental abilities.

The goal of the Floortime therapy approach is to build a basis for healthy development, rather than just working on the issues at the surface level. The activities are broken down into milestones, and are compared between normally developed children, and children with development delays. The milestones are covered from early stages of development, and continues until the early adolescence years. This careful nurturing helps autistic children develop a sense of belonging with the world around them, and communicate effectively with other people.

Justin’s school uses this strategy to help its students, and according to them, their attempts have been successful so far. I really hope that they will be able to help Justin, and give him the same attention, love and care that we give at home.

I have started studying about autism, and how it affects people. I have also learned that a surprising number of people are not aware about what autism is. People are even afraid of it, and vilify those who suffer from autism by sometimes choosing to sequester them, rather than try and help them. Some even try and spread rumors about this condition, and choose to spread lies about how autism works, rather than teach people the truth.

I’d like people to know that autism is not a curse. Autistic children are not “disabled”. Their brain just works a bit differently. Floortime therapy can really help them, and a little patience is all it takes to make their life great.

Accommodating An Autistic Child’s Needs And Challenges In The Classroom

When a child goes to school, several skills are called upon to be implemented to ensure a positive and enriching school experience. Social skills, the ability to regulate one’s emotions, time management, organization skills and academic skills are just a few examples of such skills. For a child with autism, navigating the demands put upon by the daily schedule of a school can become overwhelming.

Why a child with autism may struggle at school

• Sensory processing issues

Children with autism often have sensory processing issues that render them hypersensitive or under-sensitive to environmental stimuli such as light, sound and touch.

These issues can cause an autistic child to be distracted or perturbed by elements such as bright lights in the classroom or the presence of too much background noise.

• Emotional regulation difficulties

Children with autism tend to find it hard to regulate their emotions. This could cause them to experience exaggerated negative emotions in reaction to relatively minor incidents. It could also lead to a meltdown involving physical aggression and an emotional outburst.

• Deficits in the abilities to relate to and communicate with others

Children with autism may experience difficulties with relating and communicating with others as well as their peers. These abilities are developed in early childhood but the development of these abilities in autistic children may be delayed or thwarted.

Not being able to understand other people’s perspectives or communicate effectively tends to pose considerable challenges in the process of learning.

Integrating support at special education schools

Several special education schools in NYC for children with autism offer different forms of supports to autistic children to help them learn in an effective and enjoyable manner. These support elements may include:

Priming

In this form of support, the teacher interacts with the child in a one-on-one interaction before a lesson to let them know what to expect. Priming can involve presenting an outline of the lesson to the child and introducing them to the lesson and its important concepts beforehand.

Visual supports

It has been observed that children with autism tend to be good visual learners. Visual supports such as illustrations and maps may be used at special education schools to leverage this strength. Visual supports can also refer to putting labels on drawers to indicate their contents or putting up directions to the library or the playground.

Home base

A home base, at a special education school for autistic children, may refer to a separate room, a therapist’s office or a corner of the classroom that functions as a refuge for an autistic child who’s suffering from anxiety or is feeling overwhelmed.

A home base also functions as a learning support for an autistic child for when they feel like they are unable to cope with their immediate environment.

Certain special education schools in NYC, such as the acclaimed Rebecca School, are known for incorporating the needs, challenges and preferences of children with developmental disorders to help make learning a smooth and rewarding experience for them.

The link between Stimming and Autism

Pacing or clicking one’s pen furiously are common responses to stressful situations. We do not regard them as unusual or something that needs to be curbed. Children and adults with autism may indulge in such repetitive behaviors as well, known as ‘stimming’. What differentiates stimming from typical responses to excitement or nervousness are the choice and intensity of the action that’s undertaken. Autistic children are likely to participate in what is considered to be “uncommon stimming” such as hand-flapping or rubbing one’s hands against a particular object for prolonged periods of time.

Stims are different from motor tics. A motor tic is a sudden short-lasting movement that is rather like an itch that is hard to control. Stims, on the other hand, are performed to calm and stimulate oneself.

Some typical stimming behaviors are listed below.

• Rocking back and forth

• Hand posturing / holding hands or fingers out at an angle

• Sniffing objects or people

• Rubbing a particular object

• Jumping

• Spinning

• Repeating a movie dialogue or song lyrics for a prolonged period of time

• Staring at lights

• Snapping or rubbing fingers together

Why do children with autism stim?

There are several explanations for how stimming helps autistic children feel more at ease with their environment. One of them is that stimming releases opiate-like substances in the brain called beta-endorphins. Beta-endorphins are known to produce euphoria and offer relief from pain.

Autistic children often grapple with sensory processing disorders that render them hypersensitive or under sensitive to sensory stimuli. A child who’s hypersensitive to sensory stimuli may stim in order to calm and organize themselves when faced by bright lights or a noisy room. An under sensitive child could seek stimulation by rubbing objects or rubbing their hands against each other.

Does stimming need to be curtailed?

Stimming can act as an effective means for an autistic child to calm themselves down or even to just express excitement. Stimming can be regarded as an idiosyncrasy that does not necessarily need to be addressed. Yet, some forms of stimming are self-harming in nature or shut the child off from their immediate environment. In such cases, special ed schools play an important role in lessening and/or modifying stims to ensure that a child’s stimming is safe and non-intrusive for both the child and their peers.

Special ed schools in NYC for autistic children employ professional staff members that are trained to help modify or lessen an autistic child’s stims and open up the doors for them to be more receptive and responsive to their environment. One of these NYC special ed schools is Rebecca School, located in Manhattan, New York. You can learn more about Rebecca School at www.rebeccaschool.org

Coping with behavioral challenges when teaching an autistic child

Teaching a child with autism can pose certain challenges best resolved through consideration for the child’s feelings and state of mind, alertness and preventive measures. Teachers at autism schools are often required to deal with behavioral challenges as an autistic child may lack the ability to understand and regulate their emotions.

Behavioral challenges at an autism school

A child may exhibit anxiety, frustration or rage if presented with the following circumstances at school:

• Changes in the daily routine or the environment
• Discomfort caused due to hypersensitivity or under-sensitivity to stimuli such as light, sound or touch
• Being unable to grasp what’s being taught in the classroom
• Being unable to get assistance when needed
• Social situations in which the child is at a loss for what to do or say
• Being asked to perform a task that overwhelms the child

A student with autism could get anxious in the face of such stressors and may resort to fidgeting, tensing up, having tics or getting off one’s chair. In some cases, these emotions may overwhelm the child to the point of triggering a meltdown.

What is a meltdown?

An autistic child’s meltdown is an impulsive or emotional reaction to stimuli, tasks or situations that they are unable to deal with. A meltdown is not a deliberate attempt to “get back at” a teacher or fellow students, even though it can seem that way because of the aggressive behavior involved. Meltdowns are merely a reflection of a child’s inability to cope with the environment or their resultant emotions.

A meltdown usually occurs in the following three stages:

• Rumbling

In this stage, the student begins to experience discomfort and anxiety. The student may exhibit any of the following warning signs of a meltdown:

• Talking under their breath
• Talking louder than they usually do
• Sweating or a flushed face
• Swinging their legs
• Drumming fingers on the table

Signs of a possible meltdown can differ from child to child. Keen observation and maintaining good communication with parents can help teachers at an autism school recognize the usual signs and symptoms of being at the verge of a meltdown associated with each child.

Employing strategies to calm a child down at this stage can prevent an explosive reaction.

• Rage

This stage refers to the meltdown itself. It may involve screaming, kicking and other forms of aggressive behavior. The child may also withdraw from teachers and peers.

• Recovery

This is a vulnerable stage in which the child has calmed down but is still recovering from the meltdown.

Strategies to preempt or deal with a meltdown

• Antiseptic bouncing

Antiseptic bouncing is the act of sending the child away from their immediate environment in a non-punitive manner. Teachers at autism schools can adopt numerous ways to do so such as asking the child to drop some papers off in another classroom or by asking them to have a drink from the water cooler. Being removed from the environment helps distract and calm a child.

• Sending the child to a “cool zone” or “home base”

Having one or several rooms in the school that you can send a student to when they are anxious is useful for helping get them some space to feel more organized, cool and collected. A “cool zone” could also be a room that belongs to a counselor, speech-language pathologist or an occupational therapist. The aim of designating a “home base” is to let students know that there’s a safe haven where they can head to if they feel a slew of negative emotions.

• Teaching the child to recognize and modulate their emotions

An autistic child could lack self-awareness or an awareness of their own emotions. Teachers at autism schools can take to teaching a child how to recognize and manage their emotions. You could tell them that if their breathing becomes shallow or if they feel fidgety, they may need to take a break or ask for assistance. Teaching students effective coping strategies can enable them to modulate their emotions even outside school.

Certain autism schools employ staff that is trained to manage behavioral issues. Rebecca School is an NYC school for children with autism and similar developmental disorders that has a well-informed and trained staff to cope with behavioral challenges. To know more about Rebecca School, you may visit: www.rebeccaschool.org