Please help me....

DVOM

Fri, Mar 29 2019, 8:17 am

amother wrote:

I have a 12 year old daughter that is high functioning ASD with anxiety, the DIR floor time and Garcia-Winner's approaches loo like they would be amazing.
For DIR, is this something insurance typically covers? If not, do you know typical costs?
For the Socialthinking, do you do this as a parent? I see they have books that look like curriculum and a conference that seems to be for Teachers. Is the social detective book a good start at home?
Thanks for all this info!

The floortime therapist we are currently by does not accept any insurance and is a fortune, but we love him and feel it's worth it. We have been with other floortime therapists who are covered by insurance (many floortime therapist are also certified in other fields that insurance covers, like OT and SLP). Most have been wonderful.

We learned the social thinking model with a therapist; her training and degree was in special education.
You probably could do the curriculum at home, the social detective is a great way to start. Here is my hesitation though:

I am my child's only mom. If I want to do that job well, I can't also be his therapist. I see my role as learning alongside him, being his cheerleader. When I try to be the therpist too (and I am actually in a 'therapist' feild myself) I find it doesn't work. I don't have the objectivity I need to do the job well. Sometimes I love and care for him too much to gently push him in the way he needs to be pushed, and I'm not always a good judge for when to stop pushing because I so badly want him to internalize a skill I'm trying to teach him. I'm not sure if I'm discribing this well, but it just doesn't work for me.

amother

Amethyst

Fri, Mar 29 2019, 3:35 pm

DVOM wrote:

I strongly (strongly strongly STRONGLY!) disagree.

OT has been the most critical intervention for my inattentive children. Floortime/DIR has also helped with intention tremendously.

I would love to hear more about how those two modalities helped your children with attention in the classroom. What kinds of activities did the OT and floortime practitioner do to address classroom focusing skills?

aricelli

Fri, Mar 29 2019, 3:51 pm

Will respond after shabbos but quick answer would be that for me my child was changed so completely with these two things that I really didnt need that many interventions in the classroom- he is so much more regulated overall. I still ask the rebbi to send him out on errands, to sit him up front, not surrounded by other boys, I have the school OT take him out as well for some excersise.
There are a lot of things A therapist can guide you with but it would need to be tailoref to your individual child. I bought a theraband to tie around his chair legs- kids push on it to get their “fidgets” out- it totally didnt work for him- he went wild with it, so what works for one doesnt work for another

aricelli

Fri, Mar 29 2019, 4:27 pm

I cant answer how its done as my son is small but if your question is “can it be done” the answer is yes. My brother is a floortime therapist and has worked with young “bochurim” with great success- and I know he has also worked with adults. Contrary to what it sounds like its not all about “playing on the floor!” If you have time you can go online to read more about this. You can also look at the icdl directory and message one of the therapists for more information theyre very helpful- or perhaps someone with experience can chime in- wishing you luck!

aricelli

Fri, Mar 29 2019, 4:44 pm

By the way- my previous floortime therapist was an lcsw but trained in floortime- so although she was a “regular” play therapist she had lots of insight in sensory differences, always went with my sons lead- challenging him further from there. So I guess a six year old would be playing cops and a biggerchild may want to play chess or do woodwork or just shmooze- and thats what theyd be doing all the while working on goals. (My son does not realize that he’s working on goals- its done in a playful way) Another thing theyre trained in is the six developmental stages. So they evaluate each person to see where theyre at regarding of their age and work with them at level while challenging them further in a playful way. So while my son is chronologically six, he is on a much lower developmental level and thats what we are working now. A fifteen year old may be that age but may be missing lower capacity skills and in order to work on higher levels you first need to see where they got stuck (my son is level four which is shared motor planning, only after that will we work on level five- symbolic play and communicating intentions and ideas and with these higher levels- empathy)
Just my thoughts- again no experience and no advice here!
its almost shabbos so I hope I’m making any sense