DIR 101 - Introduction to DIR®/Floortime for Professionals Fall 2024

This course presents an introduction to the Developmental, Individual Difference, Relationship-Based model, pioneered by Dr. Stanley Greenspan, for working with children with developmental delays. Students will learn about the six functional developmental levels that a child must master including Shared Attention, Engagement, Two-Way Purposeful Communication, Two-Way Problem-Solving Communication, Emotional Ideas and Abstract Thinking. Students will also learn about Floortime, a strategic, goal-oriented, affect-filled way of interacting that encompasses assessment, goal creation and other tools to help a child initiate and respond at higher developmental levels.

Because emotional growth is integral to both social and cognitive learning, Greenspan maintains that subtle emotional interactions form the building blocks of all human intelligence and the origins of the highest orders of human capacity: morality, creativity, and even consciousness itself. The DIR® model places a special emphasis on helping the child develop and strengthen the special relationships in his or her life. Also, because…