The Floortime Center Social Group Children wi ren w th ASD and an other neurological challenges can develop: Typical Social Development

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1 The Floortime Center Social Group Emerging Through The Functional Emotional Developmental Milestones Children with ASD and other neurological challenges can develop: Empathy Ability to read emotional signals Ability to negotiate with peers Typical Social Development The emotion selects the behavior Build foundations from the bottom up Create heightened states of emotionality to help the child use and connect emotions to his behavior Ex: big smile gives a word like hi real warmth and meaning 1

2 Building social skills within each stage of development Attention and Regulation Engagement Communication Shared problem solving Using ideas creatively and spontaneously Using ideas logically Higher levels of thinking Regulation and Attention Child must be able to see the world, faces, expressions, behaviors, etc. This requires being calm, regulated, attentive, focused, and having an awareness of physical sensations. Ex: peek-a-boo game Engagement Must be comfortable with other human beings Warm, trusting, and engaging Floortime play develops pleasurable interactions 2

3 Basic Two-Way Interaction Purposeful communication Chains of interaction Exchanging gestures and sounds Encourage your child s curiosity and interest with these interactions Shared Problem-solving Beginning Complex social negotiation Create interactions that mediate between what the child wants to do and the satisfaction of his goal. Focus on nonverbal cues as well as language Mastery of social interactions depends on a subtle reading of emotional cues and signals Using ideas creatively and spontaneously Look for spontaneous language rather than scripted/learned ideas Set up emotionally stimulating pretend and realistic scenarios to use as vehicles for expressive language Encourage them to talk about their feelings resulting from social interactions Ex: I feel angry when Ben takes my toy 3

4 Using ideas logically Connecting ideas together Answering all w questions Ex: Let s play basketball instead of videogames, because I want to go outside Participate in real life experiences Understanding the rules to participate in society Ex: Setting up a table when he wants to eat dinner The Floortime Center Social Group Organization and Techniques to encourage Social Interaction Fundamentals Start with smaller groups (dyads) and move slowly to larger ones. Create multiple environments, sensory and symbolic, to encourage different types of interactions. Remember that child/adult play is different from child/child play Other children don t always entice, initiate, or counter-regulate regulate 4

5 Group Organization Make sure all children in the group are solid at the 4 th milestone: Shared Social Problem Solving with a continuous flow. Have children with complimentary sensory system. ie. an underreactive child and sensory seeking child. You can include children with similar and/or different developmental profiles. Optimally the children should balance each other out with their profiles. Techniques to Encourage Allow children to create their own interactions or games, and follow their lead. Facilitate maintained regulation, attention, and engagement. Encourage sensory based games and semi-structured structured activities. Often we need to structure or introduce a game to facilitate interest and attention Remember the goal is to encourage the interaction between the children, don t do all the work for them. Encourage them to seek each others help or participation. Techniques to Encourage Use your affect to entice the children toward a common activity or each other. Use your body to help a child carry out their social goal i.e. playful obstruction Ask questions to help the children maintain focus on each other and the activity. ex. When a child wants to play a game, ask the child, What do your friends think? or What do your friends want to play? 5

6 Techniques to Encourage Create physical problems that need to be solved with the help of many children Encourage a child to get a friend to help them. Ask questions that t encourage the children to discuss or compromise on different decisions before they get a need met. What should we do? Swing or bounce?, or What should we do first? Facilitators must always Encourage interaction/communication between the children. Redirect children toward one another vs. doing the floortime yourself Counter-regulateregulate Keep environment under control Patience Let the interaction develop naturally The Floortime Center Contact Information: 4827 Rugby Ave. Bethesda, MD info@dirss.com Website: Phone: (301)

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