When Development Stalls … Does the Intervention Fit? The Foundational Capacities for Development (FCD) and the Developmental, Individual Difference, Relationship based Model (DIR)

Name: When Development Stalls … Does the Intervention Fit? The Foundational Capacities for Development (FCD) and the Developmental, Individual Difference, Relationship based Model (DIR)
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$15.00 /6 month

Presenters

Serena Wieder, PhD

Dr. Wieder is the Clinical Director and a founding member of the Profectum Foundation, dedicated to advancing the development and infant mental health of all children, including children, adolescents and adults with autism and special needs through training and educational programs. She also co-founded the Interdisciplinary Council on Developmental and Learning Disorders with the late Stanley Greenspan. Dr. Wieder is a Board Member of Zero to Three and also serves on Advisory Boards to various programs serving infant mental health and other special needs. She established DIR-Israel and provides consultation and training to international and national programs. As a clinical psychologist, Dr. Wieder has pioneered important approaches to diagnosing and treating infants and toddlers with infant mental health and developmental disorders. She co-developed the DIR Model with Stanley Greenspan, edited two diagnostic manuals for infants and young children, and created models for interdisciplinary post-graduate case based training and work with parents. She has co-chaired and organized national and international conferences integrating development, neuroscience and intervention approaches for nearly 20 years. Dr. Wieder also developed approaches to integrate visual-spatial knowledge to advance emotional and cognitive development. Her research interests concern follow up studies of children on the Autism Spectrum who have received DIR comprehensive interventions and the evaluation of training and educational programs. Dr. Wieder co-authored Engaging Autism, The Child With Special Needs and Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health with Stanley Greenspan, M.D. They also co-edited Infants in Multi-Risk Families as well as the ICDL Diagnostic Manual for Infants and Young Children (DMIC) and the original Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood (DC 03). Most recently, Dr. Wieder co-authored Visual Spatial Portals to Thinking, Feeling, and Movement with Harry Wachs, O.D. She has published numerous journal and book chapters and presents at multiple conferences nationally and internationally. At this time, Dr. Wieder also has a private practice in NYC for diagnosis, treatment and consultation regarding complex developmental and mental health challenges.

Serena Wieder, PhD, Clinical Director, Profectum Foundation

Development is never straightforward. It is unique to the individual and involves complex interactions between what the infant brings into the world, experience and environmental factors. Intervention is not straightforward, as it must be tailored to the individual differences in sensory motor processing and regulatory challenges with changing needs over time. Nor is progress straightforward, usually uneven, moving at different rates, and sometimes encountering hurdles as it stalls or slows down. Some children have severe challenges in several areas of development impeding communication of thoughts and feelings, as well as executing ideas and functional skills. Others have problem solving thinking but cannot share attention or get engaged. Still others evidence constrictions in symbolic and abstract thinking, or have greater challenges in social and emotional development. Such variations raise questions as to whether interventions match the DIR model profile, have been tailored to individual differences in regulation, motor planning, visual spatial, and language processing, or are addressing changing needs. Extensive videos will be used.

When development stalls, hits a comprehension wall, gets complicated by a co-morbid condition such as anxiety, seizures, or trauma, the foundations of development need to be re-examined and intervention reassessed. Special attention will be given to DIR Floortime^® and how semi-structured daily affect based experiences get children to think, problem solve, and relate to others at school and at home. Guidelines for best practice and integrating different interventions will be discussed. Participants will learn: