2021 International Live Online DIRFloortime® Conference

All times shown in United States Eastern Time Zone (Please note that daylight saving time ends November 7, 2021)

Monday, November 1

7:00 - 8:30 PM Opening Keynote: Ethical Considerations in Autism Services

Julia Bascom, ASAN Executive Director with Opening Remarks from Jeffrey Guenzel, ICDL Executive Director

Tuesday, November 2

12:00 - 1:30 PM: A Study of Societal Stigmatization of a Child's Illness Using Examples from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus: A therapeutic approach to healing stigma based on DIRFloortime®

Elena Akulova , Psychologist and DIR-Expert

9:00 - 10:30 PM: What a Rubber Band Can Teach Us about Supporting Development from the Inside Out

Jackie Bartell, MSEd, DIR-Expert and Sanjay Kumar, OT, AHPC-R Singapore, DIR-Expert

Wednesday, November 3

8:00 - 9:30 AM: "Inside Out": Playful Floortime Ideas through a Pixar Movie

Maude LeRoux, OTR/L, DIR-Expert

10:00 - 11:30 AM: When Is It a Good Time for Playful Obstruction? And When Is It Not?

Colette Ryan, MSEd, IMH-E, DIR-Expert

Thursday, November 4

10:00 - 11:30 AM: Promoting Development Through the Lens of Social Justice in Early Intervention: Exploring provider perceptions of preparedness and comfort

Kathleen Schlenz, ABD, OTR/L

8:00 - 9:30 PM: Relating and Resilience: A look at how Floortime families continued to develop in this year of uncertainty

Dawn Capelli, LICSW, DIR-Expert

Friday, November 5

8:00 - 9:30 AM: Becoming Symbolic with Simple, Low-Cost Materials to Encourage Play at FEDCs 4-6

Sibylle Janert, MA, DIR-Expert

12:00 - 1:30 PM: Floortime Fundamentals Discussion Group: The Floortime process

ICDL's Clinical Consultants, Senior Advisors, and the DIR® Institute Experts

Saturday, November 6

10:00 - 11:30 AM: The Zipper Effect: Uniting LAMP and Floortime

Joleen R. Fernald, PhD, CCC-SLP, BCS-CL, DIR-Expert and Jessica N. Steiner, MEd, MS, CCC-SLP, DIR-Advanced

12:00 - 1:30 PM: From Isolation to Friendship: How the DIR model and AAC improves social development and social integration of a child with complex needs. A case study from a private clinic in Greece

Vikki Skarlopoulou MA, SLP, Bsc, Rcslt, HCPC, reg, DIR- Advanced

Sunday, November 7

(USA Daylight Saving Time Ends 3:00 AM)

1:00 - 2:30 PM: Becoming Symbolic with Simple, Low-Cost Materials to Encourage Play at FEDCs 4-6

Sibylle Janert, MA, DIR-Expert

3:00 - 4:30 PM: Co-regulation 101: Helping our children feel safe

Denise Wilson, OT, DIR-Expert

7:00 - 8:30 PM: When Is It a Good Time for Playful Obstruction? And When Is It Not?

Colette Ryan, MSEd, IMH-E, DIR-Expert

Monday, November 8

10:00 - 11:30 AM: DIRFloortime® Music Therapy: Combining approaches for an individualized intervention with parental involvement to support Autistic preschoolers

Dr. Giulia Campatelli, DIR-Expert, Dr. Giovanni Vizzano, DIR-Proficient, Giusi Burgio, and Barbara Cravero

7:00 - 8:30 PM: A Journey of Self-Reflection in Supporting Our Children

Daria Brown, MA, DIR-Advanced and Mike Fields, MS, LPC, DIR-Expert

Tuesday, November 9

10:00 - 11:30 AM: The Affect-Based Language Curriculum (ABLC): An intensive program for families, therapists and teachers combines the strengths of the DIRFloortime® model with developmental speech-language therapy in a step-wise, highly structured format

Diane Lewis, MA, CCC-SLP

1:00 - 2:30 PM: DIR meets Playback Theater: Experience in applying the DIRFloortime® approach to working with adults with disabilities in a playback theater project

Yaroslava Khudenko, Psychologist, DIR-Expert and Tamara Nauk, Social Worker, DIR-Basic

Wednesday, November 10

12:00 - 1:00 PM: What's With the New Kid? My Autism, My Story

Turrell Burgess, Author and Jeffrey Guenzel, ICDL Executive Director

1:00 - 2:30 PM: Relating and Resilience: A look at how Floortime families continued to develop in this year of uncertainty

Dawn Capelli, LICSW, DIR-Expert

7:00 - 8:30 PM: Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation Using a DIRFloortime® Lens

Gloria Andrade, PhD, IMHM, DIR-Expert and Gerard Costa, PhD, IMHM, DIR-Exeprt

9:00 - 10:30 PM: Floortime Fundamentals Discussion Group: Promoting development from the inside out

ICDL's Clinical Consultants, Senior Advisors, and the DIR® Institute Experts

Thursday, November 11

8:00 - 9:30 AM: Working with parents: bottom-up approach

Kingkaew Pajareya, MD, DIR-Expert

9:00 - 10:30 PM: Using Art to Support Early Childhood Development, Communication and Self-Esteem

Michele Havens, EdD, DIR-Expert and Faith Thayer, PhD, LPC, LCAT, ATR-BC , DIR-Expert

Friday, November 12

10:00 - 11:30 AM: Co-regulation 101: Helping our children feel safe

Denise Wilson, OT, DIR-Expert

12:00 - 1:30 PM: Why "Touch" Matters: Exploring how our tactile system affects the developmental process

Gretchen Kamke, OTR/L, DIR-Expert

2:00 - 3:30 PM: As Only Music Can! Musical-Play, Floortime and Circles of Communication

John Carpente, PhD

Saturday, November 13

10:00 - 11:30 AM Conference Keynote: Punished By Rewards: From "doing to" to "working with"

Alfie Kohn

12:00 - 1:30 PM: Qualitative Analysis of Challenges Encountered by African American Parents of Children Diagnosed with Autism

Jarilyn Conner, PhD

Monday, November 15

10:00 - 11:30 AM: Floortime Fundamentals Discussion Group: Floortime at home

ICDL's Clinical Consultants, Senior Advisors and the DIR® Institute Experts

7:00 - 8:30 PM: From Diagnoses to Therapeutic Choices: A 15-year journey

Renata Alencar Ponte, DIR-Expert and Parent

Tuesday, November 16

1:00 - 2:30 PM: New Research: Functional diagnostics of changes in the distribution of energy and neuro exchange in the cerebral cortex due to the use of the integrated DIRFloortime® approach in the rehabilitation of various developmental disabilities

Elena Gomozova, DIR-Expert and Mariya Spiridonova

7:00 - 8:30 PM: DIR and R: The use of reflection in DIRFloortime®

Kate Sullivan, MEd, DIR-Expert and Coleen Vanderbeek, PsyD, DIR-Expert

Wednesday, November 17

9:00 - 10:30 AM: Finding My Identity During the COVID-19 Pandemic from Three Different Perspectives: Autistic adult, specialist educator and PhD student

Emile Gouws, Autistic Self-Advocate

1:00 - 2:30 PM: "Inside Out": Playful Floortime Ideas Through a Pixar Movie

Maude LeRoux, OTR/L, DIR-Expert

ASAN Gala November 17 - 19

ICDL is a proud sponsor of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) annual gala again this year. We take a pause from our month-long conference to encourage all of our participants to join the ASAN gala to support their work and listen to their perspectives. Please click here to register.

Saturday, November 20

10:00 - 11:30 AM: You Don't Know What You Can't Know: The importance of learning from parents and self-advocates

Emile Gouws, Autistic Self-Advocate and Daria Brown, Parent, MA, DIR-Advanced

12:00 - 1:30 PM: Parent Partnership and Parent Coaching Using DIRFloortime® in Virtual and In-Person Therapy in Young Children

Bridget Palmer, MA, CCC-SLP, DIR-Expert with a Panel of Parents

Sunday, November 21

7:00 - 8:30 PM: Floortime Fundamentals Discussion Group: Our good friend affect

ICDL's Clinical Consultants, Senior Advisors and the DIR® Institute Experts

Monday, November 22

12:00 - 1:30 PM: DIR and R: The use of reflection in DIRFloortime®

Kate Sullivan, MEd, DIR-Expert and Coleen Vanderbeek, PsyD, DIR-Expert

8:00 - 9:30 PM: Why "Touch" Matters: Exploring how our tactile system affects the developmental process.

Gretchen Kamke, OTR/L, DIR-Expert

Tuesday, November 23

6:00 - 7:30 PM: Demystifying Reflective Capacity: Critical practice for developing intentional, deliberate, empowered and awake clinicians, and supporting responsive, attuned and insightful parents

Virginia Speilmann, PhD

8:00 - 9:30 PM: Promoting Development Through the Lens of Social Justice in Early Intervention: Exploring provider perceptions of preparedness and comfort

Kathleen Schlenz, ABD, OTR/L

Wednesday, November 24

12:00 - 1:30 PM: In Search of Strengths: Using DIRFloortime® as a diagnostic tool

Shoshana Levin Fox, EdD, LP, RPT-S, DIR-Basic

Monday, November 29

8:00 - 9:30 PM: Working with Parents: A bottom-up approach

Kingkaew Pajareya, MD, DIR-Expert

Tuesday, November 30

9:00 - 10:30 AM: What a Rubber Band Can Teach Us about Supporting Development from the Inside Out

Jackie Bartell, MSEd, DIR-Expert and Sanjay Kumar, OT, AHPC-R Singapore, DIR-Expert

1:00 - 2:30 PM: Finding My Identity During the COVID-19 Pandemic from Three Different Perspectives: Autistic adult, specialist educator and PhD student

Emile Gouws

8:00 - 9:30 PM: Floortime Fundamentals Discussion Group: The role of self reflection and reflecting on a month of learning and developing

ICDL's Clinical Consultants, Senior Advisors and the DIR® Institute Experts with closing remarks from Jeffrey Guenzel, ICDL Executive Director