In this session, Dr. Edwards will use her work with a five-year-old child and his family to illustrate how these complex dynamics surface in the treatment of child difficulties. Through video clips of therapy sessions, she will: (1) demonstrate how to use play therapy activities to build a working model of each family member and assess family dynamics, (2) demonstrate how to use video review with parents to assess their capacity to reflect on themselves and their children; (3) present a developmental-socio-cultural conceptualization of the child and family that will guide treatment.
As a result of this presentation, participants will be able to:
- Identify the following parenting processes in a family’s life: (a) developing the emotional relationship; (b) promoting exploration; and (c) guiding towards interdependence.
- Apply at least three family play therapy activities with families.
- Develop a relational hypothesis that helps explain a family’s dynamics and guides the interventions to resolve the presenting problem.
Creating Healthy Families-Therapists and Parents Partnering TogetherDiane Selinger, PhD
This presentation will focus on the collaboration between therapists and caregivers in relationship-based, developmental therapy. DIR has a long history of actively involving caregivers in therapy sessions and resisting trends that exclude and sideline them from the process. With a therapist as partner, caregivers can be agents of their children's growth—and the wellbeing of their whole family. Participants will develop a consideration of the whole family when providing effective support to children and caregivers. There will also be a special emphasis on siblings, who have a unique experience within the family.
This session will apply core components of the DIR framework to our working model for supporting families and caregivers. The Functional Emotional Developmental Levels (FEDLs), a cornerstone of DIR, will serve as an anchor. We will use this critical component of the model to think about supporting caregivers in regulating, engaging, interacting, playing, communicating, problem solving and thinking with their children. Another emphasis will be on framing the interaction between a child’s and a caregiver’s individual differences as they arise in sessions or as part of everyday life. By growing an awareness of their own profile and experience, caregivers are better equipped to help a child climb the developmental ladder. Thus, this presentation will discuss therapist-parent collaboration at both the family level and in micro, moment to moment interactions that occur between child, parent, and therapist.
As a result of this presentation, participants will be able to:
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Explain the individual differences of parent/caregiver, and explain why this is important.
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List two strategies on how to partner with parents/caregivers to work at the different Functional Emotional Developmental Levels.
CONCURRENT BREAKOUT SESSIONS
1) Nurturing Relationships with Families to Support Development Across ContextsJennifer Hein, OTR/L; Mary Ann O'Connell, PhD, CCC-SLP
Families from diverse backgrounds seek services from non-mental health professionals, such as Speech-Language Pathologists and Occupational Therapists, for issues related to their respective domains (e.g., articulation and handwriting), but often also involve complex relational work that includes the foundational pillar of regulation. This session will highlight pragmatic strategies that families and non-mental health clinicians can use to support regulation and foundational FEDCs to support growth along the developmental ladder. A conversation between two DIR clinicians will ground this session as they share reflective insights from case-based narratives and vignettes to highlight the spectrum of lessons gleaned from cases involving complex relational work.
As a result of this presentation, participants will be able to:
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Identify 2 signals that indicate regulation may be an underlying capacity in need of support with a pediatric client and their family.
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Discuss 2 reasons why family involvement with cases that require complex relational work is critical.
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Identify 2 ways a clinician can involve families to support bi-directional exploration between the family and the clinician(s) of development through a DIR lens.
2) Families Across the Lifespan: How Relationships Shape Development, Resilience, and Neurodiversity Gilbert Foley, EdD, IMH-E®; Yana Peleg, PhD; Ruby Salazar, LCSW, BCD
In this integrative, clinically grounded session, Dr. Gilbert Foley, Dr. Yana Peleg, and Ruby Salazar, LCSW, BCD, explore the family as the foundational developmental ecosystem from infancy through adulthood with a biopsychosocial approach. Tracing both typical and neurodivergent pathways, the presenters will use rich case vignettes to illuminate how caregiver capacities, relational patterns, ecological stressors, and moments of connection shape growth in each period across the lifespan. Participants will gain a nuanced perspective of how families evolve, adapt, and sustain resilience—and how practitioners can effectively support these systems as they navigate positive and negative forces, celebrate progress, and nurture developmental wellbeing at every lifespan stage.
As a result of this presentation, participants will be able to:
- Identify positive outcomes and confounds at each stage of the Eriksonian life cycle.
- Identify the role of attuned, contingent responsiveness of caregivers to support children' s growing sense of self from infancy into adulthood.
3) Supporting Infants, Toddlers and Their Families through DIR: It’s all About the RelationshipBarb Baldassare, OTR/L; Caroline Ferguson-Walsh, MS-LP(C), CCC-SLP
In the United States, the national Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (ECTA) provides
guidance based on best practice to individual states as they develop and implement programs serving
children age birth to three. These best practices, outlined in seven key principles, align beautifully with
the tenets of the DIR Model and can provide a framework to organize our thinking in home-
based work with infants, toddlers and their families. In our hour together, we’ll describe the tenets of
Early Intervention and the DIR model by sharing the experience of several families who sought help in nurturing a child who was experiencing developmental challenges. We’ll look at the way interventionists guided them through initial evaluations, information sharing and goal setting. We’ll look at the role of the team with families who sought out medical diagnoses and interventions. We’ll also look at the unique benefits and challenges that are an integral part of home-based work. We will follow one child and his mom through a year-long case study as their capacities grow together in the
context of their relationship.
As a result of this presentation, participants will be able to:
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Identify best practices in developmental therapeutic work with children birth to three.
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Describe the importance of the relationship in coaching parents in their homes.
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Employ strategies to build an effective team, keeping the family at the center.
CONCURRENT BREAKOUT SESSIONS4) Family Networks: From Individual to Group Intervention in a Community ProgramNora D'Angiola, PhD, CCC-SLP; Maria Mercedes Gimenez, Psychologist
Casa de Familia is an organization based in Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina that supports children with Autism and their families. Families lead the treatment at Casa de Familia because of our deep appreciation for relationships. Our services are embedded into everyday life experiences because we know that real life does not unfold in the treatment room. This includes going to school, family lunches, vacations, and summer camps.
This breakout session will show the process of a paradigm shift from intervening with people with developmental challenges to supporting the families surrounding those people. We will highlight the journey we make from one-to-one intervention in the office to group interventions in natural environments. We will also show how the DIR model was able to reach families with socioeconomic difficulties through support and management networks between Casa De Familia and the municipal government of each town/city.
As a result of this presentation, participants will be able to:
- List 2 DIRFloortime strategies that can be implemented with families remotely.
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Describe how the DIR model can be adapted to different cultures and sociocultural environments.
5) Integrating Families as Essential Partners in School Communities
Linda Cervenka, MA, CCC-SLP; Elisa Chrem, MS, CCC-SLP, MA Ed; Michele Ricamato, MA, CCC-SLP
This session explores the critical relationship between families and the educators and therapists who support their children within school environments. As families navigate decisions about appropriate educational placement, collaboration becomes vital—yet finding time to gain insights from one another, exchange ideas, celebrate successes, and consider a family’s unique needs can be challenging. Together we will reflect on essential questions: What is most important to this family? Are we aligning our goals with theirs, or unintentionally creating goals in isolation of the family system?
Through the lens of the family’s journey—including their decision to choose a DIR-based school—we will examine how meaningful partnerships are built, nurtured, and sustained. Participants will gain insight into how trust, open dialogue, and shared problem-solving provide the foundation for navigating complex school days and sometimes difficult conversations. This session aims to gain greater insight, strengthen family-school collaboration, and highlight why true partnership is indispensable for supporting children with special needs.
As a result of this presentation, participants will be able to:
- Identify the critical elements involved in building meaningful connections with caregivers.
- Reflect on and articulate personal therapeutic goals and evaluate how they align with family priorities.
- Explain the role of autonomy and self-determination in supporting individuals with developmental disabilities.
6) Establishing the Professional as a Secure Base: A Long Term Case StudySteve Glazier, MA
DIR providers have broadened the concept of “secure base” to describe an optimal stance for professionals to take with families. Ideally, caregivers provide consistent, supportive containers in which children grow and develop. These secure base relationships provide children with an internalized sense of safety that allows their exploration of the world and, still, they are at the ready when that world is confusing, isolating, and disconnected. Regardless of discipline, professionals can make use of these same relational principles. They can serve as consistent partners whom the family comes to rely upon over time and return to when they need validation, meaning, and support. By compassionately tending to the global needs of the family, professionals can create a space where emotional support co-exists with practical guidance and planning.
In this presentation, psychologist, Steven Glazier, will highlight the secure base professional through the lens of a long-term case study. It is a compelling story that unfolds over the course of 13+ years of intensive work with a single mother who immigrated to the USA and her autistic son. Video of the caregiver-child interactions will be presented in addition to reflections from the mother and clinician.
As a result of this presentation, participants will be able to:
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Summarize the concept of professionals as secure bases for families.
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Apply three strategies to partner with caregivers in long-term cases.
The History and Future of DIR: Lessons Learned from Families Serena Wieder, PhD with Ruby Salazar, LCSW, BCD
The DIR Model emerged from a deep commitment to comprehending and supporting each child’s and family’s unique developmental path. DIR provided a revolutionary framework that shifted the focus from symptom reduction and isolated skills to the holistic promotion of emotional, social, and cognitive development, redefining development, identifying the role of individual differences and the power of relationships across the lifespan. Did we need another model of development? Yes. This session will describe the journey we took over forty years to create the DIR Model and a conversation with Ruby Salazar reflecting on lessons learned and needed.
Dr. Wieder and the conference chair, Ruby Salazar, offer a critical perspective on the value of families in our therapeutic frameworks. Together, they will synthesize and integrate key concepts from the conference, and adjust our focus on those concepts through a DIR lens. Participants will witness the kind of reflective thinking that is required to integrate multiple perspectives and drive our work forward.
As a result of this presentation, participants will be able to:
- Describe the origin of the DIR model and how it relates to families.
- Recognize the core concepts of DIR to integrate them into individual and family-based interventions.
