Jan 2009 support notes

Hi everyone, The professionals' group included a rich discussion of the importance of nonverbal cuing and communication as a precursor to more complex thinking, and the difficulty we all have working with children who are very verbal and even score well on tests of pragmatics, but who have such difficulty with affective cuing and this more basic kind of relating that they do not actually function well. I referred people to my new favorite podcast of the week, the 2007 one on Nonverbal communication, which is available at icdl.com.

The parents group went well too! Lana wrote an insightful piece and Mara led discussion on the goal of progress and what that means. They talked about the controversy of the term 'recovery', and our relief when we have positive moments in time in the course of challenges throughout development, and the need to accept our children and ourselves while at the same time pressing on for a better life. Lana's piec is available on circlestretch.blogspot.com.

Next meeting is march 4, 2009, from 9-1030 am and it will be a joint meetingfor paretns and professionals together.

Last thing to mention: many of the local professionals are coming to Asilomar this summer for work on their continuing certification process, and I am co-writing a plan for a Southern Califonia DIRŽ/Floortime™ Regional Instiitute to begin next year that will be able to confer DIRB and DIRC1 status for up to 24 people in the region form San Diego, to Snta Barabara - stay tuned for more on that!

Dr Feder