Parents: Traps to Avoid When You Are Doing Floortime Following the child’s lead without an agenda is most difficult for a parent because he/she has so much emotional investment in the interaction. It can be frustrating and even in some ways paralyzing. Common Challenges for Parents •
“Teaching” instead of setting up an interaction in which the child has to think and is motivated to think.
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Overreacting to avoidance and perceiving it as an emotional rejection.
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Trying to steer the child to “normal” play behavior because it feels good like an accomplishment – especially rehearsed play exchanges that have been practiced with the child.
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Being so afraid of “aberrant” behavior that we avoid using it for interaction (the dreaded idea that we will “reinforce” the strange/undesirable behavior.)
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Not challenging the child enough because we know how hard it is for the child to accomplish things.