Rebecca School, a special education school, makes its 2014 annual conference available online

Top Quote Rebecca School, an NYC school for children with developmental challenges, makes its 2014 annual "Respecting Autism" conference presentations available online for free. End Quote
  • New York, NY (1888PressRelease) April 23, 2015 - Rebecca School, an NYC school for children with neurodevelopmental delays of relating and communicating including autism spectrum disorders, has made its 2014 annual conference; "Respecting Autism", available online for free. The conference was held on September 27, 2014 in Middlebury, Vermont and included presentations by staff from the Rebecca School.

    The theme of the conference was centered on techniques that can be used to integrate DIR/Floortime intervention in school programs catering to children with developmental disorders. The DIR model or the Developmental, Individual-Difference, Relationship-based model was developed by Dr. Stanley Greenspan in conjunction with the Floortime therapy for teaching children with developmental challenges how to relate, communicate and think. The "Respecting Autism" conference was hosted by the Rebecca School, Middlebury College; a private liberal arts college and Sapphire Center; a local center that uses the DIR/Floortime therapy for children with developmental challenges.

    The day-long activities were recorded by the Creative Services Director of Rebecca School, and have been made available online for free. Through the online content that includes 10 hours of presentations by the Rebecca Staff, people can learn more about the DIR model/Floortime therapy that involves joining in an autistic child's world by respecting and engaging their interests and gently pulling them into a shared world in order to challenge them to develop their functional-emotional developmental capacities.

    Rebecca School hosted presentations on several topics including visual-spatial support, music therapy, parent support, Floortime for challenging students and speech and language programming. Another point of discussion was Rebecca School's Café Rebecca program in which Rebecca School's students aged 15-21 bake, deliver, advertise and run a café. A panel discussion participated in by all presenters and a keynote speech by Clinical Director, Gil Tippy on the importance of thinking were some of the highlights of the day-long conference.

    Floortime therapy helps a child with autism build six core developmental capacities that are involved in effective social, emotional, language and cognitive development. The six core developmental capacities include the ability to attend to the environment while remaining calm and organized, relate to others with warmth, have two-way communication, have complex communication involving several circles of communication, build ideas and indulge in rational thinking by connecting various ideas and emotions together. Rebecca School employs this approach in the conduction of all its various academic and enrichment services. The DIR model/Floortime intervention heavily relies on taking into account the unique developmental capacities and individual processing differences of each student to enable the student to grow and develop in a holistic way.

    To watch the day-long conference users can register at the following link: http://goo.gl/55eqNt

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