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How the DIR Model Facilitates Specific Goals
When the fundamental principles of the DIR model are followed, namely to support true reciprocal interaction and back-and-forth communication (i.e., the child builds on the caregiver’s input), many capacities that are part of individual interventions are learned as part of the process. This includes an awareness of others, responding to the initiative of others, and having empathy for the feelings of others.
For example, the capacity for empathy starts with the recognition of the existence of “others” as part of reciprocal interaction. The awareness of their existence takes on an emotional or affective quality to the degree to which the reciprocal partner responds to the child’s natural affect (i.e., interest) and then builds on it. The caregivers, in turn, provide affects for the child to build on. As the child responds to the caregiver’s affects and then initiates more of their own intents and affects, we see a continuing set of circles of communication. The process, however, won’t occur unless initially the child’s affect is harnessed. Harnessing the child’s affects, as indicated, is not sufficient, however. The child must also be challenged by the
caregiver’s affect and initiative in a way that enables the child to build on these and open and close more circles of communication.
Through this process, the child develops an emotional awareness of the other person, not simply as a single responder or as a person directing them, but as a dynamic, living human being made up of many different feelings, interests, and related, interactive sequences. As a child learns to use ideas, she can describe her awareness of the “other” verbally or in pretend.
The recognition of the “self” is part and parcel of the recognition of the other person, because it’s the back-and-forth affective interaction between the child and the other person that defines both the sense of self and the sense of the “other.” As a child moves to a higher level in the use of ideas and connects ideas together logically and reflects on ideas, he can become involved in true empathic reasoning. He can actually project himself into someone else’s shoes. To do this at a higher level requires the child mastering a number of levels of reflective thinking, including thinking off an internal sense of self and internal standards. The pathway to this
accomplishment, however, begins with the earliest reciprocal affective interactions. As indicated, these affective interactions, if truly reciprocal, not only involve following the child’s emotional interests, but challenging the child to build on those interactions and, in turn, respond to the caregiver’s emotional inclinations and communications.
If the process is not begun with an interest in the child’s affects and interactions, the child may not become motivated or drawn into truly caring about the caregiver’s affective interests or intents. In other words, true empathy begins with a feeling of being cared for and having the experience of someone expressing true emotional interest in one’s own feelings.
This is a process of the reciprocal exchange of gestures and feelings. Words are “icing on the cake.” The real affect is in the quality of relating. It serves as a basis for challenging the child through the processes described to become interested in others. Where the child is simply taught to look at or do what the other person wants, or share in a rote way without a true understanding of the needs of the other person, a child may go through the motions. It will be an empty set of gestures or words, however, rather than true empathy or compassion. Many caregivers, therapists, and educators, understandably, might take rote learning of or the appearance of cooperation as significantly better than a completely self-centered attitude. What needs to be emphasized, however, is that we have an opportunity to teach true compassion and understanding, which will generalize into many more situations and serve as a basis for true reflective thinking far better than rote learned sequences. Discipline and structure is a necessary part of learning. To the degree, however, it is implemented in the context of truly compassionate relationships that take an interest in the child’s natural inclinations, a child is more likely to learn to be understanding, compassionate, considerate, and disciplined.
Semi-Structured Problem-Solving Approaches to Build Social and Emotional Skills in the Context of the DIR Model:
Even though many of the specific goals of a number of relationship-based intervention models, such as promoting theory of mind thinking, sharing, role-playing, various social skills, etc., will be learned as part of successfully mastering the different stages of functional emotional development. It may be very helpful to implement specific semi-structured problem-solving strategies to facilitate learning specific skills. One such problem-solving strategy that we’ve described elsewhere {Greenspan 2002 421 /id}{Greenspan 1993 20 /id /d}{Greenspan 1995 290 /id /d} is the “thinking about tomorrow” exercise, where a child is helped to visualize what might
happen tomorrow, in terms of good things and difficult things and picture how he feels, how the other person feels in the situation, what he routinely does, and alternatives. In this way, he can learn to understand others as well as himself in a reflective manner.
Specific techniques from many innovative colleagues can also be used in this semistructured, problem-solving manner (e.g., theory of mind exercises, social stories, RDI interactions, etc.). When these are done, however, it’s critical to do them as part of an overall DIR approach, rather than in addition to or as another approach alongside the DIR/Floortime approach. The reason for this is that the DIR model is not simply a set of techniques. It is first and foremost a framework for understanding the child and his family and for tailoring approaches to the child’s functional emotional developmental level and his individual processing profile in the context of caregiver and family-based affective learning interactions.
If strategies or techniques are practiced without integrating them into the DIR framework, it creates the possibility of ignoring the child’s individual processing profile (e.g., ignoring the child’s sensitivity to touch or sound or need for extra visual-spatial support or motor planning support) or, even more importantly, ignoring the child’s relative weakness in a critical, primary functional emotional capacity, such as being involved in a continuous flow of back-and-forth, affectively-mediated problem-solving interactions. If these foundations are ignored and particular intervention tactics that teach a particular skill are employed, there is a likelihood of the child’s learning skills in a rote or mechanical manner and missing out on the basics that will build the foundations for truly reflective thinking and higher levels of empathy. In addition, new opportunities to promote higher level reflective thinking and social skills may be missed.
On the other hand, when specific problem-solving strategies, including novel interventions are incorporated into the DIR model, the child and family may have the benefit of both the framework to build strong foundations and innovative strategies to promote specific skills within those foundations. For example, if a game is played where the child has to guess what the other person is thinking and this is done as part of a warm pattern of relating and ongoing back-and-forth affective gesturing with lots of use of ideas and connecting ideas together, and is tailored to the child’s nervous system (e.g., especially soothing or energizing, depending on the needs of the child), we may see a child learn a particular skill and, at the same time, strengthen his overall foundations and higher levels of thinking.
Some children and caregivers have mastered enough of the basic foundation skills that they do it automatically. When a specific new learning exercise is implemented, it should be part of a DIR approach. When this is done the child is mastering the specific learning challenges and the foundations for relating, thinking and communicating at the same time. For example, a fullyrelated, thinking child and a caregiver who is energetically pulling that child into a pleasurable debate or negotiation is enhancing all the child’s basic foundations plus their capacity to build bridges between ides in addition if the negotiation or debate involve solving and obstacle course or a treasure hunt game they are exercising motor planning and visual processing capacities at the same time. They would also be ready for the mastery of advanced emotional developmental capacities, such as multi-causal thinking, gray-area thinking, and thinking off an internal standard.
Therefore, innovative approaches that further relationship skills and thinking should always be incorporated into the general DIR model, rather than done alongside it or instead of it.
The DIR model promotes true reciprocal interactions and higher functional emotional capacities in the context of the child’s individual differences. It, therefore, provides an overall structure for incorporating a variety of innovative techniques that facilitate a child’s emotional and intellectual growth.
For a full description of the DIR™ model please see the accompanying article, The Developmental, Individual-Difference, Relationship-Based (DIRtm) Model, by, Stanley I. Greenspan, M.D.
and Serena Wieder, Ph.D. |
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