Foundation Academics: First Things First

Foundation Academics: What is it?

Here is a podcast I did with Affect Autism, and it’s host, Daria Brown. She is a real leader here in North America, headquartered in Toronto, on the issue of respectful, appropriate, developmental support for people with autism spectrum challenges. I loved talking with her about a concept I came up with about 10 years ago, Foundation Academics. It is my attempt to explain to parents why we need to focus on early developmental levels before we get to reading, writing and arithmetic. It helps to explain that you need to do first things FIRST, and THEN we will get to those more traditional, “secondary academics.” I think this is my first publicly available full explanation of the idea of Foundation Academics, one of the cornerstones of my educational philosophy for folks with developmental challenges like autism spectrum challenges. Enjoy!

Atlantic DIR/Floortime School Conference

Petra Daitz, MS/ED far left, and Gil Tippy, PsyD second from the left

On Saturday, January 21st, 2017, I will be speaking at a very cool conference in Atlanta, put on by ICDL and the Community School, entitled 2017 Annual DIR® in Education Conference . Not an inspiring name, but some inspiring speakers! I will be talking about DIR/Floortime models for post-21 education, particularly a not-for-profit model I developed in CA, and its application nationally. Dave Nelson, the Executive Director of the Community School in Decatur, GA, is organizing the event and speaking, as is Emily Rubin, MS, CCC-SLP, who always teaches me a lot. I am particularly excited to have one of the great teachers from Rebecca School presenting, Petra Daitz, MS/ED, who will present her fantastic class, with lots of video. The conference promises to really make clear the school application of DIR/Floortime, and is in a beautiful space at The Atrium at the Cator Woolford Gardens at the Frazer Center in Atlanta. This is a great conference, focused on schools, in a beautiful, intimate setting. Seating is limited, but some seats are available! I hope to see you there.

2017 Annual DIR® in Education Conference
Frazer Center, Atlanta, Georgia
Saturday, January 21, 2017
9:00AM – 4:00PM

Gil Presenting at USAAA, on Free Live Stream, Thursday 7/30/15

I am so lucky to be presenting at the United States Autism and Asperger Association National Conference in Tucson this week. I will, of course, be talking about Rebecca School and developmentally appropriate ways of supporting students and adults with neurodevelopmental challenges of relating and communicating. The great news is you can watch it live, free, by going to the USAAA live stream, here, at 11:00 am Pacific time, or 2:00 pm Eastern time. I am not sure about the status of the talk in a future archive, but if you want to see my current thinking about DIR/Floortime and education, you can see me live at a really terrific conference!

Gil Tippy and Christopher Gauthier at USAAA

This is a snippet of an hour long public talk Christopher Gauthier and I gave at the United States Autism and Asperger Association national conference in Kansas City this Fall. USAAA just put this up on line, it had originally gone out live on a live feed from the conference, and I was really pleased to be able to link to it. USAAA is a very cool group, dedicated to finding sensible answers to dietary, biological and intervention questions for the Autism and Asperger community. I am always delighted to be asked to participate. This year I got to sample (and by sample I mean I ate every meal!) Kansas City barbeque. I also got to spend time with Chris Gauthier, the immensely talented photographer and inspiring activist. He and his wife Jacqui are the kind of friends who you dearly want to spend more time with, but somehow cannot make all the busy schedules work to get together. We all have these friends, and the Gauthiers are mine. I console myself by having access to Chris’ work, and by these annual conferences where we get to touch base once again. Maybe now that I am part time on the west coast, in Santa Rosa, CA, so that the distance between the Gauthiers and the Tippy’s is shorter, we can finally make our visits more regular. Check out Chris’ work at the link above, and notice the gallery of pictures we are sitting in front of on stage at USAAA. They are also Chris’s work.

Gil Tippy and Rae Leeper at ICDL International Conference

 

Rae and I got a chance to present at the Interdisciplinary Council for Development and Learning’s (ICDL) International Conference on 11/9/14. We presented on the way that a DIR/Floortime curriculum meets the requirements of the Common Core Standards, is relatively easy to do, and is very effective with kids on the Autism Spectrum. The work is from the Rebecca School in Manhattan, where I am the Clinical Director and one of the Founders, and Rae is the Educational Coordinator, and also a founding member of the faculty at the school. This is really a teaser, and if people want to see the entire thing I would be happy to put it together in small segments. You could contact Rae at the Rebecca School, or me through my blog or website. We were really happy to be so well received by the audience. We think this is the answer for how to meet the Common Core Standards for kids with developmental challenges, and for neurotypical students as well. Good developmental work is simply right in many different situations.

Gil at the International Symposium for Contemplative Studies

 

 

Tania Singer, PhD

The Dalai Lama Speaks at the Conference

I am still so blown away after four amazing days at the Mind and Life International Symposium for Contemplative Studies. In meeting after meeting, from the dialog with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, though the amazing closing presentation by Tania Singer, PhD, who electrified the audience with her amazing research at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, it was the most amazing conference I have ever been a part of. I presented a poster

Rebecca School’s Mindfulness Group Poster

At the Symposium in front of Rebecca School’s poster.

about the Mindfulness Support Group I run at the Rebecca School. Arianna Huffington was wonderful, and remarkably funny and mindful at the banquet on Saturday night. But the really amazing part for me were the presentations and the practice support. I had the chance to meditate, several times, with Roshi Joan Halifax, John Kabat-Zinn, and Sharon Salzburg. One of the meditations I attended with Sharon Salzberg, along with the closing address by Tania Singer inspired me to take our simple meditation group in a direction which I hope will directly influence our work with the kids and families at the Rebecca School. All in all, an entirely amazing and life affirming four days!

Arianna Huffington

Sharon Salzberg

John Kabat-Zinn

Roshi Joan Halifax

Respecting Autism Conference at Middlebury College

The panel at Respecting Autism, Sept. 27th

At the Rebecca School, we are still on a high, after the amazing conference, “Respecting Autism“, we gave at Middlebury College on September 27th. In conjunction with the Sapphire Center, a very cool local center for kids with

Petra Daitz answers questions from an audience member

developmental challenges that is doing DIR/Floortime, volunteer staff from the Rebecca School presented a full day conference on what Floortime looks like in a school setting, when it is done well.

Stacey Hensel talking about Music Therapy

Presentations on Parent Support, Visual Spatial support, Floortime with a group of challenging students, Lunchtime Speech and Language programing, our Cafe Rebecca Program, our Music Therapy program, a panel discussion with all of us, and my keynote on the importance of thinking. It was an amazing day!

Yummy Cafe Rebecca cookies at the conference

Here is the good news! We recorded the entire thing! Our amazing Creative Services director, Billy Gomberg, worked tirelessly all day, and as a result, we will be able to offer the entire conference, the very best of Floortime

Meghan Collins talks about visual/spatial support

in the school setting, to everyone, for free! Through the generosity of Tina McCourt, the Program Director of the Rebecca School, we will be able o put all the presentations on-line. So, if you were unable to make it to Middlebury on September 27th,

Lunch alfresco at Middlebury

you will be able to see the whole thing, on-line. Watch this space, because as soon as we have the material edited, and the server space set up, we will let you know.

It was a great day!