Michelle Belanger

July 28
,
2013
SEI 524
DIR/Floortime Case Study



Link to Video #2: http://youtu.be/ZqIbheB7S-k

Background Information:
Nikolai is a bright, loving 4.9-year-old boy. He was diagnosed with PPD/NOS
in February of 2012. He attends Youth and Family Outreach 5 mornings a week and
All Aboard! 5 afternoons a week. At All Aboard!, Nikolai receives specialized
developmental instruction, speech therapy, occupational therapy and physical
therapy. He is in the 2-1 (child to teacher) ratio room. At YFO he is in a setting of 9-
1 (child to teacher). At YFO he receives mental health support through The
Opportunity Alliance in the form of Play Therapy 50 minutes a week.
He lives at home with his mom and sees dad on weekends. Nikolai and mom
lived in a family shelter until September of 2011 when mom got her own apartment.
Mom reports that Nikolai was born at 37 weeks and weighed 5lbs. 2 oz. Mom
reports that the delivery was difficult. He had trouble nursing early on and mom
says he has always been fussy with textures. He has had a history of ear infections
and ruptured his eardrum when he was three years old. Mom reported that his
gross motor development was typical in that Nikolai was rolling and crawling by
five months and walking by 12 months.
Nikolai is transitioning to the Preschool room with a ratio of 9-1 (child to
teacher) and a group size of 18 children. He is coming from the Tykes room where
the group size is 13 and the ratio is 7-1. He will be attending Portland Public Pre-K
in the fall five mornings a week and All Aboard! five afternoons a week.

FEDLS
In working with Nikolai it was easy to see the different levels of Functional
Emotional Developmental Levels. I feel that he is strong in Levels 1,2 and 3.
However I can see spikes of upper levels in working with him on a one on one basis.
Based on observations and Floortime interactions I would feel comfortable placing
Nikolai at Functional Development Level 3. In order to move him up to a higher
level of FEDL I would challenge him more in conversations and ask more open
ended questions to open the circle of communication and follow his ideas more to
see where he will take them.

Level 1: Nikolai shows interest in many things in his environment. Everything from
toys to different activities, Nikolai is easy to engage in different activities in the
classroom. While in the classroom attending to activities he is calm and regulated.
During the video he is very interested in the puppets and the carrot that he brought
from home. He is easily distracted in his play and he can move from activity to
activity fairly quickly.

Level 2: Nikolai is comfortable with caregivers and a few familiar peers. He does
get shy in new situations and in the classroom tends to stick by a teacher. He is able
to engage in play with teacher prompting and with a familiar peer. When
introduced into an unfamiliar play situation Nikolai often engages in solitary play.
When there is a familiar peer at a center he will engage in parallel play and some
cooperative play with the familiar peer. Nikolai always seems happy in any given
situation and always has a smile on his face.

Level 3: During the Floortime sessions I observed Nikolai able to engage in opening
and closing of communication with ease. He is able to offer way he would like the
play to go. He also has great facial expression when engaging in communication and
play with another. He asks and answers questions and even can elaborate his ideas
in a play situation. His average circle of communication is 3 (open and close), in a
single interaction.

Level 4: Although I did not see Nikolai function at this level consistently, I did see
some higher level functioning. This includes longer chains of communication that
expressed his intent of how he wanted to play and where he wanted the play to go. I
challenged his play a little at this level and almost always Nikolai would back down
and switch his play to a more solitary level and communication would cease. When
allowed to shape how the play was going to go Nikolai engaged in longer
communication strands that conveyed emotions and gestures. These include happy,
sad, angry and sympathy. It also includes shrugging his shoulders and facial
expressions that mimic his emotions.

Level 5: I feel that Nikolai was able to reach this level a few times in the interactions.
He was able to create ideas of how some of the puppets would feel being locked in
the mailbox (Video #2). The pretend play Nikolai is able to engage in is at times
interactive however is mostly one sided. There are times I seen him play
interactively with the toys and equipment he is using. The words he uses and the
play he engages in is most of the time very superficial.

Level 6: I observed little to no functioning at this level. There was some connection
of ideas, such as when he was able to identify that the carrot on his nose made him a
snowman and that lions do not eat carrots. These links were few and far between
however they were apparent in the Floortime video #2.



Individual Differences:
Nikolai has several differences that make his day challenging and sometimes
unsuccessful. Goals have been identified by his regular and special education
teacher and are worked on throughout his day to make him successful in both
classrooms. The following differences are obtained through classroom observation
and IEP goals.
Nikolai has made limited progress in being able to answer yes or no
preference questions. Often Nikolai will put his head down, cross his arms or put
his head down when presented with challenging or demands that are confusing to
him. He tends to repeat the word of the object that he wants and will look away
from the object if he doesnt want it. He has also been observed flopping to the floor
as a response to verbal directions. These gestures are instead of verbalizing what
his wants and needs are. His expressive vocabulary has exploded from about 3
words in February of 2012 to present. He typically responds to where questions
by pointing to the desired person/place. In identifying colors, he is able to name 3
colors with a point prompt, however is not able to do so independently.
Physically, Nikolai has a difficult time with motor planning. He requires extra
verbal, visual and/or physical prompts to complete tasks. Nikolai tends to get easily
frustrated by skills that were challenging to him. He tends to give up and have little
perseverance. Emerging skills are standing on one foot, jumping forward, kicking a
ball and throwing a ball underhand and overhand. Nikolai has been observed
having flat feet and a slouched posture when sitting on the floor. He also uses his
arms to support himself in the sitting position. In walking and running it is
observed Nikolai has limited trunk rotation, running with his hands down at his
side. He appears to have poor core strength and tends to stay low to the ground I
his gross motor play, meaning shying away from the climber and playing chase or in
the sand box.
In the typical developing class, Nikolai tends to get lost in the class. He will
engage in parallel play however will not engage in pretend play with peers. He
bounces from center to center to stop and look at the equipment in each center and
then will move on. He was observed playing with the magnet boards beside a peer,
with no interaction between the two. He will also sit and look at books
independently during center time. Because of Nikolais lack of communication it is
hard for Nikolai to create strong peer bonds. He will participate in simple games
such as chase, however he does not follow the rules and will end up just running
with the children.

Reflection:
Nikolai is a child who is just transitioning into the preschool room at Youth
and Family Outreach. I choose to engage Nikolai in Floortime as an attempt to
create a bond with him and make his transition and time in the preschool room
more enjoyable and trusting.
During the sessions, I attempted to engage Nikolai by using materials that he
had brought from home or that he showed initial interest in. These items were the
carrot that was in video 1 and 2 and finger puppets that were in the therapy room.
While engaging in Floortime in the classroom items included a matchbox car. I often
took Nikolais lead in what he wanted me to do with the puppets (put them in the
mailbox or which puppets I was going to use). I challenged him by asking open-
ended questions during the session, this caused Nikolai to stop and think. On a
couple of occasions I would challenge his suggestions by placing a puppet in the
mailbox he didnt want in it or challenging him to clean up the toys before we was
ready.
During the sessions I noticed that Nikoali has sensitivity to loud noises. I
altered my voice to make sure I spoke low and slow for him to understand and be
able to tolerate the volume of my voice. I asked a combination of yes and no
questions and open-ended questions to get Nikoali talking to me and about what we
were doing. At times it seemed that Nikoali was going to stop engaging and retreat
into himself. By introducing him to new puppets or scenarios so that he would stay
engaged.
I tried on more than one occasion to get Nikolai to expand on the puppet
play. I tried to get him to engage in deeper pretend play where the puppets had
names and a storyline, however Nikoalis play was fairly linear and true to life.
Nikoali wavered with his ability to answer open-ended questions; more often than
not I would re-ask the questions in a yes or no format.
I feel that the sessions went fairly well. I believe that Nikolai was engaged
and happy in both sessions we had together. I feel that because this was my first
experience with the Floortime model and I wanted to create a bond with Nikolai, I
did not challenge him enough. I feel that I could have pressed him to follow a
different storyline than the one he was playing. I also feel that by challenging him I
could have helped move Nikolai onto the upper levels of FEDLs.
I learned that Floortime is an excellent way to be able to engage a child who
is differently abled. I think that by engaging in Floortime with Nikolai, I was able to
see his interests and gauge what level he was able to do. In reflecting back on the
experience I found that videotaping is such a huge bonus. By videotaping I was able
to watch and assess what FEDL level Nikolai was at and brainstorm on ideas to
elevate him to the next level. Also by being his primary education teacher, I was
able to take this experience and apply concepts learned into the classroom to help
engage him with peers. I think that I will bring the puppets to a quiet area and invite
a peer over and the three of us will play with the puppets. I will take the lead from
Nikolai and the other child can follow my lead. This will be able to create a bond
with a peer and hopefully engage in deeper pretend play.
Overall I found that this experience is extremely valuable. I feel that as a
primary teacher it is essential for me to know and understand where the children
are. This goes for typically and non-typical developing children. I feel that if I was
able to assess each individual child in a Floortime type model, I would be able to
teach even better to each childs individual needs and create a plan to elevate that
child to the next level. Floortime benefits the child by becoming engaged in play and
it benefits the teacher by offering important assessment information about the child.
The real trick is what a teacher does with the information obtained from Floortime
sessions.