1-- Following a child’s lead does not necessarily mean follow the child wherever they go, but rather follow the intent behind their actions. From there you can challenge, expand, or simply try to clarify the idea in order to not only stretch the interaction but also make it more meaningful. For example, if a child seems to place no value on any one toy or activity and simply "grazes" through activities, dropping one and picking up another; try to make a game of this. When they drop one toy, say "ok now let's try to find our next one" with high affect which will encourage them to acknowledge your presence and eventually the child will begin to "look forward" to "finding" the next treasure with you: adding meaning to the once before meaningless process.
2-- DIR®/Floortime is more a frame of mind rather than a period of time when you try to engage with you child. DIR®/Floortime is taking advantage of any situations/interactions in order to relate and communicate. This can happen while eating lunch, riding in the car, watching television, playing in the bathtub, etc. Your interactions with your child should always be intentional, helping them seek out future interactions and want to be engaged with you. For example, while eating lunch, instead of just sitting there silently or trying to force a conversation, become playful with the food using high affect in your voice and facial expressions, encouraging them to join you in the play. Don't worry about proper manners (unless you want to incorporate this playfully) or getting messy, just have fun. Soon your child will look forward to those mealtimes and interacting with you, seeking further engagement.
3-- No matter what your situation is, the reality is: "your child is most likely not at risk of not being able to read, write, or do math; your child is at risk for not being able to interact or communicate their thoughts and ideas". A good example of that happened when I first got started. I was building a train track with a child and a lot of our emphasis was on the train track itself. I got feedback that the child was not at risk of not knowing how to build a train track, but rather knowing how to play with a friend. With that, I started to push back on some of his ideas, proposed alternative ideas, and sometimes was purposefully confused about an idea so that he needed to clarify. In the end our game became all about our interaction rather than the train track.
4-- Hesitation, big affect, and unpredictability (without being overwhelming) are three great strategies for changing the interaction from a game to the people involved. For example, I was coaching a friend playing UNO with a child and the child was slumped over with all of his attention on the cards. In order to change this situation from being all about the game to more about the interactions I asked my friend to hesitate more, increase his affect, and become a little more unpredictable when laying down a card. Immediately the child sat up more and his attention was focused on my friend rather than his cards. They went on to play for half an hour laughing together, playfully teasing each other, and most importantly never losing the interaction between them.
When properly incorporating DIR®/Floortime into one's life, you will see it is not just a set time of day where you focus intently on Floortime strategies that is the most effective; it is incorporating these strategies into your child's life through as many interactions as possible.
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