• Training and Education Programs

Building capacity at the local, regional, national and international level

Within its 15 years, ICDL has provided and continues to provide increasing training and supervision opportunities, including 15 annual conferences, 10 DIR® Institutes, 3 regional DIR®Floortime™and numerous pre and post conference workshops. The DIR®Floortime™ Training Program has created a group of world class professionals across multiple areas of expertise that are extending the reach of the DIR®Floortime™ Model by giving related conferences around the country and the world. ICDL is expanding its educational opportunities by including the ICDL Graduate School, which offers a PhD in Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health and Developmental Disorders using a distance learning format. The ICDL Graduate School (fully approved by the California Bureau for Private Post secondary and Vocational Education as a degree granting institution) began operations in June 2007 and currently has 80 enrolled students who represent a diverse range of disciplines including psychology, mental health, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology and education. ICDL also started a Distance Learning initiative, offering an online edition of the 2012 annual conference to hundreds of parents and professionals who could not attend in person.

• Research

Advancing the prevention, early identification, treatment and evaluation of emotional and developmental disorders

There is significant need to expand research initiatives to further develop, refine, and culturally validate measurement instruments and to evaluate the effectiveness of the DIR®Floortime™ Model.  Aware of this need, ICDL is currently supporting several new research initiatives, including two studies conducted in collaboration with the Milton and Ethel Harris Research Initiative: “Early Diagnosis of Social-Communicative Deficits and the Development of Autism”, and “Behavioral and Neurological Outcomes of Intensive DIR® Interventions for Autism”, as well as a long-term follow up of children who were diagnosed with ASD but have had an outstanding outcome.

• Publications

Expanding interdisciplinary knowledge through new books and peer reviewed journal

ICDL has published and disseminated over 40 innovative products, including: 12 books, 12 journals, 23 Best Practices Newsletters, a complete Floortime DVD training series, and 12 Floortime training videotapes. In addition, ICDL is collaborating with The Council on Human Development (www.councilhd.ca) and the Milton and Ethel Harris Research Initiative (www.mehri.ca) to jointly publish the Journal of Developmental Processes (JDP), a peer-reviewed journal that expands and replaces the Journal of Developmental and Learning Disorders. The JDP has published three volumes, which are available at no cost on the ICDL website.  In the coming year ICDL plans to publish a Spanish translation of the Affect-Based Language Curriculum (ABLC) and a User’s Guide, in both Spanish and English, to accompany the Functional Emotional Assessment Scale (FEAS). If you are not in our e-mailing list yet and you would like to receive an email from ICDL announcing when these publications become available click here

• Regional, National and International Networks

Facilitating and Strengthening Networks of Parents & Professionals working towards redefining each child’s potential

ICDL has reached more than 20,000 parents and professionals from all 50 states and over 80 foreign countries, speaking many different languages. Several states and countries are creating their own local and regional DIR® networks to further promote interdisciplinary dialogue and disseminate the use of the DIR®Floortime™ model. ICDL has created a list of DIR® Professionals who have completed or are in advanced stages of completing their certification training in the DIR®Floortime™ model or are second year PhD candidates at the Graduate School.

• ICDL Website and Electronic Newsletter:

An interactive portal for engaging in interactive thinking and learning, and sharing knowledge and ideas

The ICDL website is a useful resource for anyone interested in the DIR®Floortime™ Model. The site is complemented with electronic newsletters that periodically highlights; new training opportunities, publications, regional networks, and innovative programs and research. If you are not in our e-mailing list yet and you would like to start receiving these e-newsletter click here

• Infant Mental Health

Promoting healthy early child development and infant mental health at the family, community and policy level

We not only want each child to reach his or her potential, but to redefine that potential. It is impossible to know what a child is truly capable of until we have an optimal program tailored to that child’s unique characteristics. In 2006 ICDL published the CDC/ICDL Collaboration Report on a Framework for Early Identification and Preventive Intervention of Emotional and Developmental Challenges. ICDL is developing health promotion, prevention and intervention materials that can be used by pediatricians, home visitors and community programs to tailor interventions to each child and family’s needs, based on the DIR®Floortime™ Model