What an extraordinary time this is! With the launch of the ICDL E-Newsletter this spring, on-line opportunities for the DIR(R)/Floortime(TM) community continue to expand. Our e-magazine, Glimpse, has been launched and is a wonderful collection of artistic contributions from our families. You will find artwork, photography, poetry, essays, stories and more. It is beautiful. Our website, www.icdl.com continues to grow and provide many opportunities for learning, for finding programs and professionals and for networking.

Last month, Dr. Greenspan hosted the first online Infancy and Early Childhood Training Course.  Participants from all 50 states, 9 Canadian Provinces and over 50 countries worldwide attended this virtual conference as well as the post-conference workshop on Regulatory Sensory Processing Disorders taught by Rosemary White, OTR/L and Dr. Greenspan..  An online Forum provided opportunities for participants to meet, communicate, and share their impressions and stories.  The response by those registered for the course was overwhelming and made it clear that there is a large audience interested in building on the connections that were made during the conference.

The ICDL Graduate School continues to grow and is currently reviewing applications for the second class, starting in September 2008. Currently enrolled students participate in lectures led by renowned faculty  including Alan Fogel, Ph.D., Gil Foley, Ph.D., Stanley Greenspan, M.D., David Oppenheim, Ph.D., Stuart Shanker, Ph.D, Serena Wieder, Ph.D., and others, from the comfort of their homes. A few spaces are still available but the deadline is quickly approaching. Applications should  be submitted by July 1, 2008.

The upcoming DIR® Institute, headed by Serena Wieder, PhD, will be held in Leesberg, Virginia next month. This is an exciting opportunity for professionals to continue their coursework towards qualifying for a DIR® certificate. This year there will be a full array of courses including beginning, advanced, administrative and Floortime players. Our amazing faculty will gather from all over to provide special presentations, facilitate groups and serve as mentors for the participants.

Join us!  We would love to hear from you and urge you to contribute to your DIR® and Floortime™ community newsletter. Have an upcoming training, conference, parent group you'd like to be sure we cover? Please send us a note. Have an idea or question we should explore? Send that too.

Please note that submissions to the newsletter should be sent in "Word" format. Articles are selected by the editors and are subject to editorial approval and editing for space considerations. Some materials may be held back for future editions. All material that we publish in this newsletter is open to reprint by subscribers only, for their personal or practice use.

We're cooking now!

Thank you,

Jo Raphael, MSW, BCD
Lisa deFaria, LCSW, BCD
Editors
newsletter@icdl.com