Not really Floortiming - YIKES

How STUPID am I!!!!!
And while I would rougly consider myself to be a Floortime Mama I realized I am not truly doing Floortime

The principles that I have been following well are

Getting down on the floor and playing
Starting up with a little imaginative play
Opening and closing many circles of communication ( but not necessarily in a row and not necessarily starting with the child’s lead )

The things I have been doing badly are

Extending the circles of communication in a row and

Starting the circles from following the child's lead

I was listening to the Stanley Greenspan Podcast titled “how to follow the child’s lead and still move them up the developmental ladder” and a sentence really struck a chord with me – “if when you are doing Floortime with your child and you can predict the response that your child is going to make then you are not really doing Floortime…..if you can predict it then you are basically doing rote patterns of play not really Floortime… and the child is basically responding from a memory pattern not really creating a new interaction ”
Well I honestly can predict what R is going to do pretty much all the time – because there are these typical games we play – example
I will sing and we will do the actions to song or I will say 1….2 …..( build anticipation ) till R has the great look of expectation on his face and is already giggling and go Tickle tickle tickle tickle ( with tickling him )
Serena Wider his colleague also mentioned that Sensory activities while they are a lot of fun are not the end all of Floortime – Well that is exactly what I have been doing

I will describe yesterday evening after I got back from work – yesterday I actually was mindful of this and tried to use playing dumb as a Technique but it was a big struggle
4.15 – 4.45 – snuggle on the couch
4.45- 5.25 – play with pillows on the bed – make “baby sandwich” – laughing and tickling
5.30 – 6.30 – ABA therapist
6.30 – 7.00 – nothing – R is busy stimming post therapy
7.00 – 7.30 – feed him dinner while he sees Little Einstein’s –sing the songs in the episode and he and I will do some of the actions
7.30 – 8.45 – read book together with him on potty – 5 minutes – spend an hour in bathtub while he holds up various numbers and alphabet for me to say , sing to some Sesame street Songs
8.45 – 9.30 – rock him to sleep ( or not as in the case yesterday ) – 9.30 settle him with a Math DVD and some Animal crackers and tell DH that R is now his !!!