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Visual-spatial processing has a dynamic role in the integration of multiple developmental pathways including movement, navigation, perception, sensation, and body scheme formation. It is a force in the organization of symbolization, regulation, emotions, directional language, interpersonal distance, the construction of knowledge and a sense of agency and security.
This conference is an in-depth examination of this overlooked and under-addressed dimension of development in concept, implication and application to practice across disciplines. It is an opportunity to understand various visual-spatial and movement strengths and challenges that are often missed. Learn practical strategies to apply in the home, clinic, and classroom.
This conference will “open your eyes” to the mind’s inner world of visual-spatial knowledge with our renowned interdisciplinary experts, featuring Temple Grandin, illustrating how you too can add this dimension to your intervention goals.
A warm welcome to our 2023 Winter Conference on visual-spatial processing.
Visual-spatial development occupies multiple areas of the brain and intersects the pathways of all sensory and motor processing as well as emotional and cognitive functions. This conference will help you think more broadly about this important and often overlooked domain: what these challenges look like, how visual-spatial capacities develop, how they work in parallel with the functional emotional developmental capacities, and what their intersecting pathways are. We will examine the impact of visual-spatial experience and processing on all developmental areas, as DIR therapists of different disciplines illustrate how emotions can be used to harness each child’s capacities to think and resolve visual-spatial challenges. This conference will “open your eyes” to the mind’s inner world of visual-spatial knowledge with our renowned interdisciplinary experts, featuring Temple Grandin, illustrating how you too can add this dimension to your intervention goals.
Serena Wieder, PhD, Conference Chair; Gilbert M. Foley, EdD, IMH-E, Conference Co-chair
Carrie Alvarado, PhD, OTR; Cortney Grove, MA, CCC-SLP; Mehrnaz Green, OD, FCOVD; Maureen Karwowski, OTR/L; Bari Keller, PsyD; Karen McDowell; Ricki Robinson, MD, MPH; Traci; Swink, MD; Rosemary White, OTR/L
Visual-spatial processing is not a domain unto itself; rather, it has a dynamic role in the integration of multiple developmental pathways including movement, navigation, perception, sensation, and body
scheme formation. It is also a force in the organization of symbolization, regulation, emotions, directional language, interpersonal distance, the construction of knowledge and a sense of agency
and security.
This conference is an in-depth examination of this overlooked and under-addressed dimension of development in concept, implication and application to practice across disciplines and all developmental domains including, mental health, occupational and physical therapy, speech and language, education, creative arts, and developmental optometry, pediatrics, neurology, and neuroscience. DIR® embraces this complexity and diversity. It offers a comprehensive but unifying theory and integrated model that promotes foundational developmental areas of functioning, takes individual neurobiological differences in sensory and motor processes into account, and promotes the power of relationships to advance developmental progress and mental health.
This is your opportunity to understand various visual-spatial and movement strengths and challenges that are often missed. Learn practical strategies to apply at home, clinic, and classroom to realize individual potential and enhance developmental outcomes.
As a result of attending this conference, participants will be able to:
- Define the meaning and parameters of visual-spatial strengths and challenges
- Identify four developmental pathways derailed by visual-spatial challenges
- Describe three visual-spatial strategies to apply in your practice to improve outcomes
Sliding Scale Registrations
Profectum is committed to providing equitable access to our conferences across a wide span of constituencies, including across our many international stakeholders and attendees. To remove barriers to attendance, we are pleased to offer a sliding scale of registration fees. The “Community Supported” fee is available for anyone with financial or other hardships. The “Standard” fee is the set cost. The “Pay It Forward” fee enables you to assist in covering costs for others. There are no separate forms or processes; each registrant should choose the amount they are comfortable paying, and register at that price.
Keynote Presenters
Marcus White, PhD, Doctor of Speech Therapy
Discovering a Child’s Visual-Spatial Development in the DIR® Model
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Discovering a Child’s Visual-Spatial Development in the DIR® Model
An under-addressed dimension of development, visual-spatial processing (VSP) has not received the attention it deserves. VSP is related to all dimensions of development, with intersecting pathways throughout the brain integrating sensations and motion embedded in our bodily experience. It captures the meanings of what we see, how we move, and how we think, relate and feel. Most of us have known the anxiety of being “lost in space”, the frustration of seeking objects “hidden in plain sight”, or had difficulty navigating: all of these are direct functions of visual-spatial processing. We have observed children who exhibit repetitive behaviors, are afraid of separation, avoid the playing field, line up their cars not knowing what direction to move in, have difficulty knowing what to do next as they play, and confuse language and communication sequences. Challenging behaviors and learning difficulties are often part of visual-spatial issues both off and on the autism spectrum, related to developmental gaps and the dynamic relationships between different developmental systems.These issues may be evidenced by the individual’s becoming visually bound and dependent on visual anchors that impede comprehension and can become the precursors of panic, anxiety, and obsessive tendencies. Visual-spatial processes also impact cognition and mediate the construction of symbolic play, depending on the visualization in the “mind’s eye”. Perhaps the greatest impact of visual-spatial processing challenges is on the sense of self and security in the world. This session will illustrate how the development of visual-spatial knowledge bridges the understanding of both spatial and temporal aspects of functional emotional developmental capacities in the DIR® model and their parallel developmental progressions.
As a result of attending this presentation, participants will be able to:
- Identify three ways visual-spatial processing impacts the development of symbolization,abstract thinking, and emotional regulation.
- Compare the six parallel levels of DIR®’s functional emotional developmental and visual-spatial capacities.
- Describe how visual-spatial processes relate to adaptive living, behavioral, learning and emotional challenges
Discovering a Child’s Visual-Spatial Development in the DIR® Model
Marcus White, PhD, Doctor of Speech Therapy
Vision is More Than 20/20
Routine eye exams are good for routine cases, primarily checking acuity. Vision, however, occurs in the “mind’s eye”, in many areas of the brain, and relates to other sensory and motor systems, as well as to emotional, social and cognitive functions impacting all pathways of development. This session will identify common visual-spatial challenges in typical and neurodiverse development (ASD, SPD), related to common maladaptive behaviors such as poor visual attention, difficulty finding objects in plain sight, and toe walking. Challenges related to eye movement control, binocular vision (eye teaming), central and peripheral vision, accommodative skills (eye focusing) and visual perceptual understanding (understanding what you see) will be explained. A visuo-cognitive examination, including spatial location, dynamic vision, vision's role in gait and movement in space, and visual perceptual skills will be previewed and demonstrated on Day 2 with illustrations of how visual therapy addresses these challenges.
As a result of attending this presentation, participants will be able to:
- Explain the difference between sight and vision
- List three examples of visual-spatial processing challenges
- Identify three accommodations related to visual-spatial challenges
Vision is More Than 20/20
Marcus White, PhD, Doctor of Speech Therapy
Broadening Perspectives to Optimize Development and Success in School Settings
Educational settings provide a lens into how a child is experiencing and deriving meaning and understanding from their world and integrating developmental pathways through the visual-spatial capabilities. The school curriculum and associated concepts, social and emotional advancement, and environmental navigation are broadly impacted by the synthesis of visual information. Assessment-driven instruction and support demonstrate positive outcomes and success in learning frameworks.
As a result of attending this presentation, participants will be able to:
- Identify three examples of the impact of visual-spatial capacities on learning in classroom settings
- Describe two developmental interventions through an educational lens, as demonstrated by the videos and example activities
- List two strategies that will support a child’s unique visual-spatial profile
Broadening Perspectives to Optimize Development and Success in School Settings
Marcus White, PhD, Doctor of Speech Therapy
Great Minds Are Not All the Same
In the twenty-five years since writing Thinking in Pictures, Temple Grandin’s observations and studies have further defined visual thinking, which like most traits, occurs on a spectrum where visual and verbal thinking exist along a continuum. Most people do not understand how their minds work, but use a combination of different modes of visual thinking and verbal sequential and linear thinking to navigate their
world. As an advocate of all types of minds, Dr. Grandin emphasizes the importance of understanding how children think to know how they learn, and to look beyond labels and to see what visual thinkers and neurodiverse people can offer.
As a result of attending this presentation, participants will be able to:
- Describe 3 ways to encourage the development of a child’s visual thinking
- Explain the difference between object and spatial visualizers
- Identify their own place on the spectrum of visual and verbal learning
Great Minds Are Not All the Same
Marcus White, PhD, Doctor of Speech Therapy
Panel Discussion: The Spectrum of Visual-Spatial Pathways Across Developmental Domains
Unlike other sensory-motor challenges, visual-spatial processing is not treated as a separate clinical or learning disorder or diagnosis, nor is it one. The body of visual-spatial knowledge is not a discipline unto itself, though it is claimed by many disciplines or the important role it plays in their approaches. In fact, visual-spatial has significant implications for all disciplines, including mental health, occupational and physical therapy, speech and language, education, creative arts, developmental optometry, pediatrics, neurology, and neuroscience. This panel will examine the spectrum of visual-spatial pathways across developmental domains in all the disciplines within the DIR® scope of practice.The panel consists of mental health therapists, occupational therapists, speech and language pathologists, and educators, as well as a dance movement therapist, a pediatric neurologist and a developmental optometrist. Each panelist will describe how visual-spatial relates to their patients’ navigation of their world, what the experts see as challenges, and how different disciplines use each other’s knowledge to improve function and integrate development in a “team meeting” like no other.
As a result of attending this presentation, participants will be able to:
- Describe the multiple pathways visual-spatial processes cross in relation to your work
- Identify three challenges related to visual-spatial processing in your work
- List three ways visual-spatial challenges impact emotions, sense of self and agency
Panel Discussion: The Spectrum of Visual-Spatial Pathways Across Developmental Domains
Marcus White, PhD, Doctor of Speech Therapy
Master Class Sessions - Mental Health
List of Master Class Sessions on Mental Health
The Spectacle of Attachment
A secure attachment is a powerfully protective enduring emotional tie to a loved nurturer. It is more often associated with origins in contact comfort and soothing co-regulation, but less often linked to
vision and visual-spatial processing. This presentation shines light on the affirmation of the baby’s very “being” by seeing and being seen, the baby’s discerning the uniqueness of mother by visual
comparative scanning between her and “other”, the security in visually finding and navigating back to the loved caregiver across space like a beacon beckoning baby back to base for affirmation
and emotional refueling. The presentation also highlights the challenges and help DIR® affords when those systems work differently.
Marcus White, PhD, Doctor of Speech Therapy
Visual-Spatial Processing, the Sense of Self and Continuation of Experience
Within the DIR® model, visual-spatial processing is considered an important aspect of the child’s individual profile. It affects not only the way the child perceives and processes the world, but also the
way he/she interacts with the people around him and anticipates actions in his environment. This presentation will shed light on the impact of visual-spatial processing challenges on the development
of the child’s sense of self and interactions with others. Video case illustrations will highlight the ways in which awareness of visual-spatial processes informs psychotherapy with children as well as parent
guidance.
Marcus White, PhD, Doctor of Speech Therapy
Master Class Sessions - Speech-Language Therapy
List of Master Classes on Speech Language Therapy
Binocular Dysfunction from an Adult Perspective: Personal Stories and Implications for Communication
It can be difficult for clinicians to understand the lived experiences of young children with visual processing challenges. This session will highlight a dual perspective—clinician and patient. A
speech-language pathologist will describe their own personal journey living with binocular dysfunction, including difficulties in early childhood, school-based learning, and significant complications in
adulthood and vision therapy. Finally, the clinician will highlight some personally informed perspectives regarding communication development interrupted by visual processing difficulties.
Marcus White, PhD, Doctor of Speech Therapy
Marcus White, PhD, Doctor of Speech Therapy
General Overview
This conference program is pending CE approval for occupational therapy, speech-language therapy, psychology, social work, mental health counseling, and marriage and family therapy. Credits will only be available for learners who attend via Zoom and attend the full scheduled program. No partial credit will be available.
Welcome Session
Discovering a Child’s Visual-Spatial Development in the DIR® Model
Break
Vision is More Than 20/20
Broadening Perspectives to Optimize Development and Success in School Settings
Mindful Moment & Lunch
Great Minds Are Not All the Same
Break
Panel Discussion: The Spectrum of Visual-Spatial Pathways Across Developmental Domains
Closing Remarks
General Information
Written cancellation or change notifications must be received no later than Friday, January 20, 2023 via email to emily.mohr@profectum.org. A cancellation/change processing fee of $25 will be charged. After January 20, 2023, no refunds or credit for future events will be given. Substitute attendees are welcome, but we must be notified with their name and contact information. Please understand that if you do not attend you are still liable for full payment.
Registrations and payments must be received no later than Friday, January 27, 2023. Confirmations and receipts are furnished by email. We DO NOT invoice for our events. All attendees or groups must have a paid registration prior to the event. Written cancellation or change notifications must be received no later than Friday, January 20, 2023 via email to emily.mohr@profectum.org. A cancellation/change processing fee of $25 will be charged. After January 20, 2022, no refunds or credit for future events will be given. Substitute attendees are welcome, but we must be notified with their name and contact information. Please understand that if you do not attend you are still liable for full payment. In the unlikely event that this program is cancelled, you will be notified
immediately via email and a credit will be issued toward a rescheduled conference, or the entire submitted registration fee will be refunded without further liability on the part of the organizer.