Session with Tal, Jan 11

Summary:
Uma's interest was captured today by Tal's "platform" swing, which she pronounced as "platwood swing," and which reminded her of Margie's OT room. Tal then showed Uma other swings and they together named various kinds: cocoon swing, tire swing, hotdog swing, and helicopter swing. Soon afterwards, Uma asked for Fifi, a current favorite and recurring element over last few sessions. Fifi and her carriage-mates were taken to the platform swing and given a ride on it. Eventually, various other themes became woven in with Fifi and the swing - our recent trip to Washington, the Pande-Gordy family, bus rides, and the "volcano" from last week. The connections were rather loose (and in some cases absent) but Tal believes that they are better than they used to be, which indicates overall progress on Level 4 capacities (logical connections and problem solving). However, Uma was unwilling to accept suggestions for the development of the game - e.g.  Fifi was not allowed to use her wings to fly up to the swing, there were clear signals that Uma wouldn't allow Tal or I to speak in the voice of a character, and Uma did come to the verge of dysregulation on a couple of occasions.

Input from Tal:
Over the last few months, Tal has seen Uma make a number of strides in her play. Her play scenarios are more complex, her motor planning is much better, she seems more regulated, and when she does get upset she often recovers relatively easily. But these gains are not being accompanied by the symbolization of affect, and this is where Tal believes we need to direct more effort. Put differently, we need to start emphasizing the affective states of Fifi & Co in play - Are they scared? Disappointed? Frustrated? Excited? Why?

Notes:
* This is how Tal phrased the challenge: how can we work on expanding Uma's capacity take in and respond to affective states (be they her own or those of characters or playmates) while remaining regulated and connected to others during play and other activities?
* I noted that during playdates, when Uma's behavior upsets other kids their response usually reverberates back to her and her emotions ratchet up, resulting in meltdown. In other words, her ability to self-regulate breaks down easily when she is coping with intense affect from others. On a related note, I mentioned that Uma's is increasingly using affect in a tactical way, e.g. she is more than capable of shedding crocodile tears to get her way. However, this usually results in genuine emotional dysregulation.
* According to Tal, the playdate and crocodile tear situations both indicate two things:  (i) Uma now does have some inklings of "theory of mind"; (2) as yet, she has no recourse against being overwhelmed by the emotional states that she is learning to represent. In theory, then, we can promote (1) and start addressing (2) by trying to saturate that everything Uma says and does with intense affective implications.
* In one way, we can think of the objective as one of "desensitizing" her to affect so that she can represent and think about an intense emotion without having to feel it and get overwhelmed by it. In another way, we can think about expanding the repertoire of levels on which she can take in affect - as an idea, a symbolic representation, etc.
* Tal suggests videotaping part of a playdate and bringing it in for consultation.