A note from Dr. Solomon
Hello and welcome to The P.L.A.Y. Project® website. My name is Rick Solomon and I am the Medical Director of The P.L.A.Y. Project. For over 15 years, as a developmental and behavioral pediatrician, I have been working with parents, agencies and communities to help young children with autism reach their full potential.
I am very excited to announce that we have received a $1.85 million grant from the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) that will fund a randomized, controlled study of our model. We are now another step closer to our goal of addressing the national need for play-based intensive autism services. You can read more about this exciting news here.
The goal of The P.L.A.Y. Project is to help parents become their child’s best play partner by providing effective, low cost, playful interventions right at home.* This website describes the many ways that we achieve this goal: through evaluations at the Ann Arbor Center for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics; through home consultation with parents; through trainings for professionals and parents; and through parent support.
An evaluation of The P.L.A.Y. Project Home Consulting Program has been published by a highly regarded scientific journal. Now there is growing scientific evidence that parents can learn the methods of The P.L.A.Y. Project and that most of the young children with autistic spectrum disorders can make substantial developmental progress when parents use our methods consistently. These methods are fun, based in child development and respectful of the child’s individuality.
The P.L.A.Y. Project believes that young children with autism and their parents should have a close and interactive relationship. It is heart breaking for me to see children with autism who cannot relate well to their parents. It is the most rewarding experience to help parents connect with their child and to see them have fun together.
So get on board, and enjoy your ride through The P.L.A.Y. Project website!
Sincerely yours,
Dr. Rick
*The PLAY Project is indebted to and based on the DIR® model of Stanley Greenspan MD and Serena Weider PhD.
