ICDL's New Name

  

I am excited to announce ICDL’s new name! 

The International Council on Development and Learning

ICDL will begin doing business as the International Council on Development and Learning as of today. This change is happening for three main reasons. 

First, it represents our commitment to be a continually growing and developing organization that provides forward-looking leadership as the world continues to evolve. The concept of an “interdisciplinary” council was groundbreaking 32 years ago when ICDL began, but we have progressed so much further now and it is no longer groundbreaking nor does it sufficiently represent our current transdisciplinary work. But don’t be alarmed, we are not abandoning interdisciplinary work. The difference now is simply that we have developed from being interdisciplinary to being much more transdisciplinary. You’ll see how this is impacting our training program as we unveil the newly revised DIRFloortime® professional certificate training curriculum in the coming months. 

In the near future, I will be writing more about the importance of a transdisciplinary focus and even engaging in antidisciplinary focused work to further our understanding of the entire whole person and not a person defined by the scope of the currently existing disciplines. This is such an important area for consideration and reflection. ICDL will continue to lead and challenge the DIR® community and the world at large to understand humans more holistically than ever before and we will work to support practices in the field that foster meaningful holistic human development. 

Secondly, we are changing our name to the International Council on Development and Learning because of the incredible international movement that ICDL is leading to bring a DIR-focused understanding of development and learning to everyone around the world. I am proud to say that ICDL now offers DIRFloortime® certificate courses in 16 different languages taught by professionals that are native speakers of these languages. We know that there are at least three more languages being added to the list in 2022 with initiatives underway in other countries around the world to build the capacity to have DIR® experts developed there too. For example, I am off to Japan in just a few days to spearhead our efforts there. When I started with ICDL in 2013, we were teaching DIRFloortime® courses in 3 different languages. By the end of 2022, it will be at least 19! This is being international!  

Finally, ICDL is shifting to be the International Council on Development and Learning because it better represents our leadership role in the field. ICDL is the future of development and learning. While ICDL has a strong deep 32-year history, our focus today is on leading into the future. We can fully respect and appreciate the history and hold true to the integrity of the evidence-based approach DIRFloortime® is while at the same time progressing into the future as we learn more and more from research, clinical practice, advocates, and the broader world in general. 

This week ICDL will be announcing several new future-focused initiatives and developments that will help you see the progressive work that is happening. The name change helps us catch up to where we have been moving in recent years and helps to define who we are as leaders into the future. ICDL is not only the Home of DIR® and DIRFloortime®, ICDL is also the future of development and learning.