Greenspan Floortime is Dr. Stanley Greenspan’s child-led developmental intervention. It builds the six Functional Emotional Developmental Milestones through warm relationship-based play that follows the child’s lead.
The Continuous Flow refers to the uninterrupted stream of emotional and communicative exchange between caregiver and child. Rather than letting interactions start and stop, experienced Floortimers learn to read cues and continuously redirect, expand, and enrich the exchange to maintain developmental momentum.
Maintaining the Continuous Flow requires reading the child’s moment-to-moment cues and adjusting to keep them engaged — following when they lead, expanding when they plateau, simplifying when they disengage. The caregiver keeps the emotional and communicative exchange flowing without interruption.
The Continuous Flow is especially important for children with autism who may have difficulty sustaining engagement. The Greenspan approach trains caregivers to gently redirect disengagement back into interaction — maintaining the flow rather than allowing the child to slip into self-absorbed activity.