Dr. Greenspan identified that Floortime is most effective when it is the integrating force behind a comprehensive holistic program and is used in many facets of life. Home, school, and therapy programs should all be working together under the same developmental social-emotional framework to establish a universal set of goals to be maintained across environments...
(Stanley Greenspan MD Inc. does not support DIRFloortime or its licensor ICDL, read more….) It is said that children on the autism spectrum and autistic individuals live in their own world, or often retreat to their own worlds, especially when under stress. For adults who choose to have alone time, and/or meet their own needs,...
The Continuous Flow is part of Dr. Greenspan’s 4th social-emotional milestone and is the most important capacity within all of the milestones in his Greenspan/DIR™ Model. It identifies that by 18 months a child should be able to maintain an unstructured interaction for 20 or more circles of a dynamic reciprocal interaction. This capacity...
When applying an intervention for children with social-emotional challenges/delays, caregivers and professionals must maintain focus on the core fundamental process driving social-emotional development, sustained dynamic co-regulated interactions. Creating a sensory and emotionally supportive environment for a child can maximize the effectiveness of an intervention. However, if the environment does not support both the sensory and...
Let me start by saying that all trauma is perceived because trauma is defined by the mind and body’s response to intense experiences that threaten or cause harm. Trauma defines our individual emotional and physical response to these events and doesn’t define the event itself. This should not downplay the significance or impact of trauma. ...
While speech and language are very important tools that can help us effectively communicate, language is not the only type of human communication. Research has determined that 70%-93% of our communication is non-verbal (Mehrabian A. Silent messages: a wealth of information about nonverbal communication (body language) 2016 http://www.kaaj.com/psych/smorder.html). While there is still a debate about...
In the 1960’s, Jean Ayres, an occupational therapist, psychologist, and neuroscientist challenged traditional occupational therapy ideals by looking at the whole child and their perception and response to their environment, not simply focusing on specific components of a motor pattern. In 1972, Ayres stated that sensory systems develop in an integrated manner and depend on...
Research shows, and professionals agree, that having social interest and developing social skills are necessary for long term social-emotional health. However, there seems to be a common misconception that schools and ‘peer modeling’ are responsible for a child’s social skill development. While that would make everyone’s lives easier, it is simply not true. Social skills...
