Key Reminders for Discussion Group Facilitators

  • Ground Discussions in Official Guidelines: Ensure group structure and interactions strictly adhere to the guidelines set on the Rules for Participation in Greenspan Discussion Groups page. Maintain a supportive, respectful, and focused environment for all attendees.
  • Leverage Office Hours & Group Structure Resources: Frequently draw from and refer participants to the operational details outlined on the Greenspan Office Hours & Discussion Groups page to keep sessions aligned with organizational goals and scheduling standards.
  • Drive Conceptual Explanations for Newcomers: Prompt group participants to articulate and break down core concepts from each assigned article as if they were explaining them directly to a caregiver or a professional brand-new to Greenspan Floortime.
    • Facilitator Prompt: “How would you explain Milestone 4 or ‘the continuous flow of interaction’ in simple, practical terms to a parent who has never heard of Floortime before?”
  • Facilitate Step-by-Step Descriptive Role-Play: Guide members through real-time, micro-level role plays where they describe exactly what they would do in a specific interaction.
    • Focus Area: Have participants specify exact language, posture, sensory adjustments, tone of voice, and incremental steps rather than speaking in general theoretical terms.
    • Facilitator Prompt: “Walk us through the exact 5 seconds after the child turns away—what is your physical positioning, what visual or auditory cue do you offer, and how do you wait for their response?”
  • Focus on Applied Greenspan Principles: Continually anchor discussions around practical Greenspan Floortime strategies—such as following the child’s lead, challenging them to build continuous circles of communication, and supporting regulation and sensory needs.
  • Encourage Reflective Peer Feedback: Foster an atmosphere where participants offer constructive observations on one another’s step-by-step role-play scenarios, reinforcing shared learning and clinical precision.

Study Questions

  1. What is the Greenspan/DIR model?
    1. An intervention that follows a chronological order to teach skills.
    2. Something you do to mitigate affective experiences available to children.
    3. Teaching a behavior to address a specific symptom a child displays.
    4. A model used to identify a child’s social-emotional strengths and weaknesses.
  2. Which is NOT a part of the Greenspan approach?
    1. Relating within meaningful, positive relationships
    2. Communication across all therapeutic curriculums
    3. Teaching a child an outcome, what to say, and what to do
    4. Encouraging a child to do the thinking
  3. The Greenspan approach is a parent-_____ approach and a therapist-____ approach.
    1. supported; centered
    2. centered; supported
    3. supported; directed
    4. advocated; centered