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What Is Floor Time?

Forum References FAQ's Quiz Lecture Introduction Frequently, when a child and caregiver play together, the adult’s tendency is to want to lead the child in order to teach and model desired skills and behavior. The Floor Time intervention breaks away from this type of play, by emphasizing the importance of letting the child take the lead, as seen by the following descriptors.

  • Floor Time is an intervention that is meant to foster the child’s sense of pleasure in relating to and interacting with others.
  • It is not designed as a teaching tool.
  • The Floor Time process is most typically done in the home with the child and a parent or professional.
    (It doesn’t have to take place on the floor, but it often does!)
  • It is recommended that parents are the first and primary play partners of the child.
  • The adult follows the child’s lead.
  • Activities should begin at the child’s developmental level.
  • Children should be encouraged to take the initiative and become as independent and self-sufficient as possible.

What Are the Principles of Floor Time?

Dr. Greenspan and his associates emphasize that Floor Time is an individualized intervention. It is developmental and relationship-based.

The three principles of Floor Time:

  1. Most cognitive skills that are developed within the first five years of life are based on relationships and emotions.
  2. According to Dr. Greenspan, children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and multisystem developmental disorders demonstrate three main areas of deficits:
    • difficulties in reacting to sensory stimulation, (over- or under-reacting to sound, sight, touch, movement)
    • difficulties with processing (making sense of, understanding) information
    • difficulties with motor planning/sequencing (coordinating movements to carry out everyday actions)
  3. Greenspan points out that children must be looked at as the unique individuals that they are. Instead of having one treatment for all children with autism spectrum disorder, each child should have a treatment that is tailored for their developmental levels, individual needs, interests, and emotions.
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