Floortime

The following article on Floortime was written by Stanley Greenspan for the Geneva Center for Autism. The original can be viewed at the Geneva web site by clicking here.

Developmental Approach to Problems in Relating and Communicating in Autistic Spectrum Disorders and Related Syndromes

Stanley I. Greenspan, M.D.
7201 Glenbrook Road
Bethesda, MD 20814

• Introduction
• The Six Fundamental Developmental Skills
• The Developmental Approach to Common Special-Needs Syndromes
• The Individual Profile
• The Developmental, Individual-Difference, Relationship-Based (D.I.R.) Assessment and Intervention Program
• Principles of Intervention
• Reconsidering Aspects of the Goals of Speech and Language Therapy
• Recommended Reading
• References

Introduction

During the past 20 years, we have created a developmental approach, the Developmental, Individual-Difference, Relationship-Based (D.I.R.) model. DIR engages a child at her current level of functioning, works with the unique features of her nervous system, and utilizes intensive interactive experiences that are part of ongoing relationships to enable her to master new capacities.

The D.I.R. model enables us to look at developmental disorders in a unique way. Traditionally, we have looked at children with special needs in terms of syndromes. We have used the global labels "autistic," "autistic spectrum," "pervasive developmental disorder (P.D.D.)," "mental retardation," "Down syndrome," and so on. Underlying these assumptions is the belief that children classified under each syndrome are very similar to each other-more similar than they are different. But in recent years, as we have looked at the development of infants and very young children, the focus has shifted from older children, who have lived with these syndromes for years, to children one to three-years-old who are just beginning to show problems. We've formed a different picture of the nature of these challenges. We've found that children who have been traditionally grouped in the same categories are quite different from each other. In some cases, the differences are greater than the similarities.

As we have worked with many different types of children, from the time they were babies until they were eight, nine, or ten, we have evolved a developmental model for working with children. This approach focuses on helping each child climb the developmental ladder; specifically, it works to help each child master the six fundamental developmental skills that underlie all our intelligence and interactions with the world. The achievement of each of these skills represents a new level, or milestone, of development.

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