The Art of Floortime

Play has been acknowledged as an essential part of children’s growth and development. Throughout the years, experts on child development have been researching on different approaches to make meaningful and effective play strategies.

So, have you heard of Floortime? You may or may have not heard about this, but it surely is widely used approach for children to progress in their emotional and intellectual growth. This is a relationship-based therapy for children with autism and other developmental delays, created by child psychiatrists Stanley Greenspan, M.D. and Serena Wieder, PhD. They based it on the Developmental Individual-difference Relationship-based model (DIR) that Dr. Greenspan has developed in the 1980s as therapy for children with developmental delays and issues.

The Objective Behind

As simple as how the illustration of floortime looks like – an adult and a child playing on a mat or on the floor – there is a specific goal painted for this certain intervention scenario.

Meeting the child where he is.

Parents or interventionists get down on the floor with the child to have a play and interaction with the child at their level. The adults engage children by following the activities that the child enjoys. To put it simply, they enter the child’s game and follow their lead.

Expanding the child’s circle of communication.

One of the goals of floortime is to help children be directed into more complex interaction. This helps children build emotional connection and improve communication skills by learning how to recognize emotions, express or communicate their needs and wants and as well as to build better receptive skills.

Encourage and embrace inclusion.

Floortime can also be used in preschool settings and the back-and-forth play that this method emphasizes helps children embrace inclusion with their developing peers.

The Expected Outcomes

As we let the child explore through these types of play, we are giving them opportunities to develop or achieve milestones of self-regulation, interest and awareness, two-way communication, emotional thinking and a lot more.

The art of floortime may look simple indeed, but it delves deep and gives you traces that enables you to connect to the beauty and brilliance of a child’s potential.