I am not sure if most of you have the same perception about DIR/Floortime. Well, I have to say, I was under the assumption that Floortime was more for small children and that I had missed the boat with my “soon to be 5 year old.” I was pleasantly surprised that when I signed up to train online with Dr. Greenspan on two other issues, Floortime was part of the package deal. So, at first I was planning on moving along quickly but much to my surprise this method can work at any age. Weather you are playing dolls or trucks with your little one or playing a puzzle or craft project with your older children…it works for all ages. It was so eye opening for me. Here I am thinking that I am always talking to my kids and trying to get them to interact with me, but I was approaching it all wrong….who knew? So, I am going to give you a few tips that I learned by training with Dr. Greenspan. Please note, I am not a therapist or even an expert in this area (still awaiting my test results lol). But, I do think I can tap into what I learned and send it along to you. And, as always…..I am free to chat to share more examples. If I try to put everything on-line it gets to be too much. Ok, so here it goes….
This is what Dr. Greenspan states in his training:
Enter the child’s world through back and forth conversations, pretend play
Your point of entry is the child’s interests
Follow the child’s lead to draw him into a shared world
Challenge the child to move up and master higher level
Redefine each child’s potential by the intervention you create
Do not know the outcome in advance
Key is creating an optimal program and increasing the child’s learning curve
Not trying to make the child reach a predefined potential
Even with slow progress it is very important to stay with the basics while pursuing new innovations.
So, how does that translate into the “real world”…it is all about completing the circles of communication. In the attached document Dr. Greenspan describes in more-depth an overview on Floortime as well as provides and example of a young boy that started with the therapy as a toddler thru his progress as a 6year old. Also, I think the most important thing about Floortime is that the parent is supposed to be trained. Yes, it can be done by therapists, but Dr. Greenspan believes that the parents must be involved and using the techniques as well. Enjoy!
I am not sure if most of you have the same perception about DIR/Floortime. Well, I have to say, I was under the assumption that Floortime was more for small children and that I had missed the boat with my “soon to be 5 year old.” I was pleasantly surprised that when I signed up to train online with Dr. Greenspan on two other issues, Floortime was part of the package deal. So, at first I was planning on moving along quickly but much to my surprise this method can work at any age. Weather you are playing dolls or trucks with your little one or playing a puzzle or craft project with your older children…it works for all ages. It was so eye opening for me. Here I am thinking that I am always talking to my kids and trying to get them to interact with me, but I was approaching it all wrong….who new? So, I am going to give you a few tips that I learned by training with Dr. Greenspan. Please note, I am not a therapist or even an expert in this area (still awaiting my test results lol). But, I do think I can tap into what I learned and send along it to you. And, as always…..I am free to chat to share more examples. If I try to put everything on-line it gets to be too much. Ok, so here it goes….
This is what Dr. Greenspan states in his training:
Enter the child’s world through back and forth conversations, pretend play
Your point of entry is the child’s interests
Follow the child’s lead to draw him into a shared world
Challenge the child to move up and master higher level
Redefine each child’s potential by the intervention you create
Do not know the outcome in advance
Key is creating an optimal program and increasing the child’s learning curve
Not trying to make the child reach a predefined potential
Even with slow progress it is very important to stay with the basics while pursuing new innovations.
So, how does that translate into the “real world”…it is all about completing the circles of communication. In the attached document Dr. Greenspan describes in more-depth an overview on Floortime as well as provides and example of a young boy that started with the therapy as a toddler thru his progress as a 6year old. Also, I think the most important thing about Floortime is that the parent is supposed to be trained. Yes, it can be done by therapists, but Dr. Greenspan believes that the parents must be involved and using the techniques as well. Enjoy!
http://hss.state.ak.us/ocs/ECCS/pdf/ClimbingtheSymbolicLadder.pdf
