The Three Pillars of Floortime Therapy

A mother sits around her child, but doesn’t get acknowledged. She hugs the kid, but the kid responds by running away and flapping the hands. Well, the child could be autistic. An autistic child's behaviour may seem to be “out of the world” for a non-professional observer.

Autism is a common developmental disability affecting the social and communication skills of an individual. It is much more common than one might think. There are several special needs schools in NYC that can help children cope with their developmental growth by employing several therapeutic techniques. The DIR/Floortime method is one such interdisciplinary and comprehensive approach that assumes emotions of children to be the foundation of their holistic development.




Floortime Therapy is the practical component of this child-centered approach and is adopted by several special needs schools in NYC. It helps children learn and develop through the application of several insights outlined by the developer of the approach, Dr. Stanley Greenspan. 

These insights are:
  • Emotions and relationships are the foundations of the growth of a child’s mind.
Interactions encourage special needs children to invest their interest and emotions in the world around them. These interactions lead to a child’s learning and cognitive development. According to Dr. Greenspan, every word in our language need to be experienced in order to be understood. A child must not rely on theoretical concepts, but rather experience the practical implementation of a word as well.

  • Each and every child has unique processing abilities.
Children with ASD process sounds, languages, and space around them differently. The processing includes motor planning, sequencing abilities, and sensory modulation of incoming stimuli. Children with autism may have issues with understanding ideas such as how space is organized in the form of walls of the room. The motor planning and sequencing abilities are the reasons behind certain behavior issues of children such as piling up things in a certain manner, for example.

Some children with ASD are likely to be more hypersensitive to certain stimuli, whereas some are under sensitive. It is important to accommodate the environment to suit the special needs of the children and familiarize them with environmental stimuli.

  • The Developmental Capacities of a Child
The varying aspects of motor development, language development, and cognitive development integrate into the overall functional development of a child. Observing and assessing this development help foster the acquisition of concepts, ideas, and skills through an emotion-based learning.

Floortime Therapy was developed by Dr. Stanley Greenspan and is considered by many to be a revolutionary approach to dealing with ASD. This approach allows certain special needs schools in NYC help autistic children reach developmental milestones crucial to their social, economic, and academic development.

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