Floortime

Floortime is a comprehensive treatment model for children with autism or other developmental disabilities and/or mental health issues, initially developed by the child psychiatrist Stanley Greenspan in the late 1970s with his collaborator Serena Wieder and others over the next 20 years. Floortime is in the developmental family of treatments, in contrast to, for instance, the behavioral family of treatments. The overarching goal of Floortime is to advance the child’s capacities in the developmental areas identified as key, including emotional regulation, social engagement, and, ultimately, a continuous flow of social interaction across increasingly complex social environments. This goal is in contrast to behavioral treatments that generally target teaching the child sets of increasingly difficult skills-based goals. Floortime is often couched within a comprehensive treatment framework ...