FLOOR TIME

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FLOOR TIME

• Developmental Individual Differences
  Relationship-based Intervention
• (DIR)
• Floor time is one component

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Developed by psychiatrist Stanley Greenspan and
psychologist Serena Weider.
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• Help the child build the healthy foundations for
  relating, communicating and thinking.
• Mastering these healthy developmental foundations
  also helps children overcome their symptoms,
  usually more effectively than attempts to change
  symptoms alone.

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• The Floortime component of DIR - working with
  children at their current developmental level
• inducing them to interact and engage with others.
  
• This often requires the parent or professional to
  get down on the floor with a child - Floortime.
  
• Practitioners follow the childs lead, using
  intrinsic motivation to help the child move up
  the developmental ladder.

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• The claim is that intensive DIR therapy can lead
  to children with ASD becoming warmer, more
  engaging, and more communicative.
• One of the advantages to their approach, they
  feel, is that children can learn to be more
  flexible and spontaneous

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• The D (Developmental) part of the Model describes
  the building blocks of this foundation.
• Understanding where the child is developmentally
  is critical to planning a treatment program.

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I (Individual differences)

• describes the unique biologically-based ways each
  child takes in, regulates, responds to, and
  comprehends sensations such as sound, touch, and
  - planning / sequencing of actions / ideas.
• Biological Challenges describes the various
  processing issues that make up a child's
  individual differences and that may be
  interfering with his ability to grow and learn.

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R (Relationship-based)

• describes the learning relationships with
  caregivers, educators, therapists, peers, and
  others who tailor their affect based interactions
  to the childs individual differences and
  developmental capacities to enable progress in
  mastering the essential foundations. 

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• Floortime is a specific technique to both follow
  the childs natural emotional interests (lead)
  and at the same time challenge the child towards
  greater and greater mastery of the social,
  emotional and intellectual capacities. 
• With young children these playful interactions
  may occur on the floor, but go on to include
  conversations and interactions in other places.

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• 1. Floortime, spontaneous interactions during
  which the caregiver follows the child's lead and
  helps her elaborate
• Follow the child's lead
• Join in at the child's developmental level and
  build on her natural interests.
• Open and close circles of communications
• Create a play environment with rattles, balls,
  dolls, action figures, cars, trucks, schools,
  etc. that will provide a vehicle for the child's
  natural interests and facilitate opening and
  closing circles of communication.

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• Broaden the child's range of interactive
  experience
• Broaden the range of processing and motor
  capacities used in interactions
• Tailor your interactions to the child's
  individual differences in auditory processing,
  visual-spatial processing, motor planning and
  sequencing, and sensory modulation.

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• Simultaneously attempt to mobilize the six
  functional developmental levels
• attention,
• engagement,
• gestures,
• complex preverbal problem-solving,
• using ideas, and connecting ideas for thinking
• Younger children or children with developmental
  challenges will master the later levels as they
  develop

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2. Semistructured, problem-solving interactions,

• specific learning objectives are worked on
  through the creation of dynamic challenges that
  the child wants to solve.

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3. Motor, sensory, perceptual-motor, and
visual-spatial physical activities

• to strengthen important processing foundations.

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Greenspans Functional Emotional Development
Scale

• Self-regulation and interest in the world (3
  mos.)
• Forming relationships, attachment and engagement
  (8 mos.)
• Intentional two-way communication (9 mos.)
• Complex sense of self (12-36 mos.)
• Emotional ideas ( 24-36 mos.)
• Emotional thinking ( 36-48 mos.)

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Self-regulation and interest in the world

• Emerging interest in the world through the senses
• Critical in successful adaptation to the
  environment
• Result of physical maturation, caregiver
  responsivity and the infants adaptations to
  environmental demands
• Co-regulation - This is the basis for affect
  atonement
• If this doesnt develop, withdrawal from arousing
  stimuli may occur

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Emotional Ideas

• ! The creation, elaboration and sharing of
  symbols and meanings
• ! The individuals ability to represent or
  symbolize experience is illustrated in the
  pretend play, the verbal labelling of feelings
  and the functional use of language
• ! Internal sensations and unstable images become
  organized as multi-sensory, affective images
• ! The development of both object permanence and
  perspective-taking

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Emotional Thinking

• ! Building logical bridges between ideas
• ! Shared meanings are used to elaborate wishes
  and feelings and to categorize meanings and solve
  problems
• ! The child begins to differentiate actions of
  others from his own and between what is real and
  what unreal and what is right and wrong
• ! As well, impulse and mood regulation, dealing
  with conflict and finding prosocial outcomes

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What is Floortime?

• ! 20-30 minutes of uninterrupted play time
• ! Greenspan suggests 5 sessions per day
• ! Provide a play space that allows for some
  movement and exploration.

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Goals of Floortime

• ! Engagement
• ! Two-way communication
• ! Shared meaning
• ! Emotional thinking

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Strengthen Development

• ! Motor
• ! Sensory
• ! Language
• ! Cognitive

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Desired Goal Behaviors

• ! Be alert and aware
• ! Take initiative
• ! Be flexible
• ! Longer sequencing of actions
• ! Problem solving
• ! Tolerate frustration
• ! Take pleasure in learning
• ! Communicate gesturally and verbally
• ! Plan and execute

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Steps in Floor Time

• ! Observe
• ! Open circle
• ! Follow childs lead (or his intent)
• ! Extend and expand play
• ! Child closes circle

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Floor timers use

• ! Slow approaches
• ! Calm voices
• ! Speaking slowly
• ! Gentle looks
• ! Supportive gestures
• ! Non-intrusive
• ! Supportive listening

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Floor time behavior

• ! Mimic childs rhythms
• ! Get into childs themes
• ! Observe child
• ! Respect child
• ! Empathy for childs feelings
• ! Understand childs needs

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Ask open-ended questions

• ! Who?
• ! What ?
• ! Where?
• ! When?
• ! Why?
• ! How?

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Use Everyday Activities

• ! Dressing
• ! Meal times
• ! Car times
• ! Transition
• ! Bath time
• ! Reading time
• ! Bed time

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Props Needed

• ! Toy food
• ! Transportation
• ! Empathy and Nurturing of others
• ! Fantasy play
• ! Communications
• ! Reading
• ! Aggression fantasy
• ! Construction play
• ! Art play
• ! Outdoor play
• ! Constructive obstruction props

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Problem solve changes in

• ! Routines
• ! Expectations
• ! Personal wishes
• ! Daily challenges

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Encourage emotional themes of

• ! Closeness
• ! Pleasure
• ! Excitement
• ! Assertive curiosity
• ! Anger
• ! Limit setting
• ! Distress
• ! Recovery