What is Floortime?
Frequently, when a child and caregiver play together, the adult’s tendency is to want to lead the child in order to teach and model desired skills and behavior. The Floor Time intervention breaks away from this type of play, by emphasizing the importance of letting the child take the lead, as seen by the following descriptors.
- Floor Time is an intervention that is meant to foster the child’s sense of pleasure in relating to and interacting with others.
- It is not designed as a teaching tool.
- The Floor Time process is most typically done in the home with the child and a parent or professional.
- It is recommended that parents are the first and primary play partners of the child.
- The adult follows the child’s lead.Activities should begin at the child’s developmental level.
- Children should be encouraged to take the initiative and become as independent and self-sufficient as possible.
The three principles of Floortime
Most cognitive skills that are developed within the first five years of life are based on relationships and emotions.According to Dr. Greenspan, children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and multisystem developmental disorders demonstrate three main areas of deficits:
- difficulties in reacting to sensory stimulation, (over- or under-reacting to sound, sight, touch, movement)
- difficulties with processing (making sense of, understanding) information
- difficulties with motor planning/sequencing (coordinating movements to carry out everyday actions)
Greenspan points out that children must be looked at as the unique individuals that they are. Instead of having one treatment for all children with autism spectrum disorder, each child should have a treatment that is tailored for their developmental levels, individual needs, interests, and emotions.
Dr. Greenspan Speaks
Dr. Greenspan and his associates emphasize that Floor Time is an individualized intervention. It is developmental and relationship-based.
Floortime Terms
Closing the Circle: Allowing the child to close the circle when child brings your extensions and expansions to a close.
Emotional Thinking: The child leans to elaborate fantasies and to make connections between different ideas. (3 to 5 years)
Engagement: Babies coo, smile, gesture and exchange motor movements with their partners. (0 to 8 months)
Extending and Expanding the Drama: Tuning in to the child's imagination and ideas and taking them one step further through gestures and words.
Floor Time: A warm and intimate way of relating to a child. A floor time philosophy means engaging, respecting and getting in tune with the child in order to help the child elaborate through gestures, words, and pretend play what is on the child's mind. As a technique, floor time is a five step process that is used to support the emotional and social development of the child.
Following the Child's Lead: Seeing the child as the director and yourself as the assistant director of the activity.
Observing: Noticing how the child is special and unique in style, rhythm and mood.
Opening the Circle of Communication: Turning in and following a child's special interest.
Shared Meanings: The child begins to communicate ideas with words or pretend play. Emotional themes enter the child's play. The child uses themes not only to express wants and needs but also to expand fantasies and creativity. (18 month to 36 months)
Stages of Relating: Stages in emotional and social development of children.
Two-Way Communication: The child is able to have an emotional dialogue. Opening and closing circles can take place. You need to take an interest in and respond to the child, and the child responds with gestural and verbal reactions. (6 to 18 months)
Greenspan's Model of Stages of Relating and Communicating
Stage 1: ENGAGEMENT (Birth to 8 months)
- Does the baby smile joyfully in response to vocalization and facial expression? What are the kinds of gestures the baby uses to elicit responses?
- How does the baby use senses such as hearing, sight, and touch to form attachments? Is child beginning to exchange motor movements?
- How would you describe baby's temperament (stable, intense, irritable, unresponsive, assertive)?
Stage 2: TWO-WAY COMMUNICATION (6 to 18 months)
- What evidence is there that the child is reciprocating and copying your behaviors and emotions?
- Does the child begin to instigate activities based on own needs and wants, rather than by imitation alone? How?
- Provide examples of how the child combines gestures and words to communicate.
- What evidence is there that the child is beginning to understand basic emotional themes, such as whether child is being approved of, is safe and secure, or is being admired?
Stage 3: SHARED MEANINGS (18 to 36 months)
- Provide examples of how the child is beginning to communicate ideas through words.
- How does the child use pretend play to communicate emotional themes such as curiosity, independence and rejection?
- Describe ways in which child makes wants, desires, and emotions know through pretend play. Describe how pretend play becomes more complex.
Stage 4: EMOTIONAL THINKING (3 to 5 years)
- How are feelings expressed?
- What evidence do you have the child realizes the relationship between feeling, behaviors, and consequences?
- How would you describe the child's relationship with adults?
- How does the child control impulses and stabilize moods?
- How does the child interact with peers in pretend play?
- Does the child help to structure and organize play themes?
Ten Steps in Floor Time
Step One: OBSERVATION
Both listening to and watching a child are essential for effective observation. Facial expressions, tone of voice, gestures, body posture, and word (or lack of words) are all important clues that help you determine how to approach the child, e.g.:
- Is a child's behavior relaxed or outgoing?
- Withdrawn or uncommunicative?
- Bubbling with excitement?
- Is child a real go-getter?
Step Two: APPROACH - OPEN CIRCLES OF COMMUNICATION
Once a child's mood and style have been assessed, you can approach the child with the appropriate words and gestures. You can open the circle of communication with a child by acknowledging the child's emotional tone, then elaborating and building on whatever interests the child at the moment.
Step Three: FOLLOW THE CHILD'S LEAD
After your initial approach, following a child's lead simply means being a supportive play partner who is an "assistant" to the child and allows the child to set the tone, direct the action, and create personal dramas. This enhances the child's self-esteem and ability to be assertive, and gives child a feeling that "I can have an impact on the world." As you support the child's play, the child benefits from experiencing a sense of warmth, connectedness and being understood.
Step Four: EXTEND AND EXPAND PLAY
As you follow the child's lead, extending and expanding a child's play themes involves making supportive comments about the child's play without being intrusive. This helps the child express own ideas and defines the direction of the drama. Next, asking questions to stimulate creative thinking can keep the drama going, while helping the child clarify the emotional themes involved, e.g.: suppose a child is crashing a car: Rather than ask critically, Why are those cars crashing? You may respond empathetically, Those cars have so much energy and are moving fast. Are they trying to get somewhere?
Step Five: CHILD CLOSES THE CIRCLE OF COMMUNICATION
As you open the circle of communication when you approach the child, the child closes the circle when the child builds on your comments and gestures with comments and gestures of own. One circle flows into another, and many circles may be opened and closed in quick succession as you interact with the child. By building on each other's ideas and gestures, the child begins to appreciate and understand the value of two way communication.
Step Six: Strategies for Floor Time Intervention
- Follow child's lead and join them - it does not matter what they do as long as they initiate the move
- Persist in your pursuit
- Treat what child does as intentional and purposeful - give new meanings
- Help child do what they want to do
- Position self in front of the child
- Invest in whatever child initiates or imitates
- Join perseverative play
- Do not treat avoidance or "no"as rejection
- Expand, expand, expand - keep going, play dumb, do wrong moves, do as told, interfere etc.
- Do not interrupt or change the subject as long as it is interactive
- Insist on a response
- Do not turn the session into a learning or teaching experience
Step Seven : Question to Ask Yourself if You Are a Good Floor Timer
- Do I use a calm voice?
- Do I give gentle looks?
- Is my body posture supportive?
- Arm my actions non-intrusive?
- Do I use encouraging gestures?
- Do I demonstrate calm and supportive listening?
- Am I aware of the child's rhythms and gestures?
- Am I able to help the child identify play themes?
- Do I expand and extend the child's drama by staying involved with the play theme and help to elaborate the details?
- Am I able to help the child extend the drama by summarizing main ideas of play themes?
- Do I observe the behavior, language, and gestures of the child?
- Do I observe the child's style of relating?
- Do I approach the child slowly, with respect and thoughtfulness?
- How often do I allow the child to take the lead? Do I follow that lead?
- Do I let the child know through gesture, facial expressions, emotional tone, and supportive body posture that I am there for the child?
- Do I know when to be verbally responsive, and when it is better to quietly share a child's emotion?
- Do I work to understand the emotional needs of the child?
Step Eight: Props Needed for Floor Time
- plastic vegetables and fruits etc.
- plastic foods: chicken, hot dogs, eggs, bacon, french fries etc.
- plastic dishes, cups, forks, knives and spoons
- plastic or paper soup cans and boxes of foods
- plastic cooking utensils, pots, mixer, toaster etc.
- play kitchen with table and chairs
- minimum of 12 match box size cars, trucks etc
- tool kit to fix cars, e.g.: screwdriver, wrench, pliers, etc.
- garage
- road signs, play road
- road construction equipment
- other forms of public transportation: airplane, boat, bus, train
- minimum of two dolls, one boy and one girl
- minimum of two bottles
- plastic figures of a family whose sex and number of members matches the child=s family
- plastic figures of helpers in the community: doctor, nurse, fireman, construction person, police
- doctors kit to help dolls
- tool kit to fix objects owned by dolls
- doll house for plastic family
- blankets and clothes for dolls
- play bath equipment for dolls
- play crib or bed for dolls
- plastic animals from the jungle, zoo, water and farm
- plastic dinosaurs
- Fisher Price or Play School: farm, pirate ship, airport, school, store etc.
- set of two telephones
- chalk or white board on easel
- books on a variety of topics which are age appropriate
- word signs around the room
- display of letters of alphabet and numbers 1 to 10 in room
- school desk for dolls or child to go to school
- toy soldier set with military transportation (e.g.: tanks, helicopter, boat, and armored trucks) guns, tents, etc.
- cowboy and Indian set with horses, tents, wagons, guns, bows and arrows etc
- wooden block set
- plastic block set
- tool kit for construction e.g.: saw, hammer, screwdriver etc.
- Lincoln log set
- construction equipment: truck, earth mover, etc.
- crayons and paper
- watercolor tempera paints, brush and paper
- finger paints and finger paint paper
- clay or Play Dough for sculpting
- sand box, pails, shovels and other sand containers
- water play table
- gym set with slide, swings and ladder
- rubber football and/or baseballs to throw and catch
- rubber soccer ball and/or basketball to kick
- soap bubbles to be blown on child while playing with other props to create need to be flexible and attend to distraction in a coping way
- balloon or light ball to bounce on the drama which is occurring to create crisis
- blanket to hide the desired objects under
- rubber bands, to fix or bind things together
- tape, to fix or bind things together
- bunch of nerf balls to throw to create obstacle which needs to be attended to
Prop Storage: keep theme related props in "shoe box" size transparent plastic containers with covers so child can see inside and select theme to play with. This will make it easier to keep play room orderly and neat when floor time is ended. Enlist child to assist you in putting props in their respective containers. Opening the Symbolic Door get engaged at any level
- get intentional - build on any intent, problem solving, corner or undoing
- heighten affect - at every level, all emotions are equal
Step Nine : Follow the Child's Lead!
- Personalize
- Be a player - join in
- Expand and keep going
- Do not change the subject
Step Ten : Creating and Ideas
- Treat object or action as an idea!
- You do not need permission to play
- Do not "read" or just describe
- Talk to child in role - as actor or with figure
- Take on a role and talk through the role
- Build on real experiences - bridge to what would happen next
- Wait for child to make the next move - then give choices or model next step
- Resist the temptation to take over
- Appreciate child's need for control
- Try to build bridges between ideas
- Give reasons for your or child's actions
- Problem solve and assist in the finding of a solution
- Make ideas more complex and more elaborate