Engaging Autism: Helping Children Relate, Communicate and Think with the DIR Floortime Approach

by Stanley I. Greenspan, Serena Wieder

The inspiring success of Dr. Stanley Greenspan's unique approach to autism and ASD (autistic spectrum disorders) is known to grateful parents and to professionals throughout the world. Now at last his highly effective and influential program is presented in one clear and accessible volume. A number of innovative, exciting features distinguish Greenspan's approach to his program has demonstrated that children with signs of autism or autistic spectrum disorders do not have a fixed, limited potential, but in many cases can join their peers and lead full, healthy lives, emotionally and intellectually. Secondly, his approach can be applied at a very early stage, when signs of autism first appear. Thus, the hope of preventing the full onset of autism becomes a real possibility. Third, the approach empowers the entire family to promote their child's development throughout each day. Also, the DIR Floortime approach guides the efforts of speech pathologists, occupational therapists, and educators to work with the family and builds on the latest research on the development of the mind and brain. As cases of autism continue to rise worldwide, Dr. Greenspan's extremely successful Floortime approach is producing very promising results that could one day stem the tide against this dread disorder. No one involved in the care of children with autism, parent or professional, can afford to be without this landmark work.

Genres: Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Parenting, Nonfiction, Psychology, Mental Health, Self Help, Disability

448 pages, Hardcover

First published March 27, 2006

About the author

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley...

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stanley Greenspan (June 1, 1941 – April 27, 2010)[1] was an American child psychiatrist and clinical professor of Psychiatry, Behavioral Science, and Pediatrics at George Washington University Medical School. He was best known for developing the floortime approach for attempting to treat children with autistic spectrum disorders and developmental disabilities.[2]

He was Chairman of the Interdisciplinary Council on Developmental and Learning Disorders and also a Supervising Child Psychoanalyst at the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute. A graduate of Harvard College and Yale Medical School,[2] Greenspan was the founding president of Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families and former director of the National Institute of Mental Health's Clinical Infant Developmental Program and Mental Health Study Center.[3]

Reviews

[Overrated Parenting · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very dense, practical book, this is not something you're going to read for fun. However the methods of play that they teach and advocate, I have found to be quite effective. We have had a lot of success, and my son really enjoys both regular play and the special DIR Floortime play method. I'm not saying that it will engage your child overnight, but our kid progressed from very little eye contact and interest in others to a kid that actively asks people to play and voluntarily shares to facilitate play. And he did it in about 8 weeks.

[Frrobins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book represents a paradigm shift in how autism is viewed and treated. I was trained as an ABA therapist in college, and when I went on to have a son who I suspected of having autism I was flummoxed to discover ABA really didn't work that well. Through trial and error I've found that we had already been doing a lot of the basics of the Floortime approach and getting results from it, but this gave us something to build off of.

This is not some easy one shot pie in the sky book about a cure. Autism is complex, and this book is similarly complex. It looks at what we know about brain development and teaches a new way to interact with children with autism to maximize their development. Unfortunately, the topic is so broad that more than likely it won't troubleshoot the particular problems you are experiencing raising a child with autism, but it gives a starting place and lays the foundation.

Currently working on locating a DIR therapist for mentoring with this, and looking forward to the results we'll see.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book for professionals in the autism field. Thoroughly explains the DIR approach, an alternative to ABA that focuses on developing basic emotional and relational abilities in order to help higher level thinking and relating skills develop naturally.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for work. ABA just wasn't all the child I was working with needed, so his behavior therapist started using some floortime techniques. She suggested the boys mother and I read the book. It is a great approach, though one can see aspects of ABA in it as well. My philosophy is that there is no one therapy that works for every person, and one must try to aquire as much knowledge as possible if one is to be a successful therapist.

[Julie Akeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book shows the best and personally the only therapy for autism I would trust. It enters into the child's world first, if people had entered MY world first when I was young and strugeling then I wouln't have the issues I have in dealing with people. I am on the autism spectrum and this book could have helped me if people knew about how to properly treat autism back then. It's not a cure for autism, but it helps much better in advancing them than most other therapies out there.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of Greenspan, and of the floortime approach. Floortime has really helped us break through with our daughter, diagnosed with Autism at age 2. We've been very proactive... providing her with speech, developmental and occupational therapy, as well as enrolling her in a developmental preschool. That said, I still believe floortime to be the greatest source of progress for our daughter. I know not all autistic children have the same struggles, and strengths, but this worked for us!

[Cristin Grenier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stanley Greenspan was a genius! I originally read this book in 2009 after Owen was diagnosed. This book transformed my family's life from feeling despair to hope. It was great to get a chance to reread it and remember some of the very basics that we still use every day in our home.

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

2019: This was a reread of parts III to V, which was still slow going but worth revisiting. This time around I noted that the original claims for the effectiveness of Applied Behaviour Analysis have not been replicated (see p.252). I would also like to read the Affect-based Language Curriculum, but unfortunately there isn't a copy in the library. I'm going to do some further rereading on pretend play - Learn to Play by Karen Stagnitti. Rereading this book was also good inspiration for trying to extend how many consecutive "circles of communication" my son can do.

EDIT: Having just read "The Autism Language Launcher", I recommend reading this instead, as it is more practical and accessible.

2014: This rating is for Parts III to V where the Floortime approach is finally, on page 163, introduced. Parts I and II were so painfully dry and boring I almost gave up. I suggest jumping straight in at Part III, as anything worth saying before then is neatly summarised later on.

It then got really good at page 250 with really detailed instructions on how to make Floortime work and take the child's communication skills to the next level. I would like to show our speech therapist pages 283-287 and ask how this fits with her own approach (which is Hanen).

[Lindsay · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one tough book to get through! There is definitely a wealth of information in this thick book, but if it took this bookworm a month to read it imagine how long the average parent would need! I felt that Greenspan included a lot of the theoretical knowledge behind his floortime approach and "scenarios" of how to use the approach with kids who have lots of language. But there was never a chapter that said ....If you want to use Floortime with your child you need to start off by doing A, B, and C. I think that's what I was looking for in this book and didn't find it. I would say for those who are interested in the developmental theories for working with children with delays/disabilities that this is a good foundational book to read!

[Amanda Himes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a classic and well-respected work on treating autism, and yet the floortime approach is really only going to work if your autistic child has some interests that you can be part of. If your child is self-stimulating on a blinking light toy, or perhaps by opening and closing a cabinet door repeatedly, it will be hard to interact with him / her. In my experience, the child won't appreciate efforts to, say, hide a toy in the cabinet and find it together. You and your child with autism need to start at a more basic level: see Motivation and Reinforcement: Turning the Tables on Autism for what is, in my opinion, the most helpful approach for even severely autistic kids.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has great ideas for reaching children with autism through social play therapy, but I found it a very laborious read - too much academic wordiness, and too little practical advice for parents. I prefer this book: Autism and Developmental Delays in Young Children: The Responsive Teaching Curriculum for Parents and Professionals: Curriculum Guide by G Mahoney.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

As other reviewers have said, this book is written in a rather convoluted fashion. The heart of the material is excellent, but there are no clear and succinct overviews, which is difficult when there is a LOT of information and a lot of different paths to take depending on the child's specific strengths and weaknesses.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't finish this book but I really liked its approach of child-led interactions to build connection.

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re- read this book for the 3rd time this year! Have lots of annotations and sticky notes that I refer to so often! Highly recommend!!

[Bir Genelleme · Rating 5 out of 5]

Floortime dediğimiz yöntemin babası Prof. Dr. Stanley Greenspan ve Psikolog Serena Weider'in kaleme aldığı özellikle Ivar Lovaas'ın ABA yöntemini eleştirip bu yöntemin eksik ve hatalı yönlerini açıklayarak bunları Floortime yöntemi ile nasıl aşılacağını anlattığı kitap. Davranışcı yöntemin karşısında daha hümanist bir yöntemdir. Gelişimsel anlayışı benimseyip, birey hangi gelişim basamağında ise o basamağı genişletip bireyi bir üst basamağa taşımayı hedefler. ABA'dan farklı olarak buzdağının görünen yüzüne değil altında yatan esas probleme yöneliktir. Sınırları ise daha çok Asperger Sendromuna yönelik olması ve konuşamayan bireylerde sınırlı kalması. Alanla ilgili herkesin okuması gerekli.

[Jake Zola · Rating 5 out of 5]

4 1/2 stars, it is not a fun read. Nor did it alter my perspective in any major way. Though it did contain numerous nuggets of knowledge to layer on top of what I already knew. Most of the valuable stuff is in the second half of the book which is comprehensive enough to justify a reread. A hundred little ideas worth remembering.

[Kristi Roznowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a mental health professional and mom to a child with ASD I found this very informative. A much more autism affirming approach vs. ABA. Definitely a good book to come back to as a child progresses through their development.

[Paw · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good insight into Autism there are things in this book I'm doing with kids that I didn't know which however you approach kids with Autism 🤷‍♀️
Learn something new every day.

Keen to read more about Autism 💯 to help my son even more and more everyday.

[Jennifer Plunk · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for parents of kids on the autism spectrum and educators as well. This has been life-changing for our family.

[Samantha]

Great resource for professionals working with children on the autism spectrum. Definitely not a light read for general parenting or untrained people.

[Dovile · Rating 4 out of 5]

good method 💯, however some points are really outdated, as it is relatively old book

[Neva · Rating 4 out of 5]

useful information, just dense

[Taryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, and very informative. I think the organization of the book could use a little work, and it was rather verbose at times. That said, its a very helpful primer on ASD, and explains a developmental approach to treatment/relating to autistic children which I am a proponent of (DIR Floortime). I love that the DIR Floortime model is all about your relationship with the child, emotions, and meeting children where they are to help them move through developmental stages. The book goes into the importance of understanding the individual child's needs, which can vary widely due to sensory processing differences from child to child (e.g., auditory, motor, visual, and so forth).

Relatedly, if you are interested in DIR Floortime, I recommend taking the DIR 101 class through ICDL (https://www.icdl.com/courses/101), which is given at a discount to parents/caretakers (and at regular price to professionals who work with children with ASD). It's a time commitment but that was what I found most helpful in understanding the basic tenets of the approach.

[Melissa Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the book, but there was a lot to it that I have tried with my daughter that didn't have an effect.
These are the most important part of the book that was helpful for me:

Engaging with your son/daughter.
How to Engage with your son/daughter.
Desire to communicate -using gestures.
Limiting tv time
Imaginative play
ages 3-5 start to learn about social rules with other children their age
turning a child's weaknesses into strengths.

[Crimson007 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been reading through this book for awhile now, picking it up and reading a few chapters or skimming through as I have time. I like the ideas presented here, of joining the child as a way to get them to join us, rather than expecting them to conform to what we in general find 'appropriate behavior'
I'm sure that as I read more, I will gain much valuable information.

[Kellyhiselman · Rating 4 out of 5]

i have a little friend on the broad spectrum of all lovely children who has autism. Next year, I will be working with him one-on-one and his mom shared the helpful work of Stanley Greenspan and Floortime with me. I focused on these chapters in the book and found them very helpful for being with ALL young children.

[Rebekah Catalano]

Although this is a practical guide, it isn't anything revolutionary... Greenspan certainly presents his Floortime method as such, but I'm finding most of his revelations to be standard best practice for working with all children, of all abilities.

[Robert Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The inventor of the "floor time approach" may be out of vogue today, but his point about getting into the world of your child with them and then pulling them somewhere new was very helpful. A useful book.

[Fishface · Rating 2 out of 5]

The theory is OK in this book, but they spend a great deal of time on the history and underpinnings rather than simply teaching you the techniques. They also totally fail to anticipate snags in the process, never addressing how to get past those. With that said, the techniques do work very well.

[Lori Malone]

A must read for fully understanding how to engage any child.