Floortime and Building a Relationship

Cross posted from www.joeys.foundation/blog

When starting to work with any child, I want to build rapport, trust, and create a working relationship. The Greenspan Floortime Approach™, based on the work of Dr Stanley Greenspan, encourages parents and therapists to meets a child where he or she is at and build on innate strengths and abilities. We do this by creating a warm relationship and engaging in back and forth interactions. The adult expands on the interactions to include as many senses, motor skills, and emotions as makes sense in the play context. The Greenspan website states “As you do all this, while staying within his focus, you are helping him practice basic thinking skills: engagement, interaction, symbolic thinking and logical thinking. To master these skills requires using all these senses, emotions, and motor skills”

Joey and I built the foundations of our relationship around a modern remake of a vintage floppy eared “Little Snoopy” dog toy. When you pull on his rope, he comes rolling fast to your side on his wheels. Joey showed some initial interest in the toy and using high affect, interesting sounds, and funny songs we built further interest and motivation with the toy. With this back and forth engagement I was able to observe how Joey was mobile (mostly by rolling to his desired place and/or object). After observing his base level of mobility, I felt a combination of NDT (Neurodevelopmental Treatment) and Floortime would be the appropriate approach for the strongest gains. We will address more of what NDT entails next week.

If you are looking to use a Floortime approach some engagement game ideas provided by our friend Lindsey Schucker, M.A., CCC-SLP include:

1. The Tickle Game – Tickle your child, then wait for a response indicating that they want more tickles (e.g. eye-contact, vocalizations, “more,” etc.). Then tickle some more!
2. Peek-a-Boo – Hide your face and/or eyes, then pop out and say BOO!  Repeat as long as your child is amused. You can hide behind almost anything for this game.  Add silly faces or noises to make it more engaging.
3. I’m Stuck – Sit/lay on or in front of something your child desires and proclaim that you are stuck.  Ask them to help pull you up. Play it up. You need help!
4. The Sleeping Game – Pretend to fall asleep and wait for your child to wake you up.  Fall asleep again and wait to see if your child can come up with a new way of waking you up.  It can be helpful to have an additional adult partner for this game to guide your child.
5. Tag – Slowly approach your child and say “I’m gonna get you!” Then reach out and tickle, pick up, capture, etc. your child in a playful way.  Allow them to escape, then start over.
6. The Capture Game – Capture your child and say “Oh no, you’re stuck!”  Encourage them to push your limbs away - “Push! You can do it!”  If your child is too frustrated or upset, let them go.
7. Silly Faces/Silly Noises – Make silly faces and/or noises back and forth.  Imitate your child, then add new faces/noises for your child to imitate.  This is a language-free game.
8. The Dipping Game – Pick your child up and dip him.  Bring him back up and wait for a signal that he wants you to continue (e.g. eye-contact, vocalizations, “more,” etc.). Be playful.
9. Help Me! - Assert that you can’t reach a desired object or that you aren’t strong enough to move a desired object.  Ask the child to help you. Have your child come up with new ways to solve the problem as appropriate. Be encouraging.
10. Disappearing Object – Take an object that your child is interested in and “hide it” (in sight first, then out of sight) or put it under your hand, leg, etc. and claim that it’s lost or stuck.  The goal is for your child to persist through the challenge and solve the problem while maintaining an emotional connection with you.

Remember that the purpose of these games is to increase your child’s ability to sustain pleasurable interactions with you.  If the game is no longer pleasurable for your child, decrease the challenge, take a break, or transition into a new game. Be aware of your child’s preferences regarding touch.  Do not engage in games that require you to tickle or grab them if they don’t like it. Finally, remember that you are acting as a play partner – avoid being directive (unless necessary to maintain safety).

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