Today through Sunday, the annual Interdisciplinary Council on Developmental and Learning Disorders Conference will be held in Tysons Corner, Virginia, the first conference without Dr. Stanley Greenspan, who died at 68 last spring. Greenspan’s philosophy on bringing out engagement and interaction in children with autism through Floortime and the Developmental, Individual Differences, Relationship-Based model has had an unmistakable influence on the way children with autism are now taught.
Kids today are more likely to be taught in meaningful, real life ways based on their interests, with a greater emphasis placed on emotions and play/social skills, and that’s partly due to the work of Dr. Greenspan.
Greenspan’s attitude toward children with autism can be seen in his book “Engaging Autism,” when he wrote, “The child may have a disorder or a set of problems, but he is not the disorder. He is a human being with real feelings, real desires, and real wishes.”
I wrote an article about Greenspan for Examiner.com after he died. Another site stole the article and cut and pasted it on a blog. Please see the original article, Dr. Stanley Greenspan dies, founded Floortime and developmental approaches to autism therapy here.
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