Peds OTs — how are you actually using Floortime in 2026? What training did you get, and what do you wish was different?
Quick disclosure so nobody feels ambushed: I'm Dr. Stanley Greenspan's son. I run a pediatric development clinic in the DC/Bethesda area (OTs, SLPs, mental-health, Edu, etc.) that uses his approach. I'm here to learn, not pitch anything.
When my dad was alive he worked closely with a lot of OTs — his view was that sensory experiences, engagement, and meaningful interaction had to be woven together, and that self- regulation came from co-regulation It wasn't separate from the relationship, it enabled it. But when I talk to OTs today, I hear really different stories about how Floortime shows up (or doesn't) in their understanding and modern practice:
• Some got zero Floortime exposure in school and picked it up on the job
• Some got DIR/Floortime through a non-Greenspan certification, like ICDL, and apply it subjectively
• Some see it as "just play and following the child's lead" and don't understand how the child must be an active participant, similar to how Ayres Sensory Integration is different from what being taught as sensory integration by current practitioners
• Some blend everything and don't really call it anything
If you're a peds OT working with kids with autism or developmental differences — I'd genuinely love to hear:
What (if any) Floortime training did you actually receive — school, CEUs, on-the-job, ICDL cert?
Do you use it in sessions now? As a primary frame, or blended with sensory/regulation frameworks?
What do you wish was different about how it's taught to OTs?
Not trying to argue for any particular version. Just want to understand what's happening in peds practice today so I can be more useful to the OT world my dad cared a lot about.