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SN children

Here are some suggested organisations that offer expert advice on special needs.

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Original poster

Stanley Greenspan has passed away

17 replies

BriocheDoree · 28/04/2010 08:02

Yesterday, apparently. Published in the Washington Post.

OP posts:

saintlydamemrsturnip · 28/04/2010 08:35

Oh my he'll be missed. He really did continue working up to the end didn't he?

lingle · 28/04/2010 09:15

Thanks for letting us know.

he made a big difference to my family when we were very vulnerable.

Davros · 28/04/2010 09:35

A genuine man, working for the people he wanted to help afaik, NOT trying to make money out of vulnerable people. Although we were ABAers I felt Floortime had much to offer and I certainly had respect for him.

lingle · 28/04/2010 09:56

I've tried to add a tribute to the website on his organisation but think you have to be a member.

Someone has described him as a quiet voice of reason amidst the noise and confusion. That's what he was for me.

I hope his own family don't mind all that time he must have spent away working for other families!

~Anyway, I've stopped crying now. Thanks to Mrs T. also who introduced me to him. That was a good turn.

PinkoLiberal · 28/04/2010 10:19

I agree hwe was a genuine man working for the best for his families. His take on autism didn't quite work for me, but there was compassion evident in his writings and therappy plan and I admire that.

FabIsGoingToGetFit · 28/04/2010 10:21

I have heard of his name but have no idea who he is. Would anyone mind telling me please?

PinkoLiberal · 28/04/2010 10:27

Fab he developed the therapy known as floortime / DIR which basically invovles a parent using heavy interaction to bring the child into their own worls- kind of coaxing them out, really. A kind, caring approach.

FabIsGoingToGetFit · 28/04/2010 10:58

He sounds lovely .

thederkinsdame · 28/04/2010 11:03

I've seen a video of him working with children at a floortime talk with Richard Solomon. A true great in the world of autism. He will be missed.

lingle · 28/04/2010 11:24

For me, Greenspan was the professional who paid more than lip service to parents' roles as the experts on their child; who really believed that you have to get beyond the label; who thought of disabled children not as patients to classify but as children in families.

With DH's help we were doing pretty well already (quoth DH in meeting: "thank you for that report. He can do these things at home. Shall we concentrate now on why he can do them at home and not at school?") but it was important to have this instinctive approach validated by someone who really was an expert.

Davros · 28/04/2010 11:45

Hooray for your DH, so well put. Classic!

NorthernSky · 28/04/2010 12:21

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

silverfrog · 28/04/2010 13:22

I've just read this in an email from ICDL.

LIke lingle, I admired Greenspan for the respect he gave parents, as the experts on their children.

When dd1 was first dxd, I was totally lost amidst people who kept telling me all sorts of things I should do for/with/without/in spite of/etc dd1

When I came across Greenspan, I recognised a lot of the play I had already been doing with dd1, instinctively. He showed me where to take htis, and how to build on it.

We are now ABAers too, but I don't think dd1 would be doing as well as she is without Floortime type work as well. In fact, dd1 needs ABA more to keep the Floortime side of her incheck - she thrives on social play and contact, and would have 1-to-1 involvement for the sheer joy of it. ABA keeps some of that in check a little

He will be sorely missed.

catski · 28/04/2010 15:50

That's very sad news. What a contribution he made to the advancement of autism therapy. The world will certainly be a poorer place without him.

TotalChaos · 28/04/2010 16:19

sad news. I never went particularly deeply into floortime, but he came over as a very humane, kind man in his approach to families and SN.

sphil · 28/04/2010 21:58

Very sad - I thought he seemed much older all of a sudden in the last lecture I saw on the net. His was the first book I ever read (when we were pre-diagnosis) and it gave me hope and a structure to follow. I really think DS2 would not be the engaged, social child he is today, for all his delays, without Floortime.

lingle · 29/04/2010 20:29

"Stanley Ira Greenspan was born in New York on June 1, 1941. He struggled with reading and writing as a boy and developed methods for meeting academic requirements -- scanning books for key ideas, for example, rather than reading each word closely. In adulthood, he frequently worked with co-authors who could smooth his prose.

The experience of overcoming his learning difficulties taught him two things, he told The Washington Post in 1996: "One, that kids have different learning styles that are real and need to be paid attention to. And two, that people have an enormous capacity to use their strengths to compensate for any areas of vulnerability." "

Washington Post obituary.

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