Socialization with Children with
Special Needs in Schools and
Therapeutic Groups
Socialization Emerging through the
Functional Emotional Developmental
Milestones
Children with Developmental Delays Can
Develop:
Empathy
The ability to read emotional signals
The ability to negotiate with peers
Typical Social Development
• The emotion selects the behavior
Build foundations from the bottom up.
Create heightened states of emotionality to
help the child use and connect emotions to his
behavior.
Example: A big smile gives a word like “hi” real
warmth and meaning.
Principals of The Greenspan
Floortime Approach
The same 3 principals apply when helping children
socialize with peers that apply when encouraging
children to relate and communicate adults. However,
they will look different in application.
Follow the child’s lead
Challenge up the developmental ladder
Expand the challenge
Traditional Social Skills and Goals
Sharing
Taking Turns
Compromising
Theory of Mind (putting yourself in the
other persons shoes)
Developmental Social Goals are the
Stages of Development used in a social
setting
Regulation and Shared attention
Engagement
Basic communication
Continuous flow and Shared problem-solving
Using ideas creatively and spontaneously
Using ideas logically
Higher levels of thinking
Organization and
Techniques to Encourage
Socialization
Social Interaction Fundamentals
Start with smaller groups (dyads) and move slowly
to larger ones.
Create multiple environments, sensory and
symbolic, to encourage different types of
interactions.
Remember that child/adult play is different from
child/child play.
Other children don’t always entice, initiate, or
counter-regulate
Group Organization
Make sure all children in the group are solid at the
4th milestone with adults: Shared social problem
solving and Continuous flow.
Have children with complimentary sensory system.
An underreactive child and sensory seeking child.
You can include children with similar and/or
different developmental profiles.
Optimally the children should balance each other
out with their profiles.
Techniques to Encourage
Socialization
Allow children to create their own interactions or
games, and follow their lead.
Facilitate maintained regulation, attention, and
engagement.
Encourage sensory based games and semistructured activities.
Often we need to semi-structure or introduce a
sensory based activity to facilitate interest and
attention
Remember the goal is to encourage the interaction
between the children, don’t do all the work for
them. Encourage them to seek each others help or
participation.
Techniques to Encourage
Socialization
Use your affect to entice the children toward a
common activity or each other.
Use your body to help a child carry out their social
goal
i.e. playful obstruction
Ask questions to help the children maintain focus
on each other and the activity.
ex. When a child wants to play a game, ask the
child, “What do your friends think?” or “What
do your friends want to play?”
Techniques to Encourage
Socialization
Create physical problems that need to be solved
with the help of many children
Encourage a child to get a friend to help them.
Ask questions that encourage the children to agree
on different decisions before they get a need met.
What should we do? Swing or bounce?
Techniques to Encourage
Socialization
If children are having trouble initiating their own
games or activities, or are getting disregulated, use
Semi-structured games
Art projects
Music
Initially structure the expectations, and allow them
to expand creatively.
Facilitators must always…
Encourage interaction/communication between the
children.
Redirect children toward one another vs. doing
the floortime yourself
Counter-regulate
Keep environment under control
Patience
Let the interaction develop naturally
The Floortime Center
Contact Information:
4827 Rugby Ave.
Bethesda, MD 20814
Email: info@dirss.com
Website: www.thefloortimecenter.com
Phone: (301) 657-1130
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