Dr. Stanley I. Greenspan, a psychiatrist who invented an influential approach to teaching children with autism and other developmental problems by folding his lanky six-foot frame onto the floor and following their lead in vigorous play, died April 27 at a hospital in Bethesda, Md. He was 68 and lived in Bethesda. . .
“Floor time,” as Dr. Greenspan called his approach, is used in special-education classrooms and clinics around the world, though it remains controversial — as do all early-intervention treatments for autism. An opposing approach that relies on strict behavioral goals and checklists has been more intensively studied and is more widely used in the United States.
Dr. Greenspan encouraged parents, teachers and therapists to get down on the floor with children, even very young ones, and engage them with gestures and words to build warm relationships and expand their world of ideas — many times a day, if necessary.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/05/us/05greenspan.html?hpw