Stanley Greenspan

Greenspan Social-Emotional Growth Chart (Perkins – EC)

Stanley Greenspan (June 1, 1941 – April 27, 2010) was a clinical professor of Psychiatry, Behavioral Science, and Pediatrics at George Washington University Medical School and a practicing child psychiatrist. He was best known for developing the influential floor time approach for treating children with autistic spectrum disorders.

He was chairman of the Interdisciplinary Council on Developmental and Learning Disorders and also a supervising child psychoanalyst at the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute. A graduate of Harvard College and Yale Medical School, Dr. Greenspan was the founding president of Zero to Three Foundation: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families and former director of the National Institute of Mental Health's Clinical Infant Developmental Program and Mental Health Study Center.

The developmental model Greenspan formulated guides the care and treatment of children and infants with developmental and mental health disorders. His work has led to the formation of regional councils and networks in most major American cities.

He has been recognized internationally as a foremost authority on mental health and disorders in infants and young children, having received awards from both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Orthopsychiatric Association. In 1981, he received the Ittleson Prize, the American Psychiatric Association's award for child psychiatry research. He also received the Blanche F. Ittleson award from the American Orthopsychiatric Association for outstanding contributions to American mental health. In 2003, he received the Mary S. Sigourney Award for distinguished contributions to psychoanalysis.