Start Here: Introduction and Website Map
Every child can benefit from DIR/Floortime, not just autistic children or those with developmental differences
You’re here for the first time! You’re new to DIR/Floortime and like what you see. You want to relate and communicate with your child in a respectful way. You want to see your child thrive with an approach that promotes their natural development.
You’ve come to the right place! DIR/Floortime offers a warm and engaging way of relating and communicating with your child, is relationship-based, respectful, and puts your child at the front and centre of it, rather than his or her behaviour.
We focus on expansion of children’s behaviour rather than suppression
By interacting developmentally with your child (“D“), you can understand how to respect their individual differences (“I“) and developmental level through a warm, safe and nurturing relationship (“R“) so that you and your child will have the opportunity to relate, think and communicate with each other. You’ll move from concerns that almost all parents have to growing to appreciate your child for whom they are and relish in the joy of supporting your child’s development.
You’ll move away from here:
- “I just want them to say, “Mommy”/”Daddy.”
- “I don’t think they even care if I am around.”
- “They can’t tell me if they are hungry, hurt, or mistreated at school”.
- “Why do they do that?” “Why are they spinning things?”
- “Will they get married?”
- “Who is going to take care of them when I am gone?”
You’ll arrive to acceptance, appreciation, and empowerment here:
- “I love relating and communicating with my child.”
- “I love connecting and sharing joy together with my child every day.”
- “I understand and can show others how my child communicates”.
- “I feel empowered understanding my child’s sensory processing profile.”
- “I am excited to watch my child’s development unfold.”
- “I am honoured to scaffold and support my child’s development.”
We want to share our enthusiasm and everything we’ve learned with other families. You can do Floortime anytime, anywhere. You as parents and caregivers are the best bet for your child’s success! Instead of waiting on funding for sub-optimal services, or depending on costly ‘interventions’ that boast modest gains or put the focus on the wrong thing, let’s do it ourselves! Let’s empower our children! We show you how!
Let’s Start!
Here is your guide to relating and engaging with your child using the Developmental, Individual differences, Relationship-based (DIR) model and Floortime. You’ll be having fun together in no time! Just CLICK ON THE TITLES BELOW to get to each topic. Happy viewing!
Introduction to DIR/Floortime
- What is DIR/Floortime? An overview and understanding of what DIR/Floortime is all about
- Introduction to DIR/Floortime Hear the late Dr. Stanley Greenspan and Dr. Serena Wieder discuss important aspects of the model
- The Learning Tree Hear Dr. Stanley Greenspan’s son, Jake Greenspan, describe the important aspects of the DIR Model
- Why DIR/Floortime? Read about our experience with selecting an approach to support our autistic son’s growth and development, settling on DIR/Floortime
- Brain Research Study Watch the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s coverage of the ground-breaking study at York University in Toronto that showed the decrease of stress responses and an increase in social-emotional connections in the brains of autistic children after receiving a year of DIR/Floortime
- My Biggest Revelations from being a Floortime Parent: Part 1 (includes video & audio podcast)
- My Biggest Revelations from being a Floortime Parent: Part 2 (includes video & audio podcast)
Hear my story about why I chose Floortime and created this website:
For more in depth details and insights see We chose play.
Beginner’s Guide to DIR/Floortime
- It’s all about Affect
- The ‘D’ in the DIR Model: Development
- The ‘I’ in the DIR Model: Individual Differences
- The ‘R’ in the DIR model: Relationship-based
- Introduction to Floortime
- Floortime as a Family Approach
- DIR/Floortime as a comprehensive developmental approach
- Foundation Academics: What is it? (includes audio podcast)
- The Joy in Communicating (includes audio podcast)
- Remediation versus Accommodation (includes video & audio podcast)
- The Importance of Preverbal Affective Signalling (includes video & audio podcast)
- Floortime Lifestyle (includes video & audio podcast)
- Words-Action-Affect (W-A-A) in Floortime (includes video & audio podcast)
- The Conversation (includes video & audio podcast)
Guide to Starting DIR/Floortime With Your Child, Adolescent, or Adult
- Starting DIR/Floortime with your child: Step 1 is the sensory processing profile
- Starting DIR/Floortime with your child: Where is your child developmentally?
- The nuts and bolts of the Floortime session
- The interaction of the Floortime session with the ‘D’, the ‘I’, and the ‘R’
- Co-regulation in Floortime: How to interact with a distressed child
- Example of a Floortime session (includes Floortime video)
- What an ideal DIR/Floortime program looks like
- Floortime for First-Timers: A Quickstart Guide
- Five Great Floortime Books
- Maude Le Roux’s new Functional Developmental Autism Assessment Protocol (includes video & audio podcast)
- Sensory Lifestyle (includes video & audio podcast)
- Autism and Medication (includes video & audio podcast)
- Being versus Doing (includes video & audio podcast)
- Why ‘challenging’ and ‘expanding’ are essential for human growth
- Circles of communication in Floortime
- Affect is your #1 resource to connect with your child
- The new Connection Coder app (includes video & audio podcast)
- Focusing on regulation (includes video & audio podcast)
- The P.L.A.Y. Project (includes video & audio podcast)
- Floortime with Family or Small Groups (includes video & audio podcast)
- Promoting Symbolic Thinking in Small Group Settings (includes video & audio podcast)
- Meaning Making (includes video & audio podcast)
- Recognizing and documenting our children’s communication cues (includes video & audio podcast)
- The Heart of DIR/Floortime: The ‘R’ and Genuine Affect (includes video & audio podcast)
- Sensorimotor Profiles in Floortime (includes video & audio podcast)
- Creating Opportunities for Co-Regulatory Support (includes video & audio podcast)
How to Overcome Obstacles in Floortime
- Stumbling blocks in Floortime at FEDC 1: Facilitating shared attention and regulation
- Motor planning and sequencing challenges in children with developmental differences
- The Building Blocks of Motor Planning (includes audio podcast)
- Stumbling blocks in Floortime at FEDC 2: Fostering attention and engagement
- Stumbling blocks in Floortime at FEDC 3: Encouraging purposeful emotional interactions
- Stumbling blocks in Floortime at FEDC 4: Encouraging Shared Problem Solving
- Stumbling blocks in Floortime at FEDC 5: Inspiring the expression of ideas and feelings (includes video blog)
- Special Books by Special Kids
- Stumbling blocks in Floortime at FEDC 6: Fostering logical thinking and building bridges between ideas
- Barriers to Parents doing DIR/Floortime
- Parents Living with Grief About Their Special Needs Child
- It’s only as good as the implementation
- Developmental growth spurts: What to expect (includes audio podcast)
- What is scripting all about? (includes video & audio podcast)
- From Ambiguous Loss to Acceptance (includes video & audio podcast)
- Strategies Don’t Support Growth (includes video & audio podcast)
- Polyvagal Theory and Regulating our Bodily State (includes video & audio podcast)
- Attention and Executive Function (includes video & audio podcast)
- Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) Devices (includes video & audio podcast)
- Creating Opportunities in Floortime (includes video & audio podcast)
- Constrictions in Developmental Capacities (includes video & audio podcast)
- Going Slower to Move Faster (includes video & audio podcast)
- A Developmental Approach to Toileting: Part 1 (includes video & audio podcast)
- A Developmental Approach to Toileting: Part 2 (includes video & audio podcast)
- The Impact of Vestibular Processing on Development (includes video & audio podcast)
- Unpacking ‘Aggression’ (includes video & audio podcast)
- The Complexity of Vision and Visual Processing (includes video & audio podcast)
- The Dynamic Process of ‘Transitions’ (includes video & audio podcast)
Applying Floortime With Your Child, Adolescent, or Adult
- A User’s Guide to the Developmental, Individual differences, Relationship-based (DIR) Model (includes audio podcast)
- Floortime Analysis (includes Floortime video)
- Slowing down and stretching out interactions
- Using Self-Reflection as a Tool in Floortime (includes 3-part audio podcast and Floortime video)
- Floortime in the car! (includes Floortime video)
- Moving Up and Down the Developmental Ladder (includes audio podcast)
- Scaffolding in Floortime: Supporting your Child While Encouraging Development
- 10 Floortime Tips From Our Visit to The Floortime Center
- What does following the child’s lead really mean?
- More Floortime in the car! (includes Floortime video)
- Another Look at Self-Reflection in Floortime (includes Floortime video)
- 5 Games to Play with your Child in Floortime
- This is 99% of Floortime
- Inspiring relating, communicating, and thinking at different developmental levels
- Repetition in autism therapy: A closer look (includes audio podcast)
- The Floortime Manual
- Floortime all day, anywhere (includes audio podcast)
- Celebrity Floortimer
- Promoting Capacities 4 and 5 with Floortime (includes audio podcast and Floortime video)
- Can visual prompts about time promote understanding in Floortime?
- The Little Scientist: Progression of cause-and-effect play (includes video & audio podcast)
- Floortime through Music Therapy (includes video & audio podcast)
- Floortime Follow-up (includes Floortime video)
- Floortime Feedback (includes video & audio podcast and Floortime video)
- Floortime is about Connection and Shared Joy: Part 1 (includes Floortime video)
- Self-Regulation Starts With Us (includes audio podcast)
- Theory of Mind is Developmental (includes video & audio podcast)
- Floortime is about Connection and Shared Joy: Part 2 (includes Floortime video)
- Floortime Tips for Behavioural Challenges at School
- Floortime Tips for Behavioural Challenges at Home
- Floortime is about Connection and Shared Joy: Part 3 (includes Floortime video)
- FOODTIME: A developmental approach to picky and rigid eating (includes audio podcast)
- Floortime Review (includes video & audio podcast and Floortime video)
- Fostering independence (includes video & audio podcast)
- Pre-Linguistics are Pre-Social Abilities (includes video & audio podcast)
- Individual differences and Floortime in the Pool (includes video & audio podcast)
- Floortime in the Pool: A Deeper Dive (includes video & audio podcast)
- Facilitating Emotional and Logical Thinking: Part 1 (includes video & audio podcast and Floortime video)
- Facilitating Emotional and Logical Thinking: Part 2 (includes video & audio podcast and Floortime video)
- Facilitating Emotional and Logical Thinking: Part 3 (includes audio podcast and Floortime video)
- Why Floortime is Child-Led (includes video & audio podcast)
- Approaching Pre-Academics with Floortime (includes video & audio podcast)
- Floortime is also Adolescent- and Adult-Led (includes video & audio podcast)
- Sensory Ingredients and Dynamic Responsivity (includes video & audio podcast)
- Enriching Sensory and Motor Experiences at Home (includes video & audio podcast)
- The Rubber Band Metaphor in Floortime (includes video & audio podcast)
- The Impact of Cognitive Load on Relating, Communicating, and Thinking (includes video & audio podcast)
- Gross Motor versus Fine Motor Functions (includes video & audio podcast)
- Gauging our Developmental Capacities: Part 1 (includes video & audio podcast)
- Gauging our Developmental Capacities: Part 2 (includes video & audio podcast)
- Parents can Connect with their Children Through Musical Interactions (includes video & audio podcast)
The Role of Emotions and Respecting the Child, Adolescent, or Adult in a Developmental Approach
- Emotions (within safe relationships) are key to affecting autism
- Respecting the Emotional Experience and Expressions of the Child
- A Developmental Approach to Setting Limits
- Setting appropriate limits and expectations by respecting where your child is at, developmentally
- What is attunement in a developmental approach?
- Play is the answer for healthy emotional development
- Where is your focus?
- Intention in a Developmental Approach
- A developmental approach overview (includes audio podcast)
- How a caregiver’s regulation affects the child’s regulation (includes audio podcast)
- Avoiding the blame in Floortime (includes audio podcast)
- Early Social-Emotional Capacities (includes video & audio podcast)
- Can you ‘teach’ emotions?
- Self-Reg and DIR/Floortime (includes video & audio podcast)
- The Foundation for Regulation (includes video & audio podcast)
- And then comes puberty… (includes video & audio podcast)
- From Dysregulation to Intent (includes video & audio podcast)
- Taking the Outcome Out of Play (includes endorsement for Critical Core)
- Regulation Challenges through the Developmental Capacities (includes video & audio podcast)
- A Closer Look at Impulsivity (includes video & audio podcast)
- Floortime and the Coronavirus (includes video blog)
- Interoception: What is your child feeling inside? (includes video & audio podcast)
- Emotion-seeking and saying “No!” (includes video & audio podcast)
- Co-regulation is the Driver for Sensory Integration (includes video & audio podcast)
- Combining DIR/Floortime and Sensory Integration (includes video & audio podcast)
- Humour Development in Autism (includes video & audio podcast)
- Affect Depends on Interoception (includes video & audio podcast)
- The New Co-Reg Community (includes video & audio podcast)
Parent Support
- The Realization Phase (includes video & audio podcast)
- Supporting Parents in DIR/Floortime (includes audio podcast)
- Navigating our therapy teams and social circles (includes video & audio podcast)
- Parent Support Groups (includes video & audio podcast)
- The Future is Here: Fostering Neurodiverse Students’ Media Literacy (includes video & audio podcast)
- Support for Fathers of Children on the Spectrum (includes video & audio podcast)
- Supporting Parents in the Process of Accepting Reality (includes video & audio podcast)
- Am I Neurodivergent Like My Child? (includes video & audio podcast)
- A Parent’s Experience of DIR/Floortime (includes video & audio podcast)
- The Process of Parenting our Neurodivergent Children (includes video & audio podcast)
Research & Advocacy
- DIR/Floortime Addresses Patient-Centered Outcomes, Offers Parent Choice, and is Aligned with Disability Rights
- Advocacy for Developmental Approach Therapies
- Uniquely Human (includes video & audio podcast)
- Promoting Parent Choice (includes audio podcast)
- A review of Developmental Social Pragmatic interventions (includes video & audio podcast)
- The Move Towards Developmental Approaches (includes video & audio podcast)
- Supporting the Development of Self-Regulation (includes video & audio podcast)
- Gene Christian interviews Affect Autism’s Daria Brown (includes video & audio podcast)
- Research Supporting DIR/Floortime (includes video & audio podcast)
- How do we best prepare our multidisciplinary professionals in the field of autism? (includes video & audio podcast)
- A Self-Advocate’s Inspiring Journey (includes video & audio podcast)
- Neurodiversity-Affirming Care (includes video & audio podcast)
- Examining the Experience of Autistic Students in Higher Education (includes video & audio podcast)
- Redefining the Autism Narrative: Part 1 (includes video & audio podcast)
- Redefining the Autism Narrative: Part 2 (includes video & audio podcast)
- Access and Choice in NY State for Autism Supports and Services (includes video & audio podcast)
- My Autism, My Story (includes video & audio podcast)
- Good Intentions Creating Unseen Stigma (includes video & audio podcast)
- The INAS 2022 Neurodiversity Conference (includes video & audio podcast)
- The World’s First International Concert to Celebrate Neurodiversity (includes video & audio podcast)
- Part 1: Taking that Step on the Red Carpet (includes video & audio podcast)
- Part 2: Bridging the Gap in Understanding (includes video & audio podcast)
- Part 1: To Whom Should Parents Listen? (includes video & audio podcast)
- Part 2: Adult Diagnosis and What it Means (includes video & audio podcast)
Schools and Services Using the DIR Model
- Soaring Eagle Academy: a unique Developmental, Individual differences, Relationship-based school
- The Rebecca School: Relationships are the Foundation of Learning (includes audio podcast)
- Oakwood Academy: Canada’s only DIR school
- Threshold Community Program: DIR for adolescents and young adults (includes audio podcast)
- Applying the DIR Model in a Public School (includes audio podcast)
- Thinking Goes to School
- Process-oriented learning inspires relating, communicating, and thinking (includes audio podcast)
- Facilitating process-oriented learning with developmental level in mind: the just-right challenge (includes audio podcast)
- Dirty Hands Developmental Alliance (includes video & audio podcast)
- Incorporating DIR Goals into the Individual Education Plan (IEP) (includes video & audio podcast)
- What to Expect from a Developmentally-Based Speech and Language Pathologist (includes video & audio podcast)
- Online Schooling and Services during a Pandemic (includes video & audio podcast)
- Building Relationships in the Practice of Palliative Care using DIR/Floortime (includes video & audio podcast)
- Good Autism Education is just Good Education (includes video & audio podcast)
- Fostering Friendships Virtually Using Games (includes video & audio podcast)
- The Power of Purposeful Communication (includes video & audio podcast)
- DIR/Floortime Summer Camps (includes video & audio podcast)
- Virtual Floortime Coaching for Parents (includes video & audio podcast)
- Positive Development (includes video & audio podcast)
- Creative Arts Through Music and Drama (includes video & audio podcast)
- Floortime and Feeding (includes video & audio podcast)
- ‘DIR’ Child & Family Counselling (includes video & audio podcast)
- DIR/Floortime and Physical Therapy (includes video & audio podcast)
- Your Growth is your Child’s Growth: Strength in Relationships (includes video & audio podcast)
- Kinder Growth DIR/Floortime Medicaid Services (includes video & audio podcast)
- Giant Steps School in Montréal, Québec (includes video & audio podcast)
Special Topics
- Growth and Gaming (includes video & audio podcast)
- Dhamma and DIR (includes video & audio podcast)
- Sensory and Developmental Poetry Workshops (includes video & audio podcast)
- Anti-Bullying Day (includes video blog)
- Art with Heart: An Open Studio Approach to DIR/Floortime (includes video & audio podcast)
- ADHD: A VAST Topic (includes video & audio podcast)
- KultureCity: Sensory Accessibility and Inclusion (includes video & audio podcast)
- Critical Core: A Tabletop Role-Playing Game
- Identity Exploration and Finding Your Voice (includes video & audio podcast)
Please see the website for the Autism Developmental Approach Therapies Association (Autism D.A.T.A.) for advocacy efforts for relationship-based therapies and for parent choice in autism programming.