Guide to DIR Floortime, one of the only autism therapies focused on helping a child progress through the six basic developmental milestones.
DIR, which stands for Developmental, Individual difference, Relationship based Model, is a guide for parents and educators to create appropriate interventions for children on the spectrum centered on their current developmental level.
Floortime is a specific technique used involving activities based on the DIR Model. The DIR Floortime Model may also include therapies such as speech therapy, occupational therapy and problem solving exercises. It is intended to focus more on social, emotional and intellectual capacities rather than a specific skill or behavior. Originally started by Dr Stanley Greenspan during the 1980’s, each part helps to build on the child’s existing strengths.
Developmental: By understanding where a child is developmentally, the clinician is able to better plan an appropriate treatment program for the child. The six steps on the developmental ladder Greenspan describes include:
1. Self regulation and interest in the world
2. Intimacy or a special love for the world of human relations
3. Two-way communication
4. Complex Communication
5. Emotional ideas
6. Emotional thinking
Individual Differences
All children on the spectrum tend to interpret and perceive sensory information in their own unique way. Many children have difficulties with sensory processing resulting in overreactivity or underreactivity to sensory stimuli, such as sound and touch. They may have problems with motor planning and sequencing. By learning what those individual differences are, a therapist can better learn how to implement a treatment plan to be more effective within the DIR Floortime Model.
Relationship Based
This refers to the relationships a child has within his/her environment including parents, teachers, peers, and caregivers who modify their interactions to be based on the child’s current developmental level and individual differences.
Although there currently are not any studies supporting the effectiveness of the DIR Floortime model, many parents testify to the effect the treatment has had on improving their child’s autism symptoms.
Despite not being an evidence based treatment like Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), I think it would be great to incorporate the strengths of the two interventions as a way to help a child progress developmentally. This would involve doing activities based on the child’s social, emotional, and intellectual capacities as determined by the DIR Model, while still using the benefits of repetition and reinforcement that ABA provides.
1. What’s DIR/Floortime?. The Interdisciplinary Counsel on Developmental and Learning Disabilities. http://www.icdl.com/dirFloortime/overview/index.shtml. 10-6-11.
2. History of Floortime http://www.icdl.com/dirFloortime/overview/index.shtml. 10-6-11.
3. Treatments for Autism. Autism Speaks. www.autismspeaks.org. 11-22-09.
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Guide to DIR Floortime, one of the only autism therapies focused on helping a child progress through the six basic developmental milestones.
