DIR Floortime

Supporting Neurodivergent Children and Their Families

Floortime (also known as DIRFloortime®) is an intervention used to promote an individual's development through a respectful, playful, joyful, and engaging process. It uses the power of relationships and human connection to encourage the development of the capacities for self-regulation, engagement, communication, shared social problem solving, and creative, organized, and reflective thinking and reasoning. It is based on the DIR® model that was developed by Stanley Greenspan, MD and his colleagues. It is used worldwide by teachers, occupational therapists, speech therapists, mental health professionals, parents, and many others that caring for individuals with developmental challenges or other related needs. It is an evidence-based approach to promoting human development that is used with individuals of all ages...especially those on the autism spectrum.

A DIR Perspective...

The essence of motivation is finding out what the natural interest of the child is, what they like they do. Don’t have any preconceived notions. Don’t think in terms of “rewards.” The stimulus/reward approach is a very limited approach, which was based on research done with animal, not human, models and doesn’t encompass empathy and development of thought, etc. The approach does work, to some degree, but it tends to keep the child in a rote, repetitive mode. When a child is “stimming,” think of it as an opportunity to identify motivation to deepen their engagement. Motivation is basically a good observer seeing what the child likes and building on this natural interest to help the child learn what he needs to learn. Thus, motivation is finding out what the child naturally enjoys doing and then building on that interest and motivation. - Dr. Stanley Greenspan, August 2007.

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For more information about this extraordinarily gentle but potentially transformative therapy, please don't hesitate to get in touch.