DIR®/Floortime

Chatterboxes’ speech-language pathologists are trained to provide DIR®/Floortime™ to their patients when appropriate.

DIR®/Floortime™ is a framework which helps parents, clinicians and educators complete comprehensive evaluations and develop treatment programs customized to the unique strengths and weaknesses of children with developmental challenges, including Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), among others. The DIR®/Floortime™ model aims to build the underpinnings for social, emotional, and intellectual capabilities, rather than focusing on individual skills and behaviors.

D = Developmental: Functional developmental capacities that integrate the most essential cognitive and affective processes

I = Individual Differences: Biologically-based differences in sensory processing, modulation, muscle tone, and motor planning and sequencing

R = Relationship: Affective interactions build social and emotional development, intelligence, and morality

Basic Principles of Floor Time:

1) Follow the child’s lead
2) Join in at the child’s developmental level and build upon his/her natural interests
3) Open and close circles of communication
4) Create a play environment
5) Extend the circles of communication
6) Broaden the child’s range of interactive experience
7) Tailor the interaction to the child’s individual differences
8) Simultaneously attempt to mobilize the six functional developmental level

For more information on the DIR^®/Floortime™ Model, please visit: www.icdl.com.