DIRFloortime®

Children with a wide range of emotional, sensory, regulatory, motor, learning, and developmental challenges including having an autism spectrum disorder

DIRFloortime® is designed to help children with a wide range of emotional, sensory, regulatory, motor, learning, and developmental challenges including having an autism spectrum disorder. DIRFloortime® is an intervention that is used to promote an individual’s development through a respectful, playful, joyful, and engaging process. It is designed to use the power of relationships and human connections to promote the development of the capacities for self-regulation; engagement; communication; shared social problem solving; and creative, organized, and reflective thinking and reasoning. It is used by teachers, occupational therapists, speech therapists, mental health professionals, parents, and many others that care for individuals with developmental challenges or other related needs.

Jeffrey J. Guenzel, MA, LPC

• Website: https://www.icdl.com
• Email: info@icdl.com
• Phone: (301) 304-8824

Publicly available information indicates there is some training available for this program. See contact info.

Manual Information

There is not a manual that describes how to deliver this program.

Training Information

There is training available for this program.

Child Welfare Outcome: Child/Family Well-Being

“What is included in the Relevant Published, Peer-Reviewed Research section?”

• Pajareya, K., & Nopmaneejumruslers, K. (2011). A pilot randomized controlled trial of DIR/Floortime™ parent training intervention for pre-school children with autistic spectrum disorders. Autism, 15(5), 563–577. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361310386502

  Type of Study: Randomized controlled trial

  Participants: 32

  Sample / Population:

  • Age — 24–72 months (Mean=51.5–56.6 months)
  • Race/Ethnicity — Not specified
  • Gender — 28 Male and 4 Female
  • Status —

    Participants were children who met clinical criteria for autistic disorders.

  Location/Institution: Thailand

  Summary:

  The purpose of the study was to test the efficacy of adding the home-based Developmental, Individual-Difference, Relationship-Based (DIR)/Floortime™ [now called DIRFloortime®] intervention to the routine care of preschool children with autistic spectrum disorder. Participants were randomly assigned to typical treatment or treatment groups which added DIR/Floortime™ to typical treatment. Measures utilized include the Functional Emotional Assessment Scale (FEAS), the Childhood Autism Rating Scale, and the Functional Emotional Questionnaire. Results indicate that after the parents added home-based DIR/Floortime™ intervention at an average of 15.2 hours/week for three months, the DIR/Floortime™ group made significantly greater gains in all three measures employed in the study. Limitations include, the results could have been affected by involving families that were particularly interested in learning this new intervention, there was some contamination with varying types and amounts of interventions in the control group, small sample size, and lack of follow up.

  Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: None.

There are currently no references available for DIRFloortime®.