Child-led, relationship-based therapy from a certified DIR/Floortime trainer, meeting your child exactly where they are.
DIR/Floortime Therapy in the Bay Area
What DIR/Floortime Therapy Is and Why It's Different
Floortime is not a technique. It’s a complete developmental framework built on one powerful idea: follow the child.
DIR/Floortime is a developmental model created by child psychiatrist Dr. Stanley Greenspan and Serena Wieder, PhD. The name stands for Developmental, Individual Difference, Relationship-based, and each word matters. The model starts with where a child is developmentally (not where they “should” be), accounts for their individual sensory and processing profile, and uses the therapeutic relationship as the primary vehicle for growth.
“Floortime” refers to the practice of literally getting on the floor with a child and following their lead into their world. The therapist enters the child’s play, expands it, and uses it to build the foundational capacities that underpin all development: shared attention, engagement, intentional communication, problem-solving, and eventually symbolic and creative thinking.
Unlike approaches that focus on reducing specific behaviors or drilling isolated skills, DIR/Floortime builds development from the inside out. The goal is a child who connects, communicates, and grows, on their own terms.
Why a Relationship-Based Model Produces Deeper, Lasting Progress
Skills built inside a trusting relationship generalize to every relationship in a child’s life.
Traditional skill-based therapies teach children what to do. DIR/Floortime helps children want to connect, and that shift changes everything. When a child experiences a therapist (or parent) as a safe, attuned partner who genuinely follows their interests and meets them without pressure, their nervous system opens. Curiosity replaces anxiety. Engagement replaces avoidance.
Research supports DIR/Floortime as an effective intervention for autistic children and children with developmental differences, with documented improvements in communication, emotional regulation, and social engagement. A 2007 study published in the Journal of Developmental and Learning Disorders found that children who received DIR/Floortime-based intervention showed significant gains across all developmental domains.
Beyond the research, families tell us consistently that Floortime changes the tone of their home. When parents learn to apply Floortime principles in daily life, the relationship between parent and child deepens in ways that ripple through every part of the family.
Our Team Includes a Certified DIR/Floortime Trainer with 10+ Years of Expertise
We don’t just practice Floortime, we train other clinicians in it.
Most OT practices that offer Floortime have a therapist who has taken an introductory course. Therapeeps is different: our team includes a certified DIR/Floortime trainer with more than 10 years of specialized expertise in the model. A trainer credential means this clinician has not only mastered the framework but has demonstrated the clinical depth required to teach it to other professionals.
What that means for your family: your child’s Floortime sessions are guided by one of the most highly trained practitioners in the Bay Area. And because Floortime is a model designed to be applied by caregivers throughout daily life, our trainer-level expertise means our parent coaching in this model is substantive, practical, and genuinely transferable.
How DIR/Floortime Supports Autistic Children and Those at Risk for Diagnosis
Floortime is one of the most widely recommended developmental models for autistic children and families.
Autistic children and children at risk for an Autism diagnosis often have nervous systems that process the world differently, with sensory sensitivities, communication differences, and patterns of engagement that don’t always map onto neurotypical developmental expectations. DIR/Floortime is designed specifically to honor that difference.
Rather than targeting the surface characteristics of Autism, Floortime addresses the foundational developmental capacities that Autism can affect: emotional regulation, joint attention, intentional back-and-forth communication, and flexible thinking. It does this without pathologizing the child’s way of being in the world.
Our team is also Board Certified in Autism Treatment, which means we bring an additional layer of specialized clinical knowledge to every Floortime session with autistic children and their families.
Parent Coaching: Bringing Floortime Into Your Everyday Life
The most powerful Floortime sessions happen outside of therapy, with you.
DIR/Floortime is not a therapy model that works best when it stays in the therapy hour. Dr. Greenspan designed the model to be practiced by parents throughout the day, in the natural moments of family life: bath time, mealtime, playtime, morning routines. Our parent coaching program teaches you the core principles of DIR/Floortime in a way that’s practical, confidence-building, and specific to your child.
Parent coaching sessions can be added to your child’s regular OT program or scheduled as standalone sessions. We’ll work with you on reading your child’s cues, following their lead in play, and using everyday interactions as opportunities to build the developmental capacities that matter most. You’ll leave every coaching session with concrete strategies you can use today.
Frequently Asked Questions
DIR/Floortime is used most often with autistic children and children with developmental differences, communication delays, or social-emotional challenges. It builds foundational developmental capacities like shared attention, intentional communication, and emotional regulation through child-led, relationship-based interaction. It’s also used as a parent coaching model to help caregivers support their child’s development throughout daily life.
Yes. DIR/Floortime has a growing evidence base, including peer-reviewed studies showing improvements in communication, social engagement, and overall developmental functioning in autistic children. It is recognized by many developmental pediatricians and child psychiatrists as an effective, relationship-based alternative or complement to other developmental interventions.
ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) focuses on modifying specific behaviors through reinforcement strategies, often targeting observable outputs. DIR/Floortime focuses on building the underlying developmental capacities that drive behavior: emotional regulation, communication, and relational engagement. Floortime follows the child’s lead and uses play as the primary medium. Many families use both models in combination.
Yes, and that’s one of the model’s greatest strengths. Floortime principles are designed to be practiced by caregivers throughout ordinary daily life. Our parent coaching program teaches you to apply the model at home so that every interaction becomes an opportunity for developmental growth. You don’t need any special materials, just time, attention, and a willingness to follow your child’s lead.
Ready to Get Started?
Call us today to get started, or book an evaluation for your child.
