Six Key Milestones of Floortime

Floortime aims to help the child reach six key milestones that contribute to emotional and intellectual growth:

Self-regulation and interest in the world
Two-way communication
Complex communication
Emotional ideas
Emotional thinking

Therapists teach parents how to direct their children into more and more complex interactions. This process, called “opening and closing circles of communication,” is central to the Floortime approach.

Floortime does not work on speech, motor or cognitive skills in isolation. It addresses these areas through its focus on emotional development.

Overall, this method encourages children with autism to push themselves to their full potential. It develops “who they are,” rather than “what their diagnosis says.”

Floortime work?

Floortime takes place in a calm environment. This can be at home or in a professional setting.

Therapy sessions range from two to five hours a day. They include training for parents and caregivers as well as interaction with the child.

During a session, the parent or provider joins in the child’s activities and follows the child’s lead. The parent or provider then engages the child in increasingly complex interactions.

Floortime encourages inclusion with typically developing peers when used in a preschool setting.

Sessions emphasize back-and-forth play. This builds the foundation for shared attention, engagement and problem solving. Parents and therapists help the child maintain focus to sharpen interactions and abstract, logical thinking.