Written by: Sonia Strueby, M.A., CCC-SLP, Founder of Enrichment Therapy & Learning Center
Originally Published: February 17, 2020 | Updated: August 27, 2026
Floortime is a relationship-based approach for children with autism, developed by Stanley Greenspan, M.D., and Serena Wieder, Ph.D. Instead of following a set curriculum, this approach meets your child exactly where they are, literally getting down on their level and following their lead, to build connection, communication, and thinking skills through play. Here’s what Floortime looks like in practice and how it might fit into your child’s support plan.
What Is Floortime?
Floortime is part of the broader DIR model (Developmental, Individual-differences, Relationship-based), and it’s built around one core idea: children grow best through warm, responsive relationships. Rather than directing your child toward a specific task, you follow their lead, using their natural interests and emotions as the starting point for connection and learning.
Where Can I Do This With My Child?
This approach can happen almost anywhere. It can happen on the playground, in the bathtub, in the car, wherever your child naturally is. There’s no special equipment required. Parents get down on the floor (or wherever their child is) and play at their child’s level, following their lead rather than directing the activity.
What Does “Following My Child’s Lead” Actually Mean?
Following your child’s lead means paying close attention to their emotions, not just their actions. It means watching closely to figure out what your child is interested in and what brings them pleasure, then using that interest as the doorway into richer interaction.
From there, a parent gently pulls their child into a shared world, helping them learn to focus and attend, relate with warmth, act with purpose, take initiative, and build back-and-forth communication, first through gestures, and eventually through words. The ultimate goal is to help a child grow into someone who is empathetic, creative, reflective, and logical in how they engage with the world.
What Are the Six Milestones of Floortime?
Floortime is organized around six developmental milestones, sometimes called functional emotional developmental capacities:
- Self-regulation and interest in the world, the foundation of managing one’s own state and engaging with surroundings
- Intimacy and engagement in relationships, forming warm connections with caregivers
- Two-way communication, learning to initiate and respond, first through gestures
- Complex communication, stringing together sequences of interaction to solve problems together
- Emotional ideas, using symbols, words, and imagination to express thoughts and feelings
- Emotional thinking, reasoning and connecting ideas logically
According to the Interdisciplinary Council on Development and Learning (ICDL), the organization that oversees the DIR/Floortime model, these capacities build on each other, with later milestones depending on the foundation built by earlier ones.
Who Can Floortime Help?
Floortime was developed specifically to support children with autism, though its relationship-based approach can complement other types of support as well. Many families use it alongside speech-language therapy, occupational therapy, or other interventions, rather than as a stand-alone approach, since building connection and communication skills often works best from multiple angles at once.
How Can I Learn More or Get Started?
If you think this approach might be a good fit for your child, “Engaging Autism” by Stanley Greenspan and Serena Wieder is a helpful starting point for learning more in depth. That said, working with a trained professional can help you apply these principles in a way that’s tailored specifically to your child.
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