DIRFloorTime® Services

If your child has developmental or mental health challenges, consider DIRFloortime® services at Express Yourself Pediatric Therapy, with locations in Palatine and Chicago, Illinois and Kensington, Maryland. Board-certified child language specialist and credentialed infant mental health specialist Melissa Grosvenor, PhD, MS CCC-SLP, I/ECMH-C, BCS-CL, and her team offer this service for children and adolescents to reduce problematic symptoms and help your child thrive. Schedule an evaluation by phone or request one online today to learn more about DIRFloortime services®. 

What are DIRFloortime services?

DirFloortime services are developmental, individualized, and relationship-based models of intervention. They provide a developmental framework for supporting neurodiverse individuals. This comprehensive foundation model utilizes affect-based interactions and experiences customized to patients’ needs.

DIR® and DIRFloortime models were developed by Dr. Stanley Greenspan and Dr. Serena Wieder. They identify functional-emotional developmental challenges and provide foundations for lifelong learning. 

These models relate developmental capacities to biological and neurological differences in sensory processing. They identify forces that nurture and optimize development using relationships to improve autism symptoms and sensory processing disorders.

What are the benefits of DIRFloortime services?

DIRFloortime services at Express Yourself Pediatric Therapy offer the following benefits:

• Improved social skills and interactions
• Fun learning environment
• Reduced problematic symptoms
• Stronger interpersonal relationships
• Easier time at school or work
• Research-based methods
• Highly effective results
• Improved quality of life

The DIRFloortime model supports parents in a partnership with their children. It promotes development in regulation, joint attention, language, communication, cognition, motor skills, social problem-solving, and more. Express Yourself Pediatric Therapy provides a nurturing environment and meets every child where they are. 

What do DIRFloortime services include?

The DIRFloortime services model was created by experts in developmental psychology, pediatric medicine, speech and language, education, and physical and occupational therapies. The model takes an integrated, multidisciplinary approach to supporting neurodiverse children and adolescents.

It consists of the following components:

Development

This includes developing language, symbol formation, and intelligence using joint attention and regulation, two-way communication, emotion engagement, and complex problem-solving.

Individual differences

It focuses on individualized differences related to visual-spatial and auditory/language processing, sensory reactivity and regulation, and purposeful movement and communication.

Relationships 

Relationships with caregivers foster affect-based developmentally appropriate interactions. Parents and families have ongoing opportunities to support a child’s functioning and achieve emotionally meaningful goals.

The Express Yourself Pediatric Therapy team customizes treatment plans to ensure optimal outcomes.

What happens during DIRFloortime?

DIRFloortime interventions begin with a therapist supporting caregivers/parents and children who engage in fun, developmentally appropriate activities. They strengthen core relationships between caregiver and child to maximize developmental progress. The therapists at Express Yourself Pediatric Therapy have advanced training in the DIR models. 

Parents are encouraged to engage in multiple DIR sessions daily with their children. The Express Yourself Pediatric Therapy team measures progress by establishing a baseline functional social-emotional assessment scale (FEAS) and producing quarterly updates.

Schedule an evaluation at Express Yourself Pediatric Therapy by phone or request one online today to take advantage of cutting-edge DIRFloortime services.