About half of children with autism who receive Floortime therapy for 8-12 months show improved function.

Most people agree that young children with autism can be helped by early and intense intervention. Two of the most common types of early intense therapies are applied behavior analysis (ABA) and a social approach to therapy such as the developmental, individualized, and relationship-oriented (DIR) model. While the ABA approach has been shown to work, it is hard because it requires 40 hours a week of therapy. This paper reports on the use of DIR (also known as Floortime) to treat children with autism. The DIR model supports parents as the main play partner of the child.