Center for Developmental Play and Learning
Established in  2007
Serving Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties

The DIR® model is a comprehensive, interdisciplinary method of  support which takes into account the child's feelings, relationships with caregivers, developmental level and individual differences in a child's ability to process and respond to sensory information.  It focuses on the child's unique profile in all developmental areas, including social-emotional functioning, communication, thinking and learning, motor skills, body awareness, and attention.  DIR®/ Floortime therapy stands in sharp contrast to earlier approaches that did not focus on respectful understanding of the child's unique needs, nor their sensory and communication profile. 

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This approach involves meeting your child at her current developmental level, and building upon a particular set of strengths to support further growth. The approach suggests tuning in to the child's interests and desires in interactions and play to harness the power of her motivation and help her climb the developmental ladder.  It also involves tailoring these interactions to the child's individual differences in sensory reactivity, processing and motor planning.

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​DIR®/Floortime Supports Growth in the Following Key Developmental Areas:

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The First Six Levels of Functional Emotional Development

Level 1:  Regulation and Shared Attention
Level 2:  Relationships, Attachment and Engagement
Level 3:  Two-way Purposeful Communication
Level 4:  Behavioral Organization: Problem Solving and 
                Internalization (A Complex Sense of Self)
Level 5:  Representational Capacity
Level 6:  Representational Differentiation: Building Bridges
                Between Ideas and Emotional Thinking