What Happens During a Floortime Session?
Wondering what a DIR/Floortime® session looks like? Discover how relationship-based pediatric occupational therapy, parent coaching, and the Growing Through Play Program help children with autism and developmental delays build communication, connection, and confidence through play.
If you've recently received an autism diagnosis for your child, you're probably asking yourself a lot of questions.
"What type of therapy is best?"
"What happens during a Floortime session?"
"Will someone teach me what to do at home?"
Those are some of the first questions we hear from families.
At Growing Through Play, our answer is simple:
A DIR/Floortime® session isn't just about working with your child. It's about helping you understand your child.
Because while your child may spend one hour each week with us...
They spend the other 167 hours with you.
Our goal is to help you feel confident during all of those moments.
More Than Weekly Therapy Appointments
Growing Through Play is different from many traditional therapy models.
We don't simply provide weekly pediatric occupational therapy sessions and send you home with a few suggestions.
We've created the Growing Through Play Program—a step-by-step journey that combines:
✓ Relationship-based pediatric occupational therapy
✓ DIR/Floortime®
✓ Caregiver coaching
✓ A comprehensive parent curriculum
✓ Home play activities
✓ Practical strategies you can use during everyday routines
Every session builds on the one before it, helping you better understand your child's development while giving you simple, practical tools you can immediately use at home.
Because our goal isn't just progress during therapy.
It's helping your child grow through the thousands of everyday interactions that happen between sessions.
Every Session Begins the Same Way
With connection.
Before we teach anything...
Before we introduce new challenges...
Before we work on developmental goals...
We build a relationship.
We spend time understanding:
• What captures your child's attention
• How they communicate
• What helps them feel safe
• Their sensory preferences
• Their interests and motivations
When children feel understood, they become more available for learning.
That's why connection always comes first.
We Follow Your Child's Lead
Unlike more adult-directed approaches, DIR/Floortime® begins by entering your child's world.
If your child wants to:
• Spin the wheels on a toy car
• Line up animals
• Jump on cushions
• Read the same book five times
• Watch bubbles
• Pretend to be a dinosaur
We don't see those interests as distractions.
We see them as opportunities.
By joining your child's interests, we create meaningful opportunities for communication, shared attention, emotional regulation, and problem-solving.
Children learn best when they are emotionally engaged.
What Does the Therapist Actually Do?
Although a Floortime session often looks like "just play," every interaction has a purpose.
As your therapist joins your child's play, they are thoughtfully creating opportunities for:
✓ Shared attention
✓ Back-and-forth communication
✓ Emotional connection
✓ Flexible thinking
✓ Problem-solving
✓ Motor planning
✓ Sensory regulation
✓ Social engagement
For example, if your child is rolling a toy car, we might roll another car beside them, pause with anticipation, add playful sounds, or wait for them to invite us into the game.
These small moments become the building blocks for communication and relationships.
What Skills Are We Really Building?
While your child is playing, they're also developing important foundational skills.
Communication
Learning to share ideas through gestures, sounds, words, facial expressions, and back-and-forth interactions.
Joint Attention
Learning to enjoy sharing experiences with another person.
Emotional Regulation
Developing the ability to stay calm, recover from challenges, and seek comfort from trusted adults.
Social Relationships
Discovering that people are enjoyable, predictable, and fun to interact with.
Thinking and Problem-Solving
Expanding play ideas, becoming more flexible, and learning through exploration.
One of the Most Important Parts of Every Session Is You
Parents are not expected to sit quietly in the background.
You're an essential part of the Growing Through Play Program.
Throughout each session, you'll learn alongside your child.
We'll help you understand:
• Why your child is responding the way they are
• What they're communicating through their behavior
• How to join their play naturally
• Ways to build communication during everyday routines
• Strategies you can confidently use between sessions
Because the greatest progress happens when parents understand why something works—not just what to do.
A Parent Curriculum That Grows With You
One of the things that makes Growing Through Play different is that every family receives our Growing Through Play Parent Curriculum.
This isn't a stack of handouts.
It's a step-by-step learning program that helps you understand your child's development while building your confidence each week.
As therapy progresses, so does your knowledge.
Together, we'll explore topics like:
✓ Understanding your child's sensory differences
✓ Building engagement and connection
✓ Supporting communication through play
✓ Emotional regulation and co-regulation
✓ Joint attention and social interaction
✓ Expanding play and flexible thinking
✓ Turning everyday routines into learning opportunities
You'll leave each session with practical strategies you can immediately use at home—so learning continues long after the appointment ends.
What a Session Might Look Like
Every child is different, but a typical session might include:
A child rolling toy cars while the therapist joins the play and creates opportunities for back-and-forth interaction.
A jumping game filled with laughter, anticipation, and shared excitement that naturally builds communication and regulation.
Pretend play with dolls or animals where new ideas are gently introduced without taking over the child's play.
What may look like simple play is actually carefully designed around your child's developmental needs.
Why Families Choose Growing Through Play
Many families come to us because they don't just want therapy.
They want understanding.
They want someone to explain why their child does what they do.
They want practical strategies they can use every day.
Most of all, they want to feel confident that they're helping their child in meaningful ways.
That's exactly what the Growing Through Play Program is designed to do.
Ready to Begin?
If you're searching for DIR/Floortime near me, relationship-based pediatric occupational therapy, home-based autism therapy, or parent coaching in Connecticut, we'd love to support your family.
Growing Through Play provides home-based pediatric occupational therapy, DIR/Floortime®, and caregiver coaching for families in Wallingford, North Haven, Cheshire, Branford, Guilford, Madison, and surrounding Connecticut communities.
Together, we'll help you understand your child, strengthen your relationship, and build communication, confidence, and joyful learning—one playful moment at a time.
