Week 4 Case Study: EDPY 552: Ethan: Early Intervention
Interventions
DIR/Floortime
DIR is an acronym for Developmental, Individual Differences, Relationship Approach and Floortime is a DIR
based intervention strategy. The three corner stones of DIR are: (1) language, cognition and social-emotional
skills are learned through relationships that involve emotionally meaningful relationships, (2) children vary in
their underlying motor and sensory capacities, and (3) progress in all areas of development is inter-related. The
goal of DIR is to progress a child through six developmental stages. Stage 1 is Regulation and Interest in the
World and Stage 6 is Emotional Thinking, Logic and a Sense of Reality. The name Floortime is literal in the
sense that the person implementing the intervention would be with Ethan on the floor. It is also figurative to
symbolize the fact that the intervention is child-centric. A large amount of play time between an adult and
Ethan would be central to Floortime, this would occur in the home and other settings. A DIR/Floortime
certified professional would help create goals for Ethan, facilitate your training so you can deliver Floortime at
home and provide follow up and assessment of his progress.
Internet Resource: http://www.interactingwithautism.com/section/treating/floort
Relationship Development Intervention
The goal of the Relationship Development Intervention (RDI) is to improve Ethan’s quality of life by
addressing the core deficits of autism including rigidity of thinking, emotional and social and cognitive
abilities. This is a parent and child-centric intervention that focuses on your relationship with Ethan and you
two experiencing the world together. If you think of Ethan as having a need to redo some the key
developmental moments in his life where he learns social and emotional skills from his parent; that is what this
intervention offers. An RDI program certified consultant would teach you to establish a relationship with Ethan
where he will see you as a guide to how to navigate the world around him. The RDI intervention has a set of
levels and stages that will help Ethan meet the objects such as abstract thinking, self-awareness,
communication, problem solving, collaboration and academic learning (this is mentioned in the internet
resource I provided below).
Internet Resources:
http://www.autismcanada.org/treatments/comm/relationship.html
http://kidsmattercanada.com/index.php/services/rdi-relational-development-intervention/
“Lovaas-type”
ABA
Approach
Behavioural
Approaches
Pivotal
Response
Training
The Early
Start Denver
Model
JASPER
The SCERTS
model
Responsive
Teaching
DIR/Floortime
Relationship
Development
Intervention
Developmental
Approaches
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