A One-Year Prospective Follow-Up Study of a DIR/Floortime™
Parent Training Intervention for Pre-School Children
with Autistic Spectrum Disorders
Kingkaew Pajareya MD*,
Kaewta Nopmaneejumruslers MD**
Affiliation :
* Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Srisanwan Building, Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital,
Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
** National Institute for Child and Family Development, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
Objective : Determine the results of 1-year Developmental, Individual-Difference, Relationship-Based (DIR)/Floortime™
parent training in developmental stimulation of children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD).
Material and Method: Thirty-four, two to six years old children with ASD participated. Parents were encouraged to deliver
1:1 interaction according to their child’s developmental level, as they were modeled and coached. Pre-post videotapes were
rated by blinded assessors.
Results : Thirty-one families completed the present study. The data showed that adding home-base DIR/Floortime™
intervention at the average 14.2 hours/week for one year could help 47% of the children to make good improvement
(1.5 Functional Development Level, FDLs or more), with 23% making fair progression (1 FDL), and the last 29% making
poor progression (0.5 FDL or less). There were significant increases in children’s total Functional Emotional Assessment
Scale (FEAS), and Functional Emotional Developmental Questionnaire (FEDQ) scores and there was significant decrease
in the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) scores (p ≤ 0.001). It showed that fidelity of the parents, severity of the
children, and baseline developmental status might affect the outcome.
Conclusion : Adding home-base DIR/Floortime™ intervention at the average 14 hours/week for one year helped 47% of
children with autism to make good improvement in their development, and decreased autism’s severity significantly.
Keywords : Autistic spectrum disorders, Parent training, Home-based intervention, DIR/Floortime™
All Articles
Download