What's the difference between Floortime and ABA?

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) uses a functional-based approach to behavior that seeks to improve or teach specific behaviors in areas such as social skills, communication, self-care, and academics. ABA aims to teach, maintain, or reduce behavior based on a system of reinforcements

While ABA is commonly recommended for kids with autism, it doesn’t work for everybody. One of the main alternatives to ABA is Floortime.

Floortime is just one of many evidence-based interventions that draw on developmental psychology and use relationship-based approaches, often called the Developmental, Individual-Difference, Relationship-Based (DIR) intervention model. A developmental approach to behavioral health looks at the individual differences in a person's way of taking in information through how they process auditory, sensory, or motor information, and then creates a plan that supports their challenges and capitalizes on their strengths and passions.

Dr. Burton-Hoyle’s advice to families who are exploring ABA or any other therapy is to find the right fit: a therapist and therapy system your child likes: “So if we start with first, who would my child perk up and go, ‘Oh, this looks like fun!’? Do they like the therapist? There are some ABA people who are fabulous and the kids love them, so that's kind of what counts.”

For more information, see our full article Common Behavioral Interventions and Therapies.