P.L.A.Y. Project programme

The P.L.A.Y. Project (Play and Language for Autistic Youngsters) was created by Dr. Rick Solomon in 2001 and based on the D.I.R. model of Stanley Greenspan MD.

“By doing what your child loves, your child will love being with you”
- Dr. Solomon 2001

Through the PLAY project we can provide training and support to families of young children (18 months – 6 years) with autism. We can teach parents techniques that are effective, fun and highly useful in day-to-day interactions with their child with autism.

The intervention is very much based on the Developmental, Individualised, Relationship-based (DIR) approach of Dr. Stanley Greenspan, popularly known as Floortime. The methods and techniques are designed to help children resolve the three core deficits of autism:

  1. self-isolation and impaired social skills
  2. language difficulties and impaired communication and
  3. stereotyped or repetitive behaviours.

The results from research on the model are also very encouraging. Dr. Solomon has evaluated the ability of parents to successfully use the play-based approaches and his results indicate that parents can learn the play-based methods.

Nearly half of the children using the PLAY project model made good to excellent progress and there was 90% satisfaction with the services provided. The research was published in the peer-reviewed journal, Autism: The International Journal of Research & Practice. Dr. Solomon is involved in ongoing research with the PLAY project.

We find that this is an excellent programme to use with families who have a child with autism or a child who is finding it difficult to interact and engage. It really empowers parents and gives them the skills that they need to develop their child’s skills much further.

By combining the PLAY project with our other interventions we continue to see excellent results.