Floortime & Play-Based Therapy
Floortime and play-based therapy use your child’s natural interests and meaningful play to encourage connection, communication, and development. Designed for children ages 2–8, our individualized, relationship-based support takes place in natural environments where children feel comfortable learning and engaging with the world around them.
Our Approach to Floortime & Play-Based Therapy
Our approach begins by meeting your child where they are and building on the activities and interests that naturally engage them. Floortime uses these moments to create meaningful back-and-forth interactions, while play-based therapy gives children opportunities to learn and practice skills in ways that feel comfortable and relevant to them.
Rather than relying on highly structured activities, we use connection and play to encourage development within your child’s natural environment. This allows new skills to become part of everyday interactions and experiences, helping children use what they learn beyond their time with us.
Traditional 1:1 Support vs. The Nest LA Approach:
| Skills taught in a clinic or therapy room | Skills taught in school, preschool, and natural environments |
| Children often separated from peers | Children learn alongside peers whenever possible |
| Learning occurs in structured therapy sessions | Learning happens through play, routines, and interaction |
| Parents expected to help generalize skills later | Skills are practiced in the environments where they’re needed |
| Focus on completing therapy goals | Focus on helping children become more independent |
What Does Floortime Therapy Look Like?
Floortime starts with what already interests your child. From there, everyday moments of play become opportunities for connection, communication, and development.
Follow Their Interest
We begin with what naturally captures your child’s attention, allowing their interests to guide the interaction.
Join Their World
Instead of redirecting the play, we join in and build connection around something your child already enjoys.
Create Interaction
Playful moments encourage your child to respond, initiate, communicate, and stay engaged in back-and-forth interaction.
Expand the Play
As the interaction grows, we introduce new ideas and experiences that encourage flexible thinking and deeper engagement.
How Does Floortime & Play-Based Therapy Help Your Child?
Floortime and individualized play-based therapy build on your child’s natural interests to create meaningful opportunities for connection and development. By joining your child in play and following their lead, we gradually encourage more complex interactions that help them engage with others and the world around them.
Through these interactions, we support:
- Regulation & Engagement – Helping your child feel comfortable and ready to interact with others
- Shared Attention & Connection – Building interest in people and strengthening relationships that support learning and development
- Back-and-Forth Communication – Encouraging increasingly purposeful exchanges through gestures, expressions, sounds, words, and play
- Problem-Solving – Creating opportunities for your child to initiate, respond, and work through challenges
- Flexible & Creative Thinking – Expanding play interactions to encourage new ideas and complex ways of thinking
Rather than teaching these skills in isolation, we build them through meaningful play experiences that naturally motivate your child. This helps development become part of the way your child connects, communicates, and participates in everyday life.
Support Beyond the Therapy Room
Many children develop new skills in structured learning environments, but using those same skills in real-life situations can be much more challenging. Learning is often most effective when it happens within the natural settings where children play, interact, and participate in daily routines. By supporting children in their school, daycare, and community environments, we help them build skills that are meaningful, practical, and more easily carried over into everyday life.
We focus on helping your child develop skills in the environments where they naturally spend their time. By supporting children within their familiar settings, opportunities for learning happen with the people, routines, and experiences that are already part of their day.
Why Families Prefer Our Approach
- Children can practice skills in real-world situations from the start
- Progress often carries over more naturally into school and everyday life
- Teachers and caregivers can be part of the process
- Less time spent traveling between appointments
- More opportunities to preserve family routines and time at home
Our goal is to help children build skills where they will use them most, creating meaningful progress that extends beyond therapy sessions.
Autism Diagnosis
The Nest offers the ADOS-2 (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule) assessment which allows our team to accurately assess and diagnose autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) across age, developmental level, and language skills.
We offer assessments and essential support in your child’s development journey.
Consultations are available in-person at our Studio City clinic or via zoom/telehealth.