People often ask how The PLAY Project differs from other autism interventions. The question is worth asking, not because the differences are always obvious from a distance, but because many contemporary approaches have gradually moved toward one another over time.
I have watched this evolution from an unusual vantage point. Earlier in my career, I directed three ABA programs and spent a decade collaborating with Ivar Lovaas. In those years, autism intervention was largely organized around discrete trials: children sat at tables, practiced specific skills, and received rewards for correct responses. The emphasis was on teaching behaviors one at a time.
Over the years, ABA changed. Programs became more naturalistic, more playful, and more attentive to the child’s interests. Verbal Behavior, PRT, and, more recently, Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions all moved steadily away from the table and toward the child. In some respects, the field has come full circle. My frequent joke is that as ABA has evolved, it has begun to resemble The PLAY Project.
Yet important differences remain.
The PLAY Project begins not with a program, a goal sheet, or a target behavior, but with a relationship. Human development unfolds through countless moments of reciprocal exchange: one person initiates, another responds; a gesture is answered; a smile is returned. These brief circles of communication are the basic units of social life. Children with autism often struggle with this process. Our work is directed toward strengthening it.
A second distinction is that The PLAY Project is fundamentally child-centered. We follow the child’s interests, pleasures, and emotional investments because these are the engines of development. The child’s enthusiasm is not a distraction from learning; it is the pathway through which learning occurs.
A third distinction is developmental faith. We assume that growth follows an organized developmental trajectory and that our task is to support that natural progression. The DIR/Floortime work of Stanley Greenspan MD and Serena Wieder PhD provided an invaluable map for understanding these developmental capacities, particularly in early childhood. The PLAY Project uses that map as its guide.
In this sense, The PLAY Project stands firmly within the developmental tradition established by Greenspan and Wieder. At the same time, it occupies a more narrowly defined territory. When a professional says, “I am PLAY certified,” one knows with some precision what that means: they have been trained in a specific, evidence-based model designed to coach parents in using play and relationships to support the development of young children with autism or early signs of autism.
DIR, by contrast, is a broader framework. It extends across a wider range of ages, developmental challenges, and clinical settings. Its practitioners may work with autism, but they may also work far beyond it. The breadth of the model is one of its strengths, although it can make it difficult to know exactly what a given practitioner does in daily practice.
The PLAY Project was developed with a different aim. From the beginning, we focused on a single question: can parents be coached to become effective developmental partners for their young children with autism? Our research suggests that they can. In fact, much of the empirical literature cited in support of developmental approaches includes the important early studies of The PLAY Project itself.
The family is equally central. Children do not develop in isolation; they develop within relationships. Parents usually want two things above all else: a warm connection with their child and the opportunity to help that child grow. The PLAY Project is designed around both aspirations. Rather than placing parents at the edge of treatment, we place them at its center.
And then there is play itself.
Play is often mistaken for something incidental, a pleasant activity added after the serious work is done. Development suggests otherwise. Play is among the brain’s oldest and most powerful learning systems. Through play, children practice attention, flexibility, emotional regulation, imagination, and social understanding. We take play seriously because nature does.
The ultimate aim is not the acquisition of isolated skills but the emergence of broader developmental capacities that can be carried into everyday life. When children grow through relationships, play, and developmental experience, those gains are generalized and belong to them. They are not confined to a therapy room.
At its heart, The PLAY Project reflects a simple idea: children develop best when they are understood, accepted, and engaged where they are. Neurodiversity is not an obstacle to this work; it is the starting point. Our responsibility is not to determine the pace of a child’s development but to support its unfolding.