The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

Symbolic and social play generally follows a fairly consistent developmental sequence. While not really linear in development, it is typical that manipulative play, functional play and pretend play each emerge at different times. It should be remembered that play is not merely its own set of discrete skills, but rather is highly interdependent on a set of closely connected developmental skills.

Children with autism are disadvantaged in their use of play to develop skills, experiment with roles and interact with others. Restricted interests, repetitive behaviors and stereotypical movements are characteristics of autism that often impede the development of play skills, exacerbating social and communication deficits even further. The development of solitary play skills can lead to meaningful and pleasurable lifelong leisure skills, while interactive play skills may pave the way to fuller and richer relationships with others throughout life. For individuals with autism, self-stimulatory behaviors may replace other forms of play or become so consuming that they are done to the exclusion of other types of play.

This presentation will examine several studies on play interventions, completed and published by a variety of authors. These represent some of the evidence-based practices that have been shown to be useful in teaching play skills. Application strategies and the development of play skills will be examined in light of these studies.  

Imitation skills have been shown to be effective in teaching initial toy play, as well as joint attention. Through imitation it is possible to teach toy play, such as with manipulatives and building sets, social games, pretend play and physical play, including team sports. Examples of ways to use imitation to teach initial toy play as well as more advanced play types will be explored.

Video modeling has been used to teach the initiation of play routines and the engagement in toy play that follows. Children with autism learned to approach adults and peers to request play after watching brief video clips. They then played with the toy and the other person appropriately for brief periods of time. An analysis of the many ways to join peers in play activities and how to get peers to join them can lead to further applications for video modeling as well as other strategies to teach initiation of play.

For many individuals with autism, ritualistic play becomes a deterrent to interactive play as it is often not appealing to the play partner to play in such a manner. It can be very disturbing to the individual with autism who has developed rules that are now perceived as being broken by the play partner. Additionally, interruption of stereotypical behaviors, including stereotypical play routines, has been shown to evoke challenging behaviors with some individuals. Studies demonstrate the use of picture activity schedules to increase play and decrease stereotypical behaviors. Increasing appropriate play skills has also been shown to decrease competing behaviors. Ideas for visual supports for game play and activities will be shown, including ways to use supports for computer play and online leisure activities such as chat and email.