1744L - Playing to Pretend or Pretending to Play: Play in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Children with autism exhibit delays and differences in play. In infancy, they engage in unusual exploratory behaviors with toys. As toddlers, they are slow to develop functional play; in preschool they may fail to develop symbolic play despite having the necessary cognitive and language skills. Increased quantity and quality of play are frequent therapeutic goals for children with autism. Consequently, speech-language pathologists must adequately assess children’s play skills. This presentation (a) reviews the literature on the characteristics of play in children with autism and possible reasons for their patterns of play development; and (b) provides a framework for assessing play to plan goals to promote play in children with autism using naturalistic developmental behavioral intervention strategies.