You're child may have only a few play interests at the moment and that's OK. You can use the toys and topics your child likes to expand his play. If your child enjoys Thomas the Tank Engine, use Thomas-themed toys to gradually introduce new toys and activities – then you could introduce a drawing game or activity involving Thomas.
Exploratory, Cause-and-Effect, Functional and Constructive Play
Exploratory play is when children explore objects and toys, rather than playing with them – for example, feeling a teddy bear, mouthing a block or looking at a doll’s hands. At this stage of play, children are learning about their world through different shapes, colors, sizes and textures.
You can help your child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by modelling this type of play and by encouraging her to explore objects around her. For example, you could encourage her to splash water in the bath and rub soap between her fingers.
Cause-and-effect play is when children play with toys that need an action to produce the desired result – for example, pressing a button to play music, or winding up a jack-in-the-box. This type of play teaches children that their actions have effects and gives them a sense of control in their play. Children might learn to operate toys on their own, through exploratory play, or you might need to show them.
Praising your child with ASD when he does the right action will encourage him to keep doing it. It will also encourage him to interact with other toys in a cause-and-effect way as well. This is also a good opportunity to teach your child how to ask you for help, and to play by taking turns. For example, you could take turns pressing a button to make something pop up and take turns pushing it back down again.
Functional play is learning how to play with and use toys in the way they were designed. Pushing a toy car, bringing a toy phone to the ear, or throwing a ball. If this is an area of challenge for your child with ASD, the following ideas might help:
Sit in front of your child so she can look at you, communicate with you, and see what you’re doing. This also makes it easier to engage her in play.
Offer two or three toys your child enjoys. This gives your child a choice without overwhelming him.
Join in with what your child is doing, rather than trying to guide her play. You can start by copying what your child is doing, then add to the activity. For example, if your child is spinning the wheels of a car, you could spin them too. Then turn the car the right way up and run it along the floor saying, ‘Brrm, brrm’.
If your child doesn’t copy you, you can encourage him to play. You could do this by saying, ‘Your turn to drive the car’, taking your child’s hand and placing it on the car, then moving it across the floor together.
Reward your child. Use praise and positive feedback such as, ‘You’ve built a big tower. Good job!’ You could also add other rewards, such as a couple of turns of blowing bubbles.
Knowing when to stop or change is also important, so look out for signs of boredom or lack of interest.
Constructive play is when children build or make things, and involves working towards a goal or product – for example, completing a jigsaw puzzle, making a tower out of blocks, or drawing a picture. Some children with ASD might have delays in this area of play, whereas others will progress much like typically developing children. Sometimes children with ASD excel at a skill like completing jigsaws or drawing. For children with ASD, you can encourage constructive play by showing your child what to do. You could try building a tower with blocks to show your child how to do it, or you could use pictures that show how to build a tower.
Pretend play This is when children make believe or pretend and use their imaginations during play. Examples of this type of play include pretending to feed a teddy bear, dressing up like a superhero, pretending to be driving the car, or pretending the couch is a sailing boat. Pretend play happens later in development (usually around two years of age in typically developing children) and is the most sophisticated form of play. Pretend play is particularly important for developing the skills needed for social relationships, language and communication. This type of play is often delayed in children with ASD, but many children with ASD can and do ultimately develop pretend play. There are lots of simple, everyday pretend actions your child can learn to use in pretend play, such as driving a car, riding a horse or banging a drum.
Once your child can do some pretend actions, you can develop her imaginative and pretend play skills by breaking the pretend play activity into steps. You can also use written or picture instructions to help your child understand what to do. You might want to make it funny – for example, try using a hair brush instead of a spoon to feed a teddy bear. You can also encourage your child to join in with a fun game of ‘let’s pretend’.
This type of play also includes role-play. You can encourage role-play by taking your child’s favourite story and getting him and others to act it out. You can give the children costumes and suggest changes to the characters’ voices and gestures. By slowly introducing new themes and gradually changing parts of the play, you can guide your child towards independent creative dramatic play.
Social playAlong with the six types of play above, there is social play – the ability to play with others. Social play also follows developmental stages, but playing with others can be particularly challenging for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). You can help your child by noting what stage of social play she’s at and by providing opportunities, support and encouragement for her to progress to the next one. The stages are outlined below. Note that even as children develop through the stages of social play, they’re likely to want to spend time playing by themselves as well as playing alongside others. It’s OK if your child wants to play alone some of the time. Playing alone (solitary play)
This is when children play alone and independently, when they don’t try to get close to other children and don’t pay attention to what others are doing. For children with ASD, you can encourage solitary play skills by starting with activities that have a clear goal and ending. Keep the play short to begin with, so your child can finish the activity quickly and feel successful. For example, you might choose a simple jigsaw puzzle.
Playing alongside (parallel play) Children at this stage of play start to play alongside other children, and might use the same or similar toys as those around them. You can promote play in this stage by encouraging your child to play at an activity − such as trains − on his own but alongside other children. You can encourage your child to imitate the other children’s play while he’s playing on his own. Playing and sharing with others (associative play)
In this stage of play, children interact with other children – giving, taking and sharing play materials. This usually starts at around three years of age in typically developing children. You can help your child with ASD learn skills for associative play by encouraging her to swap things while she’s still playing on her own – for example, swapping bikes, trikes or scooters when cycling or scooting with other children. Playing and cooperating (cooperative play)
Playing cooperatively with others includes playing games with rules, making up rules, and working together on something, such as working together to build a cubby house or make a sandcastle. Cooperative play can become quite complex and requires communication skills.
Many of the social rules in this stage of play can be difficult for a child with ASD to understand. You can help your child by using clear instructions to simplify the rules of games. For example, ‘First you hide somewhere in the house. Then Sam counts to 10. Then Sam comes to find you. When Sam finds you, it’s your turn to count while Sam hides’
Encouraging play with others for children with autism spectrum disorderOnce your child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has a range of play skills or is beginning to play with and take notice of other children, you can help him learn how to interact and play with others.
Simple games are a good way to build social interaction in play as well as turn-taking skills. Games such as peek-a-boo, pat-a-cake and ring-o-rosies are all social.
Here are some other ideas to get your child interacting and playing with others:
Use play dates or visits with friends or family whose children are around the same age as your child. You could also ask your child’s siblings or cousins to help with showing your child how to play games, take turns and so on.
Teach your child how to join in. Again, siblings, friends and cousins might be able to show your child how it’s done.
If other children ignore your child, watch carefully and see whether you can work out why. Does she need to work on a skill that you can help her learn? You could speak to your child’s preschool or early intervention teacher if you’re not sure. Early childhood workers have lots of skills for helping children learn to play together.
Making the most of play with your child with autism spectrum disorderOnce your child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can play with you and is playing with toys, you can use play to build skills in other areas. For example, you might focus on rewarding certain skills like taking turns, playing for longer periods of time, or choosing a variety of toys to play with. Here are some tips for making the most of play in this way. These tips apply to all kinds of play – toy play, playing with others and pretend play:
You can build language by talking about what’s going on while your child plays. If you’re playing a pretend game such as a tea party, use the names of objects, such as cup, spoon and plate. You can also give words to the things you and your child are doing, such as ‘pour drink’ or ‘feed teddy’.
If your child is speaking only in single words, you could try using two words. If he’s using three-word sentences, you can use four words, and so on. This way you’re not using language that’s too hard for your child, but you’re building up his language and vocabulary.
Encourage play skills in different environments. Reward your child for using her play skills in different places and with different people.
Use everyday activities as opportunities for play. Any time there can be joint activity between your child and another person is a potential chance for play. You can also build playtime into everyday routines like bath time.
As your child’s play skills develop, you can begin to use play to help your child respond appropriately to social situations that he might find challenging, such as understanding social rules like sharing, turn-taking, compromise and negotiation. For example, you could use a tea party game to help your child understand sharing food and taking turns to pour a drink with the jug.
Play can also help children with ASD develop everyday skills. For example, dressing a doll can help your child learn to dress herself.
Watch your child throughout the day and try to ‘catch’ the times when he shows interest in an activity, however mundane it might seem to you. These are the perfect times to teach and learn.
Teaching children with autism play is important.
• Play is a child’s “work”. It’s what they do in order to learn about their world. • Play allows a child with autism to learn and practice new skills in all areas. • Play provides a vehicle to interact with people and objects in their environment. • Play promotes independence during “down time”. • Play builds confidence and competency. • For a child with autism learning how to play appropriately with toys can replace non-functional play. • Most important, IT’S FUN!!!
When teaching a child with autism remember play differs for them.
• Ritualistic • Can be Non-Functional • Repetitive • Limited interests • Rigid
Teaching toys for children with autism
• Pick out toys that are related to the child’s INTERESTS. • If your child engages in “non functional behavior” choose toys that provide the same sensory input but in a more appropriate way. • Choose toys that correspond to your child’s developmental level.
Autism Teaching Tips:
• Don’t be afraid to “change the rules” or use only some of the pieces to simplify the play in the beginning. • Remember to teach “one step at a time”. Small steps will lead to BIG gains! • Program for success! Provide “prompts” as needed in order to ensure that your child continues to be successful and motivated. • Structure play time in “small time frames” frequently throughout the day. • Know when to end a play session!