How do autistic kids play

Have difficulty communicating, which makes it more challenging to invite others to play or ask to join others. Be resistant to changes in routine that can make playing with others difficult, since other children can be unpredictable. Have keenly focused interests or repetitive play habits that keep other children from enjoying themselves.

Some of the skills children learn through interactive play are: Cognitive skills—like problem solving and playing games Communication skills —like asking and answering questions Social skills—like taking turns, sharing and cooperative play Getting started Here are some strategies you can use to help your child develop interactive play skills: Pairing.

This can teach your child that a play partner can give him things he wants and needs, and that spending time with others can be rewarding.

Ask another child to give your child his favorite snack or toy on several occasions. Play dates. These are a great way for your child to become more comfortable playing with peers.

They can also provide chances to build and practice social skills. Maybe your neighbor has a child with autism, or you have a family member with autism. It can be hard to know how to engage with a child who experiences significant difficulty interacting, socializing and communicating. How do we help these children use play to access the world in a rich and meaningful way, stimulate their brains, refine their motor skills and build relationships? All of these skills can be attributed to play.

Children with autism may require adult intervention or the skill of a professional to help them adapt to the world in a playful and social way. As an occupational therapist who works with children with autism, facilitating play skills is a large and rewarding part of my role. These tips are meant to be helpful. In children without autism, pretend-play abilities are associated with performance on measures of self-control more than cognitive ability learning and memory 8.

For example, differences in the ability of typical preschoolers to pretend to do something and suspend reality relate to their performance on tests of self-control that require waiting or choosing a counterintuitive response 9.

Play skills are also tied to language. Some researchers have proposed that the ability to talk to yourself draws from executive function, such as working memory, and allows typically developing preschoolers and young children to engage in pretend play. Likewise, in children with autism, the nature of pretend play appears to correspond with language ability and intelligence, even in minimally verbal children, and preschool play skills can predict the later language development in these children 10 , Earlier this year, my colleagues and I reported that individual differences in executive function — specifically, self-control and working short-term memory — predict pretend-play skills in children with autism both at the time of their assessment and later in life Interestingly, this pattern depends on language ability: For children with significant language difficulties, cognitive ability — not executive function — predicts later pretend-play skills.

Together, these findings highlight pretend play as an important arena for clinical care. Many children with autism are missing out on the opportunities and benefits of pretend play.

Still, the relationship between executive function, language and pretend play provides new avenues for treatment. Developing therapies to improve executive function, for example, can help children with autism benefit from pretend play, which creates natural learning opportunities for a prepared mind.

The duration of play schemes was recorded, as well as who initiated and ended the play scheme parent or child. The level of play acts was noted e.

When I first read this result I was surprised, because I thought that the more directive style of these parents would result in shorter parent-initiated schemes. But Freeman explained that because the parents of the typically developing children were less directive in general, they initiated fewer play schemes and engaged in more child-directed schemes.

As a result, the typical children took the lead more often, and engaged in fewer and shorter parent-initiated schemes than the children with autism Freeman, , personal communication. As a result, the children with autism did not have as many opportunities to end the play because their parents were directing them toward new play ideas personal communication, Helping parents play In personal communication with Dr.

As a result, parents sometimes find it difficult to start a play interaction or to keep it going. Therefore, before targeting communication skills, we might sometimes have to take a step back and establish a context for our communication intervention. Helping parents find ways to engage their child during play by determining the right types of toys and the right play strategies can be a great first step in intervention.

By taking the toy out of the equation, the child can focus on interacting with his parent, instead of having to shift attention between a toy and his parent. Click here for a short article to share with parents about using the Hanen R. The remaining three booklets in this series will be available later in When working individually with parents of children with autism, it is also important to focus on this first, so that a child-centred style is adopted when playing.