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I would like to play but I don't know how: a case study of pretend play in autism

Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne, USA

Children with autism have poor pretend play abilities, which greatly affects their social skill development. This intervention technique, using an adult partner, describes how a guided story and role-playformat enhanced abilities ofpretence and the understanding of social roles in a ten-year-old, verbal boy with autism. By having an everyday event story read and discussed, retelling the story and then acting out the event, the child used repetition of story routines and expected social exchanges to augment his pretend play. Growth in play behaviour was noted in the reduction of non-role-play utterances, increases in appropriate use of and response to questions, use of spontaneous, appropriate social exchanges and increases in the use of pretence. Using familiar play situations with adult guidance may be one way to provide scaffolding for verbal children with autism to learn roles for play and to practise social skills.

Child Language Teaching and Therapy, Vol. 22, No. 1, 97-116 (2006)
DOI: 10.1191/0265659006ct299oa


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