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Play Skills Development for Children with Autism

Dr. Mary Barbera

There are at least two main types of play skills development, social and independent. Usually, most goals focus on social play skills but, if independent play skills are not taught correctly, it just becomes independent stim time.
Today I’m going to answer a question from a recent Live Q and A session discussing how to teach children play and social skills.
This is the question: “This three year old has good independent play skills, but lately he has been very repetitive in that he asks for a game or puzzle, opens it and puts pieces on the floor. But he doesn’t really do anything with the game and then asks to tidy up in a couple of minutes. Could this be because he’s already played with the toys and puzzles and he’s mastered all of them? Is he just bored? Does this call for a change in his toys? Behavior analysts recommend starting with simple activities in steps, like a circuit, and we complete them for reinforcement.”

Play and Social Skills

Independent toy play is one goal, and the other goal we have is social play skills. I would work on both. You want him to keep himself entertained. What I find though, with a lot of kids with autism, if it’s not taught and monitored well the independent play skills development will often become independent stim time. Independent work activities can also become independent stim activities. Self-stimulatory activity often looks like your child or client flicking their fingers, rocking, or tapping a pen.

I remember way back when I was in one of my very first classrooms in 2003, I worked with a boy with very few social skills. He was probably in first grade, and I had seen him a couple times before in the classroom setting. When I went to visit him this time, I looked over at him and I said to his teacher, “what’s he doing over there?” She said, “Oh, he’s in independent work activities.” But he was sticking his fingers down his throat. That’s not independent work time, that’s independent stim time. This can get really out of hand, especially when you have your child or client playing with the same toys over and over again, or have them looking at the same books. Having multiple activities available can help keep the child from stimming.

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Self-Stimulatory Behavior

Self stimulatory behavior is not always bad, however. You might want to have a stim box of toys for when you’re cooking or getting in the shower, and you want the child to be doing something productive before they learn real leisure activities. They could have an iPad and watch TV, stack blocks, or do a puzzle. This type of stimming keeps them safe and entertained when they need to be on their own for a little while.

Types of Play Skills Development

But outside of those times, you can be working on social skills through play. Like the behavior analyst mentioned in the question suggested, make a play skills circuit. Have the child or client complete one activity, stop, clean it up, and then move on to the next activity.

There is a good book called What you Need to Know About Motivation and Teaching Games by Steve Ward. I’ve had him on my podcast. Go Fish is a great game to play when working on play skills development, or a simple activity like Hot and Cold. Steve’s book has great suggestions to teach social skills through game play.

In the past, I’ve talked about little books that teach play skills development by having an activity on each page that show the child how to do each activity in order, flipping from one page to the next as they learn social skills through play.

The other thing you can do is get a plastic container with a few drawers, and make the first drawer the puzzle drawer, or some other game. Put everything they need for the puzzle in that drawer. Then, put other activities in the rest of the drawers. You could have specific times or days for each drawer. Now the child or client knows, “Oh, I’m supposed to do the vehicle puzzle at this time.” He goes over and gets the vehicle puzzle out of the drawer, sits down and does it. Then he cleans it up and puts it back. Now he’s ready to move onto the next activity.

Learn More About Play Skills Development

Play skill development like this is a novel way to rotate your toys, keep your child or client busy, and not let them fall into self-stimulatory behavior.
My mission is to provide practical autism ABA strategies to both parents and professionals so they can help children with autism reach their fullest potentials! For more information about self-stimulatory behavior, play skill development, and a really in depth look at strategies for helping your child or closet with autism, consider taking one of my courses below.
Take one of my three free courses!
  1. Stop Waiting and Worrying About Autism: 3 Secrets to Turn Autism Around in any Toddler or Preschooler
  2. 3 Big Autism Mistakes Parents Make (and what to do instead)
  3. 3 Biggest Mistakes Autism Professionals Make With Intermediate Learners

Free Workshop to Learn to Turn Autism (or Signs of Autism) Around

Want to start making a difference for your child or clients?
Sign-Up For Free Training