Play
Autistic children may sometimes play in different ways to other children their age and may need support to learn new ways to play.
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Teaching and encouraging your child to play can help to develop their language and communication skills and activities such as role play can help them to understand a range of social situations.
Rewarding your child during and after playing will also help to encourage their play. This could include a smile, a cheer or, depending on their level of understanding, saying thank you to them for playing with you.
Once your child is familiar with playing with you on a one-to-one basis, it may then be useful to also involve other family members in the play to help your child learn how to play and interact with a wide range of people.
General Strategies
Create a Friendly Environment
To help your child focus on their play, it can be useful to try and minimise any visual or auditory distractions by putting your phone on silent or turning off the TV.
Five minutes of focused and enthusiastic play may be more effective than an hour of low-energy play when you are feeling stressed or anxious. Try to make sure that play is fun for you both!
Joining Their Play
It is valuable to join your child’s play. Start by joining in with whatever play your child enjoys taking part in.
Try copying your child’s play (with separate but similar toys to start with if needed). You can also comment on their play using language at their level to help develop their language skills. You can then gradually start to expand on their play to see if your child watches or joins in. For example, if your child likes to drive a toy car back and forth. You can copy this, make car noises or comment on the play. Then, over time, try moving your toy car forwards and then round a corner to see if your child watches or joins in. This will help your child to expand their play and may help them feel more confident playing with others.
Note: At first, your child may find it difficult to include you in their play- that’s ok, it may be a new skill for them. Try to join your child’s play when they are feeling happy and relaxed. Take things slow and gradually increase the amount of time you join their play for. They may need some time of you watching or copying their play before they feel comfortable with you expanding on their play or sharing their toys.
Some top tips for playing with your child
- Commenting on your child’s play can be more effective than questioning them during their play as it reduces the pressure to respond and keeps the focus on the play. Depending on your child’s understanding level, these comments may be one or a few words- for example, ‘Wow, tall tower!’ ‘Crash’ or it may be more complex sentences such as ‘That’s a great tower you are making, I’m going to make one too’
- Try to reduce distractions by turning off the TV and turning off your phone or putting it on silent while you both play.
- Get down to your child’s level. Try to play with lots of enthusiasm and excitement.
- Try joining in their play activity.
- Praise your child throughout their play for both effort and achievement.
- Start with what your child likes to do and then try to gradually expand their play and introduce new ideas.
- Imaginative play activities can include simple items such as boxes, feathers, paper, stickers, or musical instruments.
- Keep a few toys on a shelf out of reach for your child but in their line of sight to support their language and encourage them to request the toy they would like to play with (through eye movement, pointing, vocalisation, symbols, or speech). Try not to overwhelm your child with too many toys.
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