Qualities of Symbolic Play Among Children with Autism: A Social-Developmental Perspective

We hypothesized that the qualities of play shown by children with autism reflect their impoverished experience of identifying with other people’s attitudes and moving among person-anchored perspectives. On this basis, we predicted their play should manifest a relative lack of the social-developmenta...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of autism and developmental disorders 2009, Vol.39 (1), p.12-22
Main Authors: Hobson, R. Peter, Lee, Anthony, Hobson, Jessica A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attention
Autism
Autistic children
Autistic Disorder - diagnosis
Autistic Disorder - psychology
Awareness
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Child and School Psychology
Child clinical studies
Child Health
Children
Cognitive Development
Communication
Comparative Analysis
Creativity
Developmental Disabilities - diagnosis
Developmental Disabilities - psychology
Developmental disorders
Diagnosis, Differential
Female
Humans
Imagination
Imitative Behavior
Infantile autism
Interpersonal Competence
Learning Disorders - diagnosis
Learning Disorders - psychology
Male
Medical sciences
Neurosciences
Original Paper
Pediatrics
Peer Relationship
Personal Construct Theory
Personality Assessment
Play and Playthings
Pretend play
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Public Health
Social Behavior
Social development
Stereotyped Behavior
Symbolic play
Symbolism
Videotape Recording
Young Children
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Summary:We hypothesized that the qualities of play shown by children with autism reflect their impoverished experience of identifying with other people’s attitudes and moving among person-anchored perspectives. On this basis, we predicted their play should manifest a relative lack of the social-developmental hallmarks that typify creative symbolic functioning. We videotaped the spontaneous and modelled symbolic play of matched groups of children with and without autism. The two groups were similar in the mechanics of play, for example in making one thing stand for another and using materials flexibly. By contrast, and as predicted, children with autism were rated as showing less playful pretend involving self-conscious awareness of pretending, investment in the symbolic meanings given to play materials, creativity, and fun.
ISSN:0162-3257
1573-3432
DOI:10.1007/s10803-008-0589-z