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Teaching “Imaginary Objects” Symbolic Play to Young Children with Autism

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Abstract

Symbolic play skills are important in language acquisition and child development. Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have difficulties demonstrating such play behaviors. Imaginary objects symbolic play refers to play behavior in which children perform play actions without actual objects. Three boys with ASD (3–7 years) participated in this study. A multiple-probe across three participants and two settings design was employed to evaluate the effects of intraverbal training on the acquisition and generalization of imaginary objects symbolic play. Results indicated that all children acquired and maintained target imaginary objects play activities. Generalization to untaught activities occurred in one child. All three children’ symbolic play emerged or increased in free play after the instruction.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, Western University, 1137 Western Road, London, ON, N6G 1G7, Canada

    Gabrielle T. Lee

  2. Chongqing Key Laboratory of Psychological Diagnosis and Education Technology for Children with Special Needs, School of Education, Chongqing Normal University, No. 37 Middle Route of University Town, Shapingba District, Chongqing, 401331, China

    Sheng Xu & Jiacheng Xu

  3. Zhengzhou Preschool Education College, 9 North Street of New Residential Quarters, Zhengzhou, Henan, China

    Shufang Guo

  4. State University of New York at Old Westbury, P.O. Box 210, Old Westbury, NY, 11568, USA

    Lina Gilic

  5. Education Science School, Sichuan University of Arts and Science, Dazhou, Sichuan, China

    Yunhuan Pu

Authors
  1. Gabrielle T. Lee
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  2. Sheng Xu
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  3. Shufang Guo
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  4. Lina Gilic
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  5. Yunhuan Pu
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  6. Jiacheng Xu
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by SX, SG, LG, and YP. The first draft of the manuscript was written by GTL and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sheng Xu.

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Conflict of interest

All authors involved in this study do not have any interests that might be interpreted as influencing the research.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from the parents of the child participants included in the study.

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Appendix 1. The Social Validity Questionnaire

Appendix 1. The Social Validity Questionnaire

1: Strongly disagree/dissatisfied; 2: disagree/dissatisfied; 3: neutral/no opinion; 4: agree/satisfied, 5: strongly agree/satisfied

 

Item\rating

1

2

3

4

5

1

The instruction is important to my child

     

2

The content is developmentally appropriate

     

3

The 1:1 teaching format is adequate

     

4

The instructor is qualified and experienced

     

5

The frequency of weekly sessions and the durations are arranged properly

     

6

The location is appropriate

     

7

The schedule of instruction is manageable

     

8

I am satisfied with the overall progress of my child’s play skills

     

9

I am satisfied with the results of the instruction

     

10

I would recommend the instruction to other parents

     

11

My child likes to come for the instruction

     

12. Please share your comments/experiences about the instruction, or do you have any suggestions to improve the instruction?

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Lee, G.T., Xu, S., Guo, S. et al. Teaching “Imaginary Objects” Symbolic Play to Young Children with Autism. J Autism Dev Disord 49, 4109–4122 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-04123-9

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