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Play
Children with ASD often do not develop play in the same way as other children of their age and can appear to find play difficult. Teaching and encouraging a child to play has a number of benefits. It helps a child develop language and to understand social situations through role play and aids interaction. It can encourage questioning and answering and develops a better understanding of how others play.
Rewarding the child during and following a play session is often a good incentive to take part next time, this can be as simple as a smile or a cheer or a ‘thank you so much for playing with me, I’ve had such fun’. It can be useful to involve other family members in play so that the child has an opportunity to interact with other people. At first one-to-one might work best.
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Create a person friendly space
Create a person friendly space
Playing in a space with lots of distractions can make play more difficult. Ringing phones, loud televisions, and electronic games can make engaging with our children much more challenging. Find a quiet, comfortable space to play.
Play with your child should be fun for both the child and adult, it is important you are both motivated and engaged. If you are tired, stressed and anxious, consider playing at a time when you feel more focused and positive. Play sessions can last for 5 minutes or an hour, dependant on the mood of your child and the engagement in an activity.
Join in with their chosen activity
Children with ASD often play in a way which seems strange to us. Following your child's lead involves joining in with their chosen activity or engaging with what they like to do.
When your child does a repetitive behaviour you could try doing it with them. It’s a way of saying ‘I want to be with you so much I want to do what you are doing more than what I am doing.’
After joining your child you can then slowly start to expand on their play aiming to make solitary play into two way play, such as turn taking.
Be prepared that initially your child may not want to play with you and may very strongly indicate that they want to play by themselves. This is fine. Play is difficult for our children and you may need to persevere before you get something back and your child learns this is fun.
Top tips for play
- Questioning children during play can be stressful. Try commenting or making statements about the child in place of questions, the play or even how you are feeling. For example, ‘That’s a great tower you are making, I’m going to make one too.’
- Turn off your phone or TV when playing to keep the focus on being with you.
- Make yourself irresistible and get down to your child’s level and try joining in their chosen activity.
- Really try and experience what they are doing. Focus on their chosen activity.
- Remember play is hard for our children so do praise them at regular intervals for their efforts.
- Play should be energetic and fun; if it feels laboured stop and try again another day.
- Start with what your child likes to do, then free your imagination. Can you put a twist on what they like to do?
- Play with toys that use your imagination. Often simple items are best, such as, boxes, paper, feathers, bubbles, blocks, wigs, stickers, musical instruments, mini trampolines and scarves.
- Don’t overload your child’s play space with toys. A few toys on a high shelf (to help initiate a request) are often better than hundreds that are easily accessible.
