Social Cognition and Pretend Play in Autism (original) (raw)
Related papers
The relation between social engagement and pretend play in autism
British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 2012
The focus of this study is the nature and concomitants of pretend play among young children with autism. Age‐ and language‐matched children with autism (n= 27), autism spectrum disorder (n= 14), and developmental disorders without autism (n= 16) were administered the Test of Pretend Play (ToPP; Lewis & Boucher, 1997), with an additional rating of ‘playful pretence’. As predicted, children with autism showed less playful pretend than participants with developmental disorders who did not have autism. Across the groups, playful pretence was correlated with individual differences in communication and social interaction, even when scores on the ToPP were taken into account. Limitations in creative, playful pretend among children with autism relate to their restricted interpersonal communication and engagement.
Metacommunication, social pretend play and children with autism
Australasian Journal of Early …, 2012
THIS ArTIClE InVESTIGATES ProCESSES of engagement in social pretend play between children with autism (age range 3.6 to 7.2 years) and adult play partners, using a large corpus of conversational data. We take a qualitative discourse analytic approach to investigate the metacommunicative strategies used by the children. Our initial framework for exploring these issues is model of verbal and nonverbal metacommunication in sociodramatic pretend play, and we develop this model further by proposing a cline of engagement along which we situate the children in our study. We found that, while all the children do participate in pretend play, and engage with the adult play partners to at least some extent, the children vary in the range of metacommunicative strategies they use, and in the degree to which they negotiate the creation of play sequences with their interlocutor. Furthermore, even for the most competent children, the metacommunication exhibits atypical characteristics.
Iranian Journal of Pediatrics, 2022
Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with 2 main symptoms of social and communication deficits and stereotyped behaviors. Pretend play and theory of mind (ToM) have an essential role in a child's cognitive and social development. Objectives: In this study, different variables of pretend play with levels of ToM were examined in 2 groups of typical children and children with autism. Methods: In this case-control observational study, 45 typical children and 18 children with autism aged 5 to 7 years participated. For both groups, the ToM test was performed to measure the levels of ToM, and the child-initiated pretend play assessment (ChIPPA) was performed to analyze the pretend plays in both groups. Both tests were performed directly on children, and the scores were recorded by the examiner. Results: The results showed a significant positive relationship between the total score of ToM and pretend play. In children with autism, there was no difference between the ToM scores regarding age (P > 0.05). There was also a significant relationship between the levels of ToM, percentage of elaborate pretend actions (PEPA), and the number of object substitutions (NOS; P < 0.001). The scores of the ToM and pretend play levels of children with autism and typical children were significantly different (P < 0.001). Conclusions: Based on the findings, the ToM and pretend play levels were lower in ASD children than in typical children. In addition, children who had higher PEPA scores and better NOS had higher ToM scores.
Imitation of Pretend Play Acts by Children with Autism and Down Syndrome
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 1997
Although there has recently been considerable research interest in the difficulties that children with autism have engaging in pretend play, little attention has been paid to the ability of these children to imitate pretend play acts. Furthermore, suggestions that children with Down syndrome have relatively advanced abilities in pretend play have not been accompanied by an examination of their capacity to imitate pretend play. Three groups of children: autistic, Down syndrome, and normally developing were studied for their capacity to imitate single pretend acts and a series of pretend acts that formed scripts. While the children with autism were surprisingly better than the other two groups on the single-scheme task, they demonstrated specific difficulties on the multischeme task. Results are discussed in relation to current theories of autism and the notion of imitation.
“Explaining Impaired Play in Autism”
2010
Autism has recently become the focus of continuous philosophical inquiry, because it affects inter-subjective capacities in a highly selective manner. One of the first behavioural manifestations of autism is impaired play, particularly the lack of pretend play. This article will show that the prevailing 'Theory-Theory of Mind'-approach cannot explain impaired play. I will suggest a richer, phenomenological account of inter-subjectivity. It will be argued that this improves the understanding of impaired play in autism.