Education Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-1-2017
Journal
Behavior Modification
Volume
43
Issue
1
First Page
82
Last Page
114
URL with Digital Object Identifier
https://doi.org/10.1177/0145445517739276
Abstract
Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) may not develop symbolic play skills so such skills need to be taught specifically. We report an experiment regarding a procedure targeting “object-substitution” symbolic play skills. The “object-substitution” symbolic play behavior occurred when the child labeled a common object with the name of a substitute and used the object to perform a play action (e.g., As she put a bowl on her head, she called it a hat). A multiple probe across behaviors design was employed with five children (four boys and one girl, aged 3 to 6) with ASD. All children had verbal communication and demonstrated functional play and generalized imitation, but no symbolic play skills prior to the study. The instruction consisted of intraverbal training, picture prompts, and modeling of play actions. All children demonstrated object-substitution symbolic play skills after the instruction. The occurrences of response generalization were also discussed.
Citation of this paper:
Lee, G. T., Feng, H., Xu, S., & Jin, S. J. (2019). Increasing “object-substitution” symbolic play in young children with autism spectrum disorders. Behavior modification, 43(1), 82-114.
Figure_Increasing object substitution symbolic play
Notes
The authors wish to acknowledge that this article was first published in Behavior Modification, a Sage Journal. The final published version can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1177/0145445517739276