How Do You Use Play To Encourage Language In Children With Autism?
Many children with Autism can repeat words and phrases, but have difficulty using these words as functional communication. This article contains one specific example of using play to encourage the development of functional language in a young child with Autism. Look for toys or items the child is interested in. Example: I observed one child in our school’s Kindergarten class playing with the pretend food items in the “Grocery Store” play area in the classroom every day. I decided to use his interest in the pretend food to increase his functional verbal communication. Observe how the child likes to play with the toys. Example: At first, I simply tried playing different ways with the food toys to see what the child liked. We tried putting the food in baskets, moving it over the scanner, etc. until I found something he loved. He thought it was very funny when I would pretend to eat the food and make eating sounds. I selected this as the activity I would teach him to request using verbal l
