Developing Play Skills

Now available as a Digital eBook!

This manual is also available in an edition that has been translated into Vietnamese. Click here to order the Vietnamese edition.

This practical guide includes information about the different stages of play development and targeted strategies and examples of visual supports which can be readily used at home, preschool or playgroups or in the classroom. The guide is a valuable source of information to help young children with autism to play more functionally and symbolically, which leads to an increased awareness and interest in others. This increased interest is likely to promote a desire to communicate and interact more effectively with other children in a variety of social play situations. The guide includes advice on teaching the fundamentals of social play, for example, what to do with toys, how to play with other children and how to follow play sequences to develop pretend play.

The guide provides a checklist to determine your child’s current stage of play to help you target your strategies to your child’s developmental level. You can download the checklist below to get an idea about where your child’s play stage currently is and understand how the guide will extend on your child’s current play.

Download the checklist here

Written by Genevieve Johnsson, based on the Early Play Program (3rd ed, 2008) developed by Susan Dodd, Deirdre Clifton, Emma Pierce and Sarah Webster. Illustrated by Bernard Derriman, Squetch Animation. 56pp manual, published 2013.