Play Assessments And Developmental Skills

Early childhood educators are well aware of how important a role play is to a child's learning and development. Teachers intuitively know that play is an integral part of a young child's life. Being able to play, both with others and alone is a crucial aspect of a child's healthy development. Much research has been conducted on the subject of play and children's development. It has been documented that play enhances a child's physical, emotional, social, and creative

There is a wide range and much controversy surrounding the study and overall effectiveness of different interventions for children and adolescents possessing a diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, regardless of the method of intervention, every intervention shares the common goal which focuses on improving functioning in one or a combination of the following areas: social, communication, behavior, and academic. Social functioning includes interaction with peers and others, engagement and appropriate participation in activities, while communication refers to goals of “effectively signaling information to a social partner” i.e. utilizing and recognizing aspects of communication such as requesting, labeling, expressive language, speech, pragmatics, etc. (Missouri Autism Guidelines Initiative, 2012). With respect to the behavioral domain of treatment, effective intervention seeks to result in an increase of individuals engaging in the positive, adaptive skills to respond to a situation, person, or environment. Finally academic refers to skills that are required for success with school activities (Missouri Autism Guidelines Initiative, 2012). Focus in these areas of functioning assists in guiding treatment goals and provides a guideline of what to measure in order to gauge the effectiveness of treatment.

The purpose of the study was to see if play will enhance the cognitive development of the child or children. We want to find out if play really shows us that the child or children is thinking or using problem-solving skills. The aspect of cognitive development the is the focus of the study is classification and symbolic play.

Discussion: A systematic observational paradigm was used in this study to measure and compare preschool aged children with developmental delays as well as those with and without autism and their levels of play skills. The results of the study showed that there was no difference between the two groups of children in their play levels or in their interest in playing with different toys. The data did show however, a common likeliness across the groups in acts of emergence and what they mastered in the symbolic play, as well as a failure in being able to find a difference in within diversity of object play in the groups. The study showed that children with autism performed the play acts as well as the children that had other developmental disabilities

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) F84. 0 [299.00] is a heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorder with varying degrees and manifestations that has both genetic and environmental causes, in which the symptoms are usually recognized in early childhood, which progress into adulthood. The three primary areas affected by ASD are communication, socialization, and motor behavior, and it is often associated with an intellectual disability (26). The current edition of the DSM, the DSM-5, no longer recognizes once separate autism spectrum disorders, including Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD), Asperger’s Disorder (AD), childhood disintegrative disorder, and autistic disorder. This change has created a controversial conversation. The first two journal articles are studies that were conducted that specifically explore ASD’s diagnostic place in the latest edition of the DSM, the DSM-5. All of these studies are vary based on research, data, and methods, but share similar ideals about ASD’s place in the DSM-5. The third journal article is a study on patterns of the developmental course in toddlers with ASD.

It is a complex developmental disorder that affects the child’s brain development in regards to social and communication skills. This could result in impaired social interactions and both impaired verbal and nonverbal communication. This would furthermore cause problems with processing information from the senses which can result in both restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior. Children with autism tend to appear unresponsive and distant and are not always capable of forming emotional bonds with others. In addition, children tend to have uncommon responses to sensory experiences than others. These symptoms can be mild to severe since the autism spectrum is so wide and every child represents these symptoms differently than others. Each child may display social behavioral, and communication patterns that are their own, however, fit into the overall diagnosis of

One of the fundamental symptoms of autism is the need for aloneness, (Kanner, 1943). Attachment style in infants becomes evident from three months of age, and parents of autistic children struggle to see their child's attachment to them right away, as it can be seen through something as subtle as lack of eye contact. Autistic children do not engage in play as often as other children their age, and they prefer to play alone, (Volkmar, Cohen). Following the play, autistic children engage in object play without the symbolic meaning. They may take a fire truck just to throw it in the air instead of using it to represent an actual fire truck. Disengaging in symbolic play, and play with other children can be damaging because interaction is key to language development, (Kanner). The importance of social interaction and engagement is important, because if autistic individuals have a shot at participating in society in the future, they need to go through excessive training and treatment. Two years of treatment improved autistic symptoms greatly, even as young as 18 months, (ESDM; Dawson et al,. 2010). With a constant desire to be isolated from the world around them, deep connections and focus can be lost in training or never there to begin with making improvement

The participants were two pairs of children; each pair consisted of a child with autism and a typically developing peer. To limit the visual or noise distracters the baseline and intervention phases took place in a small testing room. Regarding the materials, three play sets were used; an airport set, a zoo, and grill set. In the videos used, two adults acted out the pretend play

This paper explains what Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is and how it manifests in children. It explores the different symptoms of autism, treatments and intervention options. The paper examines eight published works that research autism and possible intervention services applicable to help children cope with the disorder. It explores the work of Harrop, Mcconachie, Emsley, Leadbitter and Green (2013) to understand the symptoms of repetitive and restricted behaviors (RRBs) in children with autism. It lists the various screening options like Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (CHAT), Autism Screening Questionnaire, and Screening Tests for Autism in Two-Year-Olds available for checking the presence of autism. It discusses treatment options available and how and why early intervention services should be sought. It explores the Quality of Life (QOL) that will be available to these children.

Play is one of the most crucial ideas in the development of all children. Children play for many reasons including learning, exercise, stimulation, and for pure entertainment. They are learning and exploring the world around them by testing out ideas and just having fun playing with simple objects. However, like language, play is a skill that develops in stages. As a child gradually learns to understand the world around him or her, they begin to play and learn by engaging in exploratory and manipulative play. This is no different for children with Autism except the Autism Spectrum Disorder can impact on how play develops. Play is important for not only developing and advancing their thinking, comprehension and language skills, but also the emotional and creative skill development of children with autism. The stage of symbolic and imaginative play is the one that is often considered to be the most difficult for children with autism because too many presume they are unable to play and pretend. However, this stage is not just about role playing, it is also about learning to substitute one object for another or coming up with a new function for an object. The goal for helping children with autism should be to not necessarily change the things they play with or to teach them to play in the same way that their peers do, but instead to help them use the way they play and the things they find engaging to progress through the developmental stages to develop other more

The results from this study were broken up into three parts: baseline characteristics, impact on the symptoms associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder, and effects on the behaviors, communication skills, imitation, and repetitive behaviors. During the beginning practices, the behaviors that were coming up in the classrooms

(2012) results indicated that there was no difference found in the number of different toys with symbolic play between preschoolers with autism and preschoolers with developmental delays. The article recognizes symbolic play as a form of abstract thinking. For example, a child may use a bucket as a hat although that child is aware that is not in fact a hat; hence the bucket symbolizes a hat. As the researches had hypothesized, there were significant relationships between play, language, and cognition. In other words, all three of these components relate to learning development which is parallel with Piaget’s cognitive theory (Thiemann-Bourque et al., 2012). These findings correlate with Mason because although his social skills are lacking, he is still capable of cognitive growth. As mentioned prior, he can accurately identify color, shapes, animals, etc. (Appendix A) The observation regarding Mason is parallel to the children in the study who were able to successfully partake in symbolic play verifying they are developing cognitively. Mason Jones and the findings of this study relates to Piaget’s theory of cognitive development because children with developmental delays successfully develop cognitively due to environmental interaction (Charlesworth,

For the pretend play section of the experiment the children were given twenty four minutes to play and were interrupted twice (they did not know the time limit). The children were given additional toys during the interruptions, toys included items such as cars, blocks, dolls and more. Finding that children with autism engage in less pretend play compared to children with other developmental delays and children with typical development (Jarrold,

Play is usually a natural activity in early childhood and has significant importance in early childhood special education. Play assists in enhancing the children social competence, creativity, language development, and their thinking skills. Play is usually the key vehicle for the developing of language, social skulls in young children (Rogers ET all. 2009). Moreover, it serves as a functional behavior which contributes to the life quality of the children. .

What is play? Play is “a recreational activity; especially the spontaneous activity of children.” (Webster, 2010) Play is such a basic function and daily routine in a child’s life. Although the roles of play and the types of play change though age, it all incorporates in the growth and development of a child.