The purpose of this article is to review the importance of play in a young child's life and to discuss the importance of measuring play when designing interventions for children with autism. Furthermore, this paper will present an example of a consistent and reliable observation system that assesses the complexity and variety of play on children with autism and with typically developing children.
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The purpose of this article is to review the importance of play in a young child's life and to discuss the importance of measuring play when designing interventions for children with autism. Furthermore, this paper will present an example of a consistent and reliable observation system that assesses the complexity and variety of play on children with autism and with typically developing children.
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7 p.
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Abstract: Children with autism frequently display deficits in play skills, such as pretend play and object manipulation. This is described both in the diagnostic criteria for autism (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) and in descriptive studies on children's play (Jarrold, 2003; Williams, 2003). However, the nature of these deficits and the degree to which the play of children with autism differs in complexity and variety from the play of typically developing children is unclear (Vig, 2007). The purpose of this article is to review the importance of play in a young child's life and to discuss the importance of measuring play when designing interventions for children with autism. Furthermore, this paper will present an example of a consistent and reliable observation system that assesses the complexity and variety of play on children with autism and with typically developing children.
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