Should we teach children with autism to play?
Written on 19th Feb 2015 by Sylvia Lowery
Throughout Alex’s childhood I along with his teachers and therapists put a lot of effort into attempting to teach Alex to play. If I am really honest I don’t think these approaches were ever successful. The problem just went away when Alex grew up and it was deemed less important for him to play.
What we did to teach Alex to play?
Alex used to love all the daggers popping out of the barrel.
One of the first play skills we worked on was turn taking. This was done through games like Pop Up Pirate and snap. Alex loved these games and did learn about the rules of turn taking. I feel that leaning about turn taking is an important foundational skill for interaction and conversational skills.
Alex was taught play scripts for ‘age appropriate toys’, I remember the therapists developing an action man script that was modelled on the kind of play boys would do with action men. Alex was taught the script every day over a period of weeks. Alex learnt the script and someone watching might think he was playing but he wasn’t h had learn a script. The purpose of teaching play scripts was to help Alex to play appropriately when play dates were arranged. Real experience showed that often in the playdate the other child wanted to play something else and often the therapist would have to get involved to keep the playdate interested.
What Alex thought about being taught to play?
” I liked the playdates mostly, but didn’t understand why I wasn’t allowed to leave the other child for a minute. I felt that I should have been able to go off on my own when I wanted to. I remember playing with action men. I have always played with a set script in my head and the games would have theme songs. I stopped wanting to play if the other children had different ideas. I mainly had therapist support when I played with children.
I don’t think I ever learnt how to play like non autistic children. I think I still use scripts today when I talk to people. If someone asks me a question I ask the same question back. I still feel like social interaction is a mystery. When I was younger children just went from one subject to another, yet when I introduce a subject it doesn’t work.
In my case the whole way children play and interact is a mystery to me. I don’t think it was possible for me to learn how to play in a non autistic way. I liked playing by lining my toys up and would want to replay the same short sequence again and again. I liked replaying stories like the wolf and Grandma. I played a lot of games with my younger sisters. These games would be the same game again and again. I remember playing the dinner game, my sister would put me in a pot and put spice on me and put me in the oven. She would go to sleep and I would try to escape and she would wake up and catch me. I would also play the I’m falling game and my sisters would have to block me from falling and if I fell into the water I would turn evil. I played these games until I was about 14.
I think it would be better to let children with autism play in their own way. My brain just works differently. I use the way I played as a child now as an adult. When I want to make a film I see the whole script in my head in the same way as I saw my play scripts. I do have an imagination but I don’t do it spontaneously I have to plan it. I have the best conversations when I am talking about a subject I am interested in. Recently I have been attending an autism social group and I have had a few good conversations about Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. I think it is better to match a someone with people who have similar interests rather than to expect the person with autism to imitate non autistic people and often fail in the process.”
Should we teach children with autism how to play?
The first question to ask is what do we mean by play? Are we dismissing the way children with autism play and trying to impose our own ideas of ‘acceptable’ play onto them? It is clear that Alex did play but not in the way most children do. Is it right to expect a child to act in a way that is totally unnatural and feels very strange and tiring. Perhaps as Alex said it would be better to facilitate friendships and interactions through the special interests children with autism develop.
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