In a study of preschool children with autism spectrum disorder it was found that this set of children were disadvantaged in the way they play.
Characteristically preschool children with autism spectrum disorder find it difficult to play as a normally developing child would. This lack of play skills can aggravate the child’s social isolation from their peers, and only underline their differences from other children.
So what is play?
Play should be fun and enjoyable.
Play should have no set goals imposed on it from outside influences; it should be imaginative and sometimes impulsive.
play should be spontaneous and voluntary
play should involve some kind of active involvement on the part of the player
play can be solitary or enjoyed with friends
The Development of play
Children’s play should go through a number of developmental stages
Sensory motor play, stimulation from objects, for example a baby gym.
exploratory and manipulative play, for example Lego
physical play including rough and tumble
social play, playing with their peers, playground play
pretend play or make believe
Why do children need to play?
Play allows our children to learn new skills and practice them in safe supportive surroundings.
Sensory motor play teaches babies and young infants about their own bodies and about objects in their immediate surroundings. The bright colored toys stimulate the babies mind and he/she will reach out to grab and explore the toy.
Manipulative and exploratory play teaches older infants about various objects, what they do; sound like, how they react together and how they influence the world they are living in.
Physical play, rough and tumble play, teaches toddlers and pre-school children some gross motor skills, which will provide them with the experiences of whole body interaction with others.
Social play is vast right from the mother and baby interactions to children’s make believe play, for example, playing mummy’s and daddy’s, which teaches children about social relationships in the world they live in.
Typically the autistic child on the other hand likes repetition and things to stay the same, and may display stereotypical, repetitive and stimming behaviors, mostly their play will be solitary.
Preferring their own company to that of others, an autistic child will find interactive, make believe play strange and may not understand the reasons for this kind of play.
So how do you help your Autistic child play?
One method it through direct teaching, typically children on the autism spectrum do not learn play skills naturally and like social and communication skills direct teaching is often needed.
One method of direct teaching for children on the autism spectrum is the use of social stories for autistic children.
Significantly social stories for autistic children can be implemented to help teach and re-enforce play skills and other skills the child with autism struggles with.
Social stories are short explanations using visual images, much like a comic script to detail the skill or situation from the child’s own point of view and in a manner that they will understand.
Social stories for autistic children follow set patterns, are generally easy to use and implement need no training to use and will be editable making them ideal for all.
To view and learn more about how social stories visit:
Research shows us that play does not developed in the typical manner in preschool autistic children.
Unlike their typically developing peers preschool autistic children do not interact with others or explore their environment in the same way as a normally developing child.
So how does this affect preschool autistic children and play?
To begin understanding preschool autism and play, we should look at what is meant by play?
Play is spontaneous
Play is imaginative
Play should be fun and enjoyable
Play involves an active role by the person playing
Play can be solitary or with another person
So how will the symptoms of autism affect preschool autistic children and play ?
Typically developing children use play in a number of ways, which help with their development.
For example: Play has various stages:
Sensory stimulation: A baby stimulated and attracted for example to a cot mobile or baby gym.
Exploratory play: A youngster playing with Lego, or a cardboard box even. This is how a child begins interacting with their environment. With autistic children this inquisitiveness is missing.
Physical play: This includes actually touching others for example, rough and tumble, football and interactive pretend play.
Social play: This includes wanting to play with other children, for example on the playground, at the park etc.
Pretend play: Make believe play, all normally developing children will engage in pretend play, this is part of development.
Play is a natural process a typically developing child will go through. It helps them explore their thoughts, feelings and interact with their peers and their environment.
In autistic preschool children the need to play and be inquisitive is missing.
Autistic preschool children prefer their own company and lack interest in their environment; they preferrepetition to imagination and compulsive play.
Preschool autistic children are not normally stimulated by a bright colored cot mobile or play gyms and will not typically engage in pretend or rough and tumble play. Generally a preschool autistic child will lack inquisitiveness, which is the skill needed for exploratory play, and will not understand why or how to engage in pretend play.
When a preschool autistic child begins preschool, teachers may notice a marked difference in the behaviors of typically developing children and an autistic child.
There are methods available for a preschool teacher or parent to help the autistic child manage their behavior, one such method is autism social skills stories.
Research does show that an autistic youngster will respond well to autism social skillsstories, therefore introducing social skills stories is ideal. Social skills stories can be implemented easily are editable and can be personalized to suit each child’s individual needs.
Children with autism tend to be visual thinkers and learners, meaning they think in pictures. Social stories use this concept of visual images and small pieces of text, much like a role model or visual plan. The social skills story should answer the “wh” questions - who, where, why, when and what as well as give the preschool autistic child clear coping mechanisms and instructions on how to interact with others and perform everyday tasks.
For example how to “pretend play”, “say hi”, “share toys” or perform tasks such as tooth brushing, visiting the doctor, starting preschool and so on…
Autism social stories are available in printable format making sharing them with all responsible in the care of your autistic youngster.
Implementing autism social stories is easy and effective. Research shows autism social stories are widely used with positive affects and results.
For immediate downloads of social stories visit one of these main autism sites:
Research suggests that preschool autistic children do not develop play in the same way as a normally developing youngster.
Preschool autistic children do not interact in the same way as a normally developing child and are not as likely to want to explore their environment.
What is autism?
Autism is a disorder affecting the brain- some of the symptoms of autism are:
Social deficits
Communication deficits
Imagination and Interaction deficits.
So how does this affect preschool autistic children play?
To begin understanding autism play, we first should look at what is meant by play…
Play is spontaneous
Play is imaginative
Play should be fun and enjoyable
Play involves an active role by the person playing
Play can be solitary or with another person
“Preschool autistic children and what is autism”
So how will the symptoms of autism affect the act of play in autistic children?
In normally developing children the use pf play helps with development, for example:
Play has various stages…
Sensory stimulation a baby stimulated and attracted for example to a cot mobile or baby gym.
Exploratory play a youngster playing with Lego, or a cardboard box even. This is how a child begins interacting with their environment. With autistic children this inquisitiveness is missing.
Physical play this includes actually touching others for example, rough and tumble, football and interactive pretend play.
Social play this includes wanting to play with other children, for example on the playground, at the park etc.
Pretend play Make believe play, all normally developing children will engage in pretend play, this is part of development.
Play is a natural process a normally developing child goes through. It helps them explore their thoughts, feelings and interact with their peers and their environment.
In autistic children the need to play and be inquisitive is missing
Autistic children prefer their own company and lack interest in their environment; they preferrepetition to imagination and compulsive play.
Preschool autistic children may not stimulated by a bright colored cot mobile, or play gym, do not want to engage in pretend or rough and tumble play. Lack the inquisitiveness for exploratory play and do not understand why or how to engage in pretend play.
When preschool autistic children begin preschool the differences in behaviors of a normally developing and an autistic child can become apparent.
There are ways as a preschool teacher or parent you can help the autistic child manage their behaviors and experiences at preschool by implementing autism social stories…
Research suggest autistic children respond well to autism social stories and therefore they can be introduced into daily and preschool lives affectively-giving the preschool autistic child clear coping mechanisms and instructions on how to interact with others and perform everyday tasks.
For example how to “pretend play”, “say hi”, “share toys” or perform tasks such as tooth brushing, visiting the doctor, starting preschool and so on…
Autism social stories are available in printable format making sharing them with all responsible in your autistic child’s care easy.
Implementing autism social stories is easy and effective. Research shows autism social stories are widely used with positive affects and results.
For immediate downloads visit one of these main autism sites:
As more and more special needs students with autism are coming into mainstream regular classrooms, teachers are faced with the challenge of meeting their needs as well as the needs of all students within their classroom.
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So how do teachers cope with autism in the classroom? Autism and classroom accommodations need to be put in place before the autistic student starts school.
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Nurturing the parent-teacher relationship is key. A meeting with the child’s parents should be held prior to the start of the school year. Parents can help identify the pragmatic skills in the autistic child, learning patterns, current cognitive skills, and the behavioral techniques that are used with the child.
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All autism classroom accommodations should be noted and all the appropriate adults in the child’s care team should be involved, like school speech therapist, occupational therapist, special education teacher.
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Students with autism will often struggle to express what they need or what they don’t understand.
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Autism in the classroom can be helped by using visual cues around the classroom, for example above the bathroom a picture of a toilet, sink with the written word on show also. Using visual cues can help the autistic child quickly identify certain areas, without feeling frustrated.
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Pictures and words should be used all around the classroom to help identify areas such as where coats and lunches are stored, pencils are sharpened, and books are put on the shelf.
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As well as visual cues the teacher should have the appropriate autism social stories
….Autism social stories are designed as a tool for helping parents, teachers of autistic children better cope with challenging and often frustrating behaviors.
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Social stories will act as a best friend to the autistic child…helping them cope with all the daily activities in school, as well as helping with all classroom accommodations and as an aid in pragmatic skills in autistic children.
Autistic children on the whole have issues when it comes to making and keeping friends.
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Sometimes they can find themselves as the targets for bullies, because of their lack of social understanding and on occasion’s odd behavior, language and unusual pre-occupations and tendencies.
Their lack of understanding and ability to respond in socially expected ways to nonverbal cues can lead to conflict or being ignored by others. Children with Asperger’s syndrome will sometimes be extremely literal and may find interpreting and responding to sarcasm or banter difficult….And may well not understand what has been said or done.
Therefore, the sooner an autistic child learns how to make appropriate friendships the better. It can help reduce problems, like bullying and lead to better relationships with people who aren’t on the spectrum.
It is easy as a non-autistic person to forget how complex social skills are;
For example:
• How to enter into other children’s activity
• How to allow another child to enter into your own game or activity
• Knowing when someone needs help, and how to find help, also how to get help from others.
• Giving and receiving compliments at the right time.
• Understanding about positive criticism, when and how to give.
• Being able to accept and handle criticism from others
• Accepting the ideas and suggestions of others, and what to do with them
• Controlling negative situations and turning them into a positive
• Learning how to act appropriately at home and in public
• Understanding body language, and facial expressions
• Understanding and using “nick namesâ€, appropriate use of words, like swear words, or rude gestures and words.
• Taking part in conversation.
• Managing disagreement with compromise instead of aggression or emotional outbursts
• Accepting not everybody will agree with you, and recognizing peoples opinions can at time vary.
• Empathizing with others in both positive and negative situations
• How to leave an activity or situation without causing offense.
Non-autistic children will learn these social skills in an unconscious and intuitive way, by observing and interacting with everyone around them.
However with autism these skills are not normally learnt in such a way, and need to be learnt in a more definite manner.
Using autism social skills stories can increase your child’s ability to make and maintain friendships-by giving your child clear social cues on how to get and keep a friend.
 Plus how to act in all situations and activities, making your child more confident and ultimately helping them to make those friendships they need to fit into their environment.
We all need friends, a food friend can be like gold dust, and by using social skills storiesyour autistic child can maintain normal friendships.
To obtain specific and even personalized social skills stories for your autistic child
There are more children now being diagnosed autistic than ever before.
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Autistic children are all different; they will have different degrees of severity, and different need’s.
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However they will all have certain things in common like:
Communication problems
Social interaction problems
Behavior issues
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Plus some autistic children are especially sensitive to their environment. Noise, bright colors, strong smells, can all cause stress and even real physical pain.
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In a school environment other pupils may well consider an autistic child “oddâ€
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One thing a teacher need’s to keep in mind is that each autistic child will react in different ways. If you have an autistic child beginning in your class it may help you to speak with the child’s classroom helper, or assistant, before they start in your class. If there is no helper to speak with, then making time to talk to the child’s parents will be a good idea.
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You need to establish from them exactly which conditions are most conducive to learning and good behavior. In addition, you can help by:
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Having a clear structure to the day/lesson, with a visual timetable displayed to show what is going to happen.
Minimize any changes to routine by always telling the autistic child in advance, and possible help them by introducing a social story to help them cope with the change and be prepared for it.
Take all autism classroom accommodations into account by setting up a quiet place “Time out†area for the autistic child to use, as and when appropriate.
Try and keep in mind an autistic child may not understand facial expression and figurative language, “theory of mind†Explain everything clearly and concisely.
Remember that you need to include the child by using their name they may not understand that ‘everyone’ includes them.
Use visual signs/symbols to back up verbal and written instructions.
Using autism social stories preferably printable ones the child can carry with them, to teach about social interaction and appropriate behaviors for different situations.
Be clear and firm but gentle about behavior and apply the school rules with consistency. Remember autistic children need repetition and things to stay the same.
You can also help support an autistic child by talking to other member’s of staff and explain what autism is and how the behavior of an autistic child will differ from that of a normally developing child.
It will also be a good idea to explain to the other children in the class what autism is and how they can help support the autistic child by being patient and understanding.
You may also want to consider setting up a buddy system as autistic children find making and sustaining friendships difficult and can be at time easy targets for bullies.
A good source of autism social stories to help with the problems faced by autistic children, their parents, carer’s and educators can be found at:
In the past there was a lack of knowledge about autism. However today there is a rapidly growing autism awareness of the special needs and difficulties that children with autism can face.
There is also a rapidly growing number of specialists in the field of autism spectrum disorders.
In Britainautism awareness id growing with over 500,000 people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders.
Each autistic individual’s behavior, including your own autistic childs, will be unique, but there will be underlying common problems which bond the whole group together.
If your autistic child has recently been diagnosed as having autism spectrum disorder, undoubtedly you will have a lot of questions.
Your first thoughts may be about autism awareness and what it means, how it will affect your child and where on the autism spectrum disorder your child is, as well as how, this will impact on your entire family.
Research by specialists in autism spectrum disorders has shown parents, educators and other specialists can find coping strategies for autistic behaviors using autism resources such as…autism social stories.
These vital autism resources - autism social stories are used to great affect in helping children with autism.
For more information on autism resources such as autism social stories visit:
Social stories are made up of four types of sentences:
Descriptive sentences, like:
The bell rings at the end of playtime, the children all line up ready to go back to class.
Directive sentences, like:
I am in yellow class, I sit at the front of the class, I listen to my teacher when she is talking
Perspective sentences, like:
When the bell rings at the end of breaktime the children know it is time to go back to class
Control sentences, like:
I will remember to line up quietly at the end of breaktime.
To write a good clear social story you should aim to include all or some of these sentences and try to avoid direct dont’s like do not talk in class, as this is an order, and sometimes an autistic child may find this idfficult. Autistic children live in a literal world and will take everything you say as true.
So for example if you say do not talk in class, this should be followed by unless my teacher asks me too.
For more information on social stories and to see an example visit www.autismsocialstories.com the home of specially written social stories that work
Research into the causes of Autism, has shown that a combination of genetic, biological, environmental, and sometimes other factors contribute to autism.
Researchers believe that there are several genes, which may contribute to the disorder. There are also said to be several brain regions, which may also show forms of abnormalities.
Scientists are also exploring the possibilities of Genetic imprinting, which will determine the parental donator of the abnormal gene.
It has also been suggested that neurotransmitters in the brain may not be working normally, or even a faulty immune system could be the cause, or a virus.
Some research has suggested that the Autistic person may have been subjected to increased levels of protein in their mothers blood during birth.
Or that the mother whilst pregnant may have been subject to extreme stress,
Some research has also suggested vaccinations may play a part in Autism. All of these causes of autism are of cause still being looked into and as yet no single reason has been given for the causes of autism.
For more information on the causes of Autism and how we can help your autistic individual with coping strategies. By implementing autism tools such as autism social stories…visit our site.
…And gain immediate access to these reliable well researched and used autism tools...autism social stories can be used for a variety of issues and are pictorially rich making comprehension easy for the autistic individual.
Autism is a developmental disorder which can affect children from either birth or the early months of their lives.
Research into understanding autism - cause and affect…shows delays and deviance from normal development. This will occur in three areas:
1.Social relationships and interactions
2.Language and communication.
3.Activities and interests.
When these three areas of behavior are affected. At more deeper level than that of a normally developing child, the distinctive patterns that are noticed in the symptoms of Autism in a child become apparent.
Some experts now believe that children with the these areas of impairments should be given the diagnosis “autism spectrum disorders”.
Which should then lead on to further and more in depth diagnosis of autism being made.
Which in turn should look at the severity, the cognitive level, plus the clinical traits and associated medical conditions.
The National Autistic Society in the UK suggests a possible rate of almost 1 in 100 people will be diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorders.
Although autism is normally present from birth, or very soon after, there can be a delay in autism diagnosis due to the nature of the condition and sometimes the severity.
Diagnosing Autism can be complicated, because of the variations found in the mental ability of children with autism.
Approximately two-thirds of children with autism will have additional learning difficulties, with unusual behavior patterns, which may well be put down to an overall developmental delay. There are methods used for children with autism to help them become more socially aware of their enviroment…these are called autism social stories.
These autism social storiescan be used effectively in the home and classroom to help children with autism understand the world they live in and give them methods and techniques for undertaking, tasks, activities, social situations and events. They provide clear instruction for tasks such as: tooth brushing, using deodrant, getting a haircut and visiting the doctor. As well as instruction on various other topics…
All pictorially rich, as children with autism are visual learners To gain immediate access to these autism social stories and help with understanding autism visit
One of the main features of autism is an impaired social interaction. Many autistic children will engage in repetitive behaviors, such as rocking, twirling, finger flicking and toe walking. Or they may use self-harming behavior such as head banging and biting themselves.
The find the world confusing and therefore the overload of sensory input from the world around them is too much for them to handle. So they will use autistic repetitive behavior like finger flicking, this is called stimming, in order to concentrate on the flicking and thus calm themselves down.
Mostly autistic children tend to start speaking later than other children and may also refer to themselves by their name rather than saying I or me, as we would.
Many autistic children have a reduced sensitivity to pain, and are abnormally sensitive to sound, touch, and other sensory stimulation.
Which is why there tends to be an adverse reaction to being touched or cuddled.
It is still not known for sure why, but on average 20 to 30% of autistic children will develop epilepsy by the time they reach adulthood.
Autism is normally detected during infancy or very early childhood. Usually there are some concerns about the child’s development, which is normally noticed and recorded within the first year.
These concerns will normally relate to problems the autistic child is having with communication, play, or social responsiveness, and to stimming or repetitive behavior.
Over time, the pattern of an autistic childs development is mainly influenced by the degree of cognitive impairment.
Autism may co-exist with a varying range of measured ability levels; the overall majority of autistic people do have some degree of learning difficulties. With around 50% of Autistic people having IQs of 50 or below.
Certainly it has been found that those who have severe learning difficulties are unlikely to develop any kind of meaningful speech.
Sometimes in autistic children there is also a possibility that they will develop behaviors like self-harming and stimming.
However research shows that sometimes when the abilities of autistic children are considered within the average range, the outcomes of behavior are more unpredictable.
In some cases, there has been an improvement as the autistic child gets older and their ability to cope with; and adapt to, situations becomes much better.
However also within this group of autistic people, some will remain dependent.
But others may achieve virtual independence and be able to maintain successful employment.
In some autistic children however, it is found that sometimes their overall problems will increase with age.
However regardless of the autistic persons abilities there is still something you can do to aid their social and personal development.
Research shows that by using autism social stories as a method for helping autistic people find clear coping strategies they can gain some form of social understanding and gain more independence.
In a study of preschool children it was found that children with autism were disadvantaged in the way they play.
Autistic children find it difficult to play as a normal child would. This lack of play skills in autistic children, can aggravate the child’s social isolation from their peers, and onlyunderline their differences from other children.
So what is play?
Play should be fun and enjoyable.
Play should have no set goals imposed on it from outside influences; it should be imaginative and sometimes impulsive.
play should be spontaneous and voluntary
play should involve some kind of active involvement on the part of the player
play can be solitary or enjoyed with friends
The Development of play
Children’s play should go through a number of developmental stages
·Sensory motor play, stimulation from objects, for example a baby gym.
exploratory and manipulative play, for example Lego
physical play including rough and tumble
social play, playing with their peers, playground play
pretend play or make believe
Why do children need to play?
Play allows our children to learn new skills and practice them in safe supportive surroundings.
Sensory motor play teaches babies and young infants about their own bodies and about objects in their immediate surroundings. The bright colored toys stimulate the babies mind and he/she will reach out to grab and explore the toy.
Manipulative and exploratory play teaches older infants about various objects, what they do; sound like, how they react together and how they influence the world they are living in.
Physical play, rough and tumble play, teaches toddlers and pre-school children some gross motor skills, which will provide them with the experiences of whole body interaction with others.
Social play is vast right from the mother and baby interactions to children’s make believe play, for example, playing mummy’s and daddy’s, which teaches children about social relationships in the world they live in.
Autistic children on the other hand like repetition and things to stay the same, they will engage in stimming and repetitive play, mostly the play of children with autism is solitary.
Preferring their own company to that of others. Children with autism may find interactive, make believe play strange and not understand the reasons for this kind of play.
So how do you help your Autistic children learn to play?
Research has shown that using autism social stories as a method for encouraging and teaching play skills to children with autism has had positive effects.
Implementing autism social stories encourages children to engage and understand what play is. An autistic child can learn to play through the use of autism social stories.
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