Expanding imaginary play themes

Liz Day - Senior Therapist, Hon. BA, Rehab Dip.

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder can often have difficulty with imaginary play. Scaffolding scripts or building play themes is a great way for children to learn and expand their imaginary play. It is also a way to teach a life skill or for preparing a child to go to an event.

Here is a simple example that builds on each step in a script for a birthday party.

1. Let's have a birthday party!
2. First, we need to get the invitations. Who is the party for? Who should we invite? (get the dolls out and give them names to invite them)
3. Then we need decorate. Let's blow up balloons, put up streamers.
4. Let's put a present in the bag.
5. Ready to make the cake, let's decorate it, how many candles?
6. Let's set the table with plates, forks, cups.
7. Oh, sounds like everyone is coming, "hi Emma, hi Josh" - (put the dolls around the table).
8. We're ready to put our party hats on. Let's light the candles (pretend).
9. Let's sing happy birthday. (Sing to whoever it is for).
10. Blow out the candles - yeah!
11. Let's cut and serve the cake - Mmm, it's delicious.
12. Time to open your present. - Don't forget to say "thank you!" for the present.
13. That was a great birthday party, time to clean it all up now.

For more advanced or to prepare for what may happen at someone's party - add a game time or gross motor skill to practice.

You can make your own scripts and steps as long as they follow a logical progression. Teach and rehearse the steps, then once learned, add another step to expand on the theme. Teach as much as the child can handle in terms of their attention span and understanding. Maybe they can just do 3 steps, just the cake, present and clean up. The goal is for them to have fun, learn some imaginary play skills and initiate the lead in play. But at first you may need to be the leader introduce each step until they learn it, then when they are ready let them interact and lead. Some ways to turn it over to them are: Verbal prompt - What did we do first to have a birthday party last time? Remember what we did last time after we
blew out the candles?

For more information about integrated play, read Pamela Wolfberg's (2003) "Peer Play and the Autism Spectrum, the Art of Guiding Children's Socialization and Imagination".

For more information about our programs or to book an appointment with one of our therapists, please contact the clinic.

 

 

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