Symbolic Play

Table of ContentsIntroduction................................................................................................................................................1

Prerequisites..........................................................................................................................................1License and disclaimer..........................................................................................................................1

What is symbolic play................................................................................................................................2Play and autism..........................................................................................................................................3Symbolic play basics..................................................................................................................................4

Play sequences.......................................................................................................................................4The importance of play symbols...........................................................................................................4Components of play symbols................................................................................................................4Kinds of symbols...................................................................................................................................5The importance of likeness....................................................................................................................5Difference between play symbols and likeness.....................................................................................6Degree of obviousness...........................................................................................................................7

Teaching symbolic play.............................................................................................................................8Teaching likeness..................................................................................................................................9

Training likeness...............................................................................................................................9Probing likeness................................................................................................................................9

Teaching symbols................................................................................................................................10Choosing symbolic prototypes to teach..........................................................................................10Choosing symbolic forms to teach.................................................................................................10Choosing symbolic likeness...........................................................................................................10A teaching protocol.........................................................................................................................11How-To guidelines.........................................................................................................................12

Teaching symbolization......................................................................................................................13Probing the existence of symbolization..........................................................................................13

Teaching play sequences.....................................................................................................................14Creating symbolic play scenarios...................................................................................................14Enhancing non-symbolic play scenarios........................................................................................15Demonstrating how to play.............................................................................................................16

Using scripts and script fading...................................................................................................16Fading adult presence.....................................................................................................................17Choosing what to play....................................................................................................................17

Teaching imaginative play..................................................................................................................18Probing the existence of imaginative play......................................................................................18

Development of symbolic play................................................................................................................19Stage I: 9-10 months............................................................................................................................23

Game 1: where did mama go?........................................................................................................23Game 2: stretch for that..................................................................................................................23

Stage II: 13-17 months........................................................................................................................24Game 1: plastic boxes.....................................................................................................................24Game 2: the pool.............................................................................................................................24Game 3: imitations..........................................................................................................................24Game 4: wall drawing and painting................................................................................................24Game 5: lost toy..............................................................................................................................25Game 6: candy in prison.................................................................................................................25Game 7: what's the match?.............................................................................................................25

Game 8: the tour of the house.........................................................................................................25Game 9: the tunnel..........................................................................................................................25Game 10: self portrait.....................................................................................................................25Game 11: obstacle race...................................................................................................................25Game 12: puzzle.............................................................................................................................26Game 13: sorting.............................................................................................................................26Game 14: the professional taster.....................................................................................................26Game 15: the balance......................................................................................................................26Game 16: trainman.........................................................................................................................26Game 17: opening and closing items..............................................................................................26

Stage III: 17-19 months.......................................................................................................................27Game 1: reachin' without stretchin'................................................................................................27Game 2: going fishing....................................................................................................................27Game 3: box with wonders.............................................................................................................27Game 4: burning boat.....................................................................................................................27Game 5: run to color.......................................................................................................................28Game 6: go after sound...................................................................................................................28Game 7: the robot...........................................................................................................................28Game 8: weave the paper................................................................................................................28

Stage IV: 19-22 months.......................................................................................................................29Game 1: follow the color................................................................................................................29Game 2: monsters in the dark.........................................................................................................29Game 3: treasure hunt.....................................................................................................................29Game 4: mystery object..................................................................................................................29Game 5: hard and soft.....................................................................................................................30Game 6: smooth and rough.............................................................................................................30

Stage V: 24 months.............................................................................................................................31Game 1: repeating patterns.............................................................................................................31Game 2: imaginary finger drawing.................................................................................................31Game 3: mystery drawing...............................................................................................................31Game 4: mystery sound..................................................................................................................31Game 5: set the table.......................................................................................................................32

Stage VI: 2 years.............................................................................................................................33Game 1: find the emotion...............................................................................................................33Game 2: the prompter.....................................................................................................................33

Quality of symbolic play..........................................................................................................................34Symbolic play observation sheet.........................................................................................................34Symbolic play observation summarizer..............................................................................................36Interpreting results...............................................................................................................................37

Building a symbolic play repertoire.........................................................................................................39Building a repertoire of symbols.........................................................................................................39Building a repertoire of play scripts....................................................................................................40

Planning symbolic play training..............................................................................................................41Preliminary stage.................................................................................................................................41Stage I..................................................................................................................................................41Stage II................................................................................................................................................41Stage III...............................................................................................................................................42Stage IV...............................................................................................................................................42Stage V................................................................................................................................................42

Stage VI...............................................................................................................................................43Stage VII..............................................................................................................................................43Stage VIII............................................................................................................................................43Stage IX...............................................................................................................................................44Stage X................................................................................................................................................44

Summary..................................................................................................................................................45

Symbolic Play

IntroductionPlay in general and symbolic play in special have an important role child development. It is theorized there is a strong liaison between play and socialization (see [Raising The Child (ro)]), symbolic play and language (see [BehavioralIntervention]), play and learning by imitation (see [Lovaas 2003]), as well as between sensory abilities (which best develop through play) and speech (see [Verbal Behavior Analysis]).

Children with autism and related disorders have difficulty with playing and with finding joy in play. When they do play though, they favor repetitive play within a narrow niche, up to the point that their play seems inappropriate (see [Lovaas 2003], chapter Early Play Skills).

This document aims to address the issue of teaching children with autism how to play, with a focus on symbolic play.

PrerequisitesIt is highly recommended to have access to the following books (see Bibliography at the end) : [Autism and Play], [Behavioral Intervention], [Caring For Your Young Child], [Teach Me Do It], [Raising The Child (ro)], [VB-MAPP] and [ABLLS-R].

This document occasionally employs terms from the Verbal Behavior theory of language. Having some knowledge on Verbal Behavior is recommended. An accessible resource to learn about verbal behavior is [The VB Approach].

The liaison between senses and speech is mentioned by [Verbal Behavior Analysis]. The guidelines for adult supervision fading have been extracted from [Portage Guide (ro)].

This document has been designed with a focus on children with autism or related disorders. The latest incarnation of the seminal work of Dr. Lovaas on intensive intervention for young children with autism is [Lovaas 2003]. Having this resource at hand is highly recommended.

We suggest scripting and script fading as a possible method to teach symbolic play since it has been successfully used to teach conversation. Hence, having access to [Teaching Conversation] is recommended.

The structural assessment of the quality of play has been partially inspired from our multi-dimensional model of LRFFC training which is detailed in LRFFC.pdf. For information on how to obtain this document, see the bottom of the page.

The intent of this document is to get integrated into a verbal behavior therapy. A way to design such a therapy is to download and read our VBA package1. It is strongly recommended not to use the present document in isolation.

License and disclaimerYou are free to read, use, store and copy for personal use this document at no cost. You may not distribute the document or parts of it to anyone without explicit permission from the author. You may freely disseminate information on how to obtain a copy of this document.

The information in this document has not been reviewed by any specialist in Verbal Behavior, language pathology, behaviorism or psychology. You may use the information herein AS IS, with no warranty expressed or implied. The author of this document makes no claim of suitability of this information for any purpose and no damage or loss resulted from the usage of this information may be imputed to him.

Any collision of name, terms, titles or meaning with trademarked elements or works protected by copyright is purely incidental and may not be interpreted as trademark or copyright infringement in any way.

1 One can find the links to the package and other files by checking the blog at http://mariusfilip.blogspot.com, section FILES.

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Symbolic Play

What is symbolic playAccording to the WordWeb electronic dictionary2, a symbol is something visible that by association or convention represents something else that is invisible. The same source defines symbolism as a system of symbols and symbolic representations.

We define symbolic play as that kind of play which carries a certain amount of symbolism with it. This implies that the child engages in certain behaviors whose meaning to him is different from their common, generally accepted meaning. The words amount of symbolism in this definition bear importance because we believe that play symbolism is measurable.

For example, let us assume that a lone child throws pebbles in the direction of a larger rock which lays a few yards away. While it is easy to assume this simple activity as purposeless, this kind of play may have various meanings:

1. If the pebbles fall aimlessly around the rock, this activity is probably no play at all but rather a self-stimulatory behavior so characteristic to children with autism.

2. If most pebbles fall close to the rock and many of them actually do hit the rock, perhaps the child tries to target the rock on purpose.

This is very akin to the actions that typical children do repetitively in order to hone a motor skill (like climbing and going down the stairs over and over again). We may assume the activity is play, albeit non imaginative.

3. If the child says something like I hit you, perhaps he talks to the rock. Most likely the rock becomes in his mind some character that deserves to be hit. We can talk about a small amount of symbolism in this kind of play (rock = character).

4. If the child says I hit you and shouts kaboom!, probably he imagines himself throwing grenades towards the rock. This kind of play carries more symbolism (rock = character to hit, pebble = grenade).

5. If the child says I won't let you pass through! and shouts kaboom! then probably he imagines himself to be a grenadier in battle. This kind of play carries more symbolism (rock = enemy, pebble = grenade, self = grenadier).

6. If, after some fight, the child starts to run towards the rock yelling Aaaaa! while throwing pebbles intensely, then perhaps he's just launched a counter-attack against the enemy. In this case the playground is endowed with symbolic meaning as well and his play is even richer in symbolism (rock = enemy, pebble = grenade, self = grenadier, playground = battlefield).

The example above illustrates that the amount of symbolism of a play session can be measured, at least by counting the number of symbols used.

2 One can download a free copy of WordWeb electronic dictionary from http://wordweb.info/free/.

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Symbolic Play

Play and autismAs shown in [Lovaas 2003], children with autism lack three characteristics that typical children have and make them spontaneously engage in play:

Appropriate usage of surrounding objects. Children with autism do not seem to readily understand that the wheels of a truck exist to roll over ground.

On the contrary, they might turn the truck upside down and spin the wheel over and over, absorbed in the movement without trying to explore other usages of the toy.

Symbolism attached to objects and actions. While very young children limit themselves to exploring physically the surroundings, children beyond a certain age start to assign some symbolism even to simplest forms of play.

For example, a 3 year old girl who brushes the hair of a doll does not do it merely to see what happens to the hair when brushed. Most likely, she's playing mama while the doll is the child.

Yet, when a child with autism plays with the hair of a doll, it's very unlikely that the desire is more than sensory in nature.

Joy of play. It seems that autistic children have difficulty to find joy in play, especially when loaded with symbolism, even if symbolism is in the smallest amount. This seems to happen even when the movements of a play activity and the symbolic meanings of those movements have been given explicitly to them.

It is no wonder: due to the pervasive impairments induced by autism, past interactions and experiences are not formative in this respect. Just as the autistic child does not learn from the environment how to talk, he does not learn how to find joy in play.

Fortunately enough, the three characteristics from above can be learned through systematic intervention:

Children with autism can learn the appropriate usage of objects and toys when the information is given in a way appropriate to their learning style. In fact, many programs of ABA (from Block Imitation to Arts and Crafts) can be seen as ways to teach the child how to make appropriate usage of objects.

Children with autism are capable of attaching symbols to elements they can observe. If a child with autism can learn abstractions like classes and associations, he can learn that a pebble can be a grenade and a large rock can be an enemy tank.

Children with autism are capable of joy in play. The deep motivations of autistic children are, in their essence, no different from the ones of typical children. In fact, the behavioral intervention for autism relies on the fact that autistic children love rewards just as their typically developed peers do.

Concerning the joy to play, Ivaar O. Lovaas gives a suggestive illustration. A man may resist to learning how to play tennis for reasons like hating to perform physical effort. Yet, the same man may find joy in tennis once he learns how to play it. Either the dislike of physical effort goes away or tennis becomes more rewarding than the physical discomfort. Either case, one can reasonably assume that the initial resistance to tennis came from ignorance rather than from an innate incapacity to enjoy tennis.

Experience suggests that children with autism aren't essentially different: they can find enjoyment in things characteristic to typical children, including play, once they are taught how to experience those things and the teaching is conducted in an appropriate way.

We believe that addressing the problem of symbolic play in children with autism requires addressing the three issues from above. We also believe that children with autism can make tremendous advances in their development by the mere of resolution of the above mentioned deficiencies.

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Symbolic Play

Symbolic play basicsThis chapter describes what symbolic play is made of. Based on the components of symbolic play, the next chapter suggests methods to teach it.

Play sequencesAs mentioned in the Westby Scale of Symbolic Play (see [Behavioral Intervention]), at some point in the development of a child, play grows in complexity and evolves from isolated actions to longer and more complex sequences of actions.

Moreover, the symbolic content and the complexity of the symbolic sequences grow with age. Children with autism or related disorders do not manifest this growth, hence it must be taught explicitly.

A symbolic play sequence may employ non-symbolic elements. But it must include at least one symbol in order to be symbolic.

The importance of play symbolsAs mentioned in section What is symbolic play (page 2), a symbol is something visible that by association or convention represents something else that is invisible. In other words, that visible represents something else that is different yet similar in some way.

A play with no symbols whatsoever, i.e. whose meaning is entirely apparent from its very constituents may be useful, healthy and beneficial to the child but is not symbolic. There is no symbolic play without symbols.

Being at the crux of symbolic play, the ability to create and maneuver symbols is of paramount importance. Such ability most likely does not emerge simply by engaging the student in play. Symbols need to be addressed specifically and in isolation before thinking about symbolic play.

Therefore, the key ingredient to teaching symbolic play is to ensure that the student is able to handle symbols in the first place.

Components of play symbolsA play symbol has three components:

1. The symbolic form is what an external observer can see. It consists in the objects or actions used by the child in play. When a child is fighting with a sword represented by a wooden stick, the wooden stick is the symbolic form.

2. The symbolic prototype is what the child has in mind when playing. It consists in objects, actions or characters that the child represents through play. When a child is fighting with a sword represented by a wooden stick, the sword is the symbolic form.

3. The symbolic likeness is the relationship between the symbolic form and the symbolic prototype. The symbolic likeness resides upon a real likeness between the symbolic form and the prototype.

Such real likeness is a commonality of properties between the two (see The importance of likeness below).

Besides those common properties, there are others that are part of the symbolic likeness but not of the real likeness (see Difference between play symbols and likeness at page 6).

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Symbolic Play

Kinds of symbolsA symbol may be static or dynamic, depending on the name of the item represented. Dynamic symbols may be intrinsic or extrinsic.

Static symbols refer to objects. When a child fights with a stick saying it is a sword, the stick is a static symbol.

Dynamic symbols refer to actions. When a child drives a car then his driving is a dynamic symbol.

Extrinsic dynamic symbols refer to those symbolic actions whose symbolism reside in the symbolism of the objects employed. When a little girl combs the hair of a doll pretending to comb the hair of her child, she is doing extrinsic dynamic symbolism: combing is real, but the child is not.

Intrinsic dynamic symbols refer to those symbolic actions whose symbolism is independent of the symbolism of the objects employed. When a little boy sits on the driver's sit and drives the family car in the garage, he is doing intrinsic dynamic symbolism: the car is real, but the driving is not.

These distinctions are important because we believe they bear different levels of difficulty:

Static symbols are the easiest to grasp because their symbolism relies on the object likeness between the symbol and the prototype (see Components of play symbols at page 4).

Extrinsic dynamic symbols are easier than the intrinsic ones because the symbol is virtually identical to the prototype and only the used object differs from its prototype.

Intrinsic dynamic symbols are the hardest because actions, by their dynamic nature, are concepts harder to grasp than objects.

When teaching symbols, is important to keep in mind the above order and to plan the teaching steps accordingly (see Teaching symbols, How-To guidelines at page 12).

The importance of likenessBy definition, a symbol is something visible that by association or convention represents something else that is invisible (see page 2).

Assuming that conventions do not apply to young children3, it results that a symbol in children's play is something visible that by association represents something else that is invisible. We call this association symbolic likeness because it does reside on likeness of some sort.

To illustrate this, let us revisit our little grenadier from page 2 and think a little about his symbolic play:

The pebbles turned into grenades because pebbles are small like the grenades. He pretended to be a grenadier because he threw grenades by hand, like real grenadiers do. He shouted kaboom! that sounds like exploding grenades. His playground was wide and flat like the battlefields he probably saw in movies.

3 Symbolic sign conventions are too difficult concepts for young children to understand. They may learn the signs, but they cannot fully grasp the prototypes behind them.

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Symbolic Play

If our little friend have had pieces of aluminum foil instead of pebbles, an artificial tree instead of a big rock and a room corner indoors instead of an open playground then most likely he would have tried to decorate a Christmas tree instead of fighting heavily with the enemy.

Why? Because aluminum foil is like Christmas tree decorations and not like grenades, the artificial tree may be like a Christmas tree and not like a tank and the corner of the room may be like a part of his living room at home and not like a battlefield.

Therefore, in order to ensure that the student has symbolic likeness we must ensure that he is able to detect likeness in the first place.

Difference between play symbols and likenessAlthough play symbols rely on likeness, there are significant differences between the two:

likeness is a closeness between two entities along a few characteristics. For example, a duck is like a goose because they have many similarities in shape: body, neck, legs, etc.

a play symbol is a correlation in which one participant (the symbolic form) takes some of the characteristics of the other participant (the symbolic prototype) that fall outside their visible likeness.

For example, a pebble is small like a grenade, this is their likeness. Because they are alike, a child can throw pebbles pretending he throws grenades.

Yet, when he plays this way, he shouts kaboom! pretending that the pebble explodes. This ability of the pebble to explode exists in the child's mind only and does not belong to the physical likeness between a pebble and a grenade.

In other words, when constructing a symbol during play, a child does more than identifying a likeness; he endows the symbolic form with attributes of the prototype that the form does not have at all.

Thus the child creates during symbolic play a virtual reality of his own with many made-up attributes. Despite its virtuality, this reality is rooted in the objective reality via the likeness between its elements and their prototypes.

This essential difference between play symbols and likeness is so important that the ability to create virtual realities of play symbols has to be trained explicitly (see Teaching likeness at page 9).

It is this ability of children to construct made-up worlds that adorns their play with unparalleled originality and beauty.

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Symbolic Play

Degree of obviousnessThe same symbolic prototype may be represented by more than one symbolic form. A child, for instance, may use a stick, a rod or a toy sword when pretending to fight by sword. Some of the symbolic forms represent more obviously the prototype than others.

For example, let us consider a girl who does pretend play representing the action I comb the hair of my child:

If she combs the hair of her younger sister, the symbolism is most obvious. The symbolic form differs from the prototype only in terms of my child.

If she uses a doll, the symbolism is less obvious. If she uses a toy comb in the stead of a real comb, the symbolism is less obvious. If she uses a rectangular piece of wood for a comb, the symbolism is less obvious. If she replaces the doll with a rolled towel, the symbolism is less obvious. If she uses no comb whatsoever but pretends to have a comb in her hand, the symbolism is less obvious. If she has bare hands and no child in her arms but pretends to comb an invisible child with an invisible

comb simply by going through the motions, the symbolism has a very low level of obviousness.

So, we can speak of a degree of obviousness from the most obvious to the very unobvious. While it is nearly impossible to measure obviousness rigorously, it is useful to assign a value in one of the two forms:

A numeric value from 0 to 10 where 0 is least obvious and 10 is most obvious (nearly identical). One of the following values: weak obviousness, intermediate obviousness and strong obviousness.

Choosing one form over another depends on the degree of granularity you want to assign to obviousness monitoring.

Needless to say, more obvious symbols are easier for the child than the less obvious ones. Yet, it is important to teach the child symbols as less obvious as possible. The less obvious the symbols he can grasp are, the more imaginative the play his play may be.

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Symbolic Play

Teaching symbolic playThis section is concerned with how to teach symbolic play. Teaching how to play in general has been addressed by many works: [Lovaas 2003], [Caring For Your Young Child], [Behavioral Intervention] or [Portage Guide (ro)], to name a few.

However, we believe that symbolic play deserves special treatment due to its specifics. The specificity comes from symbols playing a central role.

Teaching symbolic play goes through specific phases:

1. Teaching likeness The student must be able to detect likeness between objects apart from symbolization.

2. Teaching symbols The student must have a predefined repertoire of symbols that he can use in play. As shown in Development of symbolic play (page 19) and Building a symbolic play repertoire (page 39), this comes in stages.

3. Teaching symbolization The student must be able to construct his own symbols corresponding to his level of development. Since symbols come in stages, so does the teaching of symbolization.

4. Teaching play sequences The student must have a predefined repertoire of play scripts that he can use in play. As shown in Development of symbolic play (page 19), the scripts consist in isolated actions first but they gradually evolve in more complex scenarios.

5. Teaching imaginative play The student must be able to construct his own sequences by altering or combining the ones in his portfolio or by inventing new ones.

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Symbolic Play

Teaching likenessTeaching likeness comes in two phases: training and probing. Training consists in the teaching itself. Probing is verifying that the ability is really acquired.

Training likenessThe good thing about likeness is that there are plenty of ABA programs to teach it. The way to go is by showing a large number of pairs of pictures to the student and the goal is to make him able to decide upon:

Identity when two images are truly identical. Likeness when two images resemble with each other but are not identical. More likeness when an image resembles a prototype more than another image. For example, a

rabbit with gray fur resembles a rabbit with dark fur more than a rabbit with white fur.

Less likeness is the opposite of More likeness. Difference when two images differ more or less. What's wrong? when there is an inconsistency within a picture (a rabbit with three ears). This may

not seem like a likeness exercise, yet it is one in some way: the student has to mentally visualize the correct picture or the absence of the defect and compare the real image with that mental prototype in some fashion. This resembles both Difference and Likeness from above.

We believe it is important to verbalize likeness with the student so that the concept of likeness gets a name. Therefore, using expressions like alike, much like, resembling, similar as often as possible during training is recommended. Such verbal expressions will become vehicles to teach play symbols later on (see Teaching symbols below).

Probing likenessThe student has mastered likeness when he exhibits unhindered ability to detect likeness and more likeness spontaneously in natural settings: a stick is like a rod, a bicycle wheel is like a circle, a book is like a brick, a donkey is like a horse, a duck is like a goose and a goose is more like a duck than like a swan. A threshold of 5 instances per hour assuming favorable circumstances is enough.

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Symbolic Play

Teaching symbolsThis section is concerned with teaching play symbols in isolation. Teaching a symbol requires choosing a symbolic prototype, a symbolic form and a symbolic likeness between the two.

Choosing symbolic prototypes to teachThe teacher should choose symbolic prototypes to teach based on the following criteria:

The symbolic prototypes must conform to the level of child's development (see Development of symbolicplay at page 19).

The symbolic prototypes must be well known to the child. A good source of prototypes is the student's repertoire of tacts. A way to probe how well the student knows the tacts is to put them through LRFFC trials.

Choosing symbolic forms to teachThe teacher should choose symbolic forms to teach based on the following criteria:

The level of obviousness should decrease gradually, from very obvious to the least obvious (see Degree ofobviousness at page 7).

The goal of teaching symbolic forms is to use them later in play. Symbolic forms that do not make good toys or play actions should be avoided.

Choosing symbolic likenessSymbolic likeness resides on attributes that the form and the prototype have in common as well as in attributes that the form does not have except in the child's interpretation during play. Both kinds of attributes have to be chosen carefully.

When the teacher expresses the likeness to the student, it is better to simply state that the form is like the prototype without much detail. If necessary, one or two characteristics suffice. For example, a wooden stick is long and stiff like a sword.

Expressing likeness is not enough. The teacher must also express the attributes of the prototype that the student may endow the form with. It is better to start with one such attribute first. For example, when trying to present a wooden stick as a sword the teacher may say that it pierces. Later on, he may add that the wooden stick also can cut heads like a real word does.

Obviously, expressing non-likeness attributes must take place in a playful, pretending mood, otherwise the student may learn that a wooden stick really pierces and one can really cut heads with such an inoffensive object.

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Symbolic Play

A teaching protocolThe therapist may use the following protocol to teach symbols. It is not the only way to do it and teachers should feel free to change it as they see fit.

This protocol has several steps for the teacher to carry out:

1. Decide which prototypes to teach.

2. Present the student with the prototypes. Use pictures, 3D objects, objects in their natural placement, in-vivo demonstrations, whatever is necessary to ensure that the student has them fresh in memory.

3. Present a symbolic form to the student and ask him which of the prototypes is best resembling the form.

If the student has intraverbal skills, the teacher may ask This resembles a ... and wait for the student to complete the sentence.

If the student has no intraverbal skills, then Show the one that resembles this is enough. Either case, if the student masters likeness (see Probing likeness at page 9) the answer should not be a problem.

4. Suggest to the student that the form may be endowed with properties that it doesn't have by expressing attributes of the prototype as naturally belonging to the form.

For example: This wooden stick looks like a sword. We can pierce the enemy with it!.

Indirect expressions must be avoided. For example, we don't say: This wooden stick looks like a sword. It can also have the property to pierce an enemy!. We say We can pierce the enemy with it!.

In other words, the teacher should not say that the form may have a property of the prototype, it must say that the form can be the prototype.

5. Rotate the trials by repeating each form/prototype couple several times, each time mentioning slightly different properties that the form may get from the prototype.

Examples for This wooden stick looks like a sword: We can pierce the enemy with it! (1st trial), We can cut the head off with it! (2nd trial), It cuts flesh and bones in battle! (3rd trial), We carry it at the hip (4th trial).

Using sessions of 20 trials consisting in five symbols repeated four times is in line with the standard teaching practice of Verbal Behavior Analysis (see [Verbal Behavior Analysis]).

The goal of each teaching session is to make the child utter without prompt the symbol in terms of form, prototype and one variant of symbolic likeness.

The mastery criteria are:

A 18/20 rate of spontaneous utterances per session obtained without prompt.

At least two variants of the symbolic likeness per form/prototype couple.

The second mastery criterion means that no symbol should take the frozen form of rote memorization.

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Symbolic Play

How-To guidelinesWhen teaching play symbols in isolation, it's recommended to follow several guidelines:

Static symbols are the easiest, intrinsic dynamic symbols are the hardest (see page Kinds of symbols at page 5). The teacher should start teaching with static symbols.

The same symbolic prototype may have more than one symbolic form. Teaching as many forms for the same prototype empowers the student with more choices during play.

The most obvious symbolic forms are the easiest, the least obvious ones are the hardest (see Degree ofobviousness at page 7). Teaching multiple forms for the same prototype should start with the most obvious ones.

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Symbolic Play

Teaching symbolizationSymbolization is the ability to construct symbols. While acquiring many symbols is important, being able to symbolize is essential for symbolic play.

Without this ability, the child has to restrict his play to a predefined set of symbols without being able to exploit fully the potential of his environment. Moreover, there may be a danger that he will not understand the symbols of his playmates, thus reducing his ability to engage in group play.

Just as we cannot teach speech in itself and we have to resort to teaching verbal operants, verbal capabilities (higher order operants, see [Verbal Behavior Analysis]) and to practicing phrase expansion over and over, we cannot teach symbolization in itself.

The only tool at our disposal is to teach as many symbols as possible until spontaneous symbolization eventually emerges. Whether this ability does emerges and how fast depends heavily on the individual. We cannot offer clear thresholds in the matter: just teach many symbols and check periodically whether the student exhibits symbolization.

The next sub-section shows how to check for the existence of symbolization.

Probing the existence of symbolizationThe teacher can probe the existence of symbolization by checking that the student is able to construct novel symbols in 90% of the occasions where such an event is prone to occur. A 18/20 rate is common practice in ABA and VBA, and there is no reason to change it (see [Lovaas 2003] and [Verbal Behavior Analysis]).

The teacher should do the following:

1. Select five objects or actions that the student knows very well (they have been probed through tacting and autoclitic training, LRFFC training and/or intraverbal training) and that have never been used in symbol teaching. These five elements will be symbolic prototypes.

2. Choose four symbolic forms for each prototype of various degrees of obviousness (the forms should not be less obvious than the level of obviousness he's been trained for).

3. Present the symbolic forms to the student one by one in random order and see whether the student is able to construct a symbol based on it:1. If the student spontaneously finds a symbol with a correct form/prototype/symbolic likeness triad, give

him 1 point.2. If the student spontaneously finds a symbol with a correct form/prototype couple but with a symbolic

likeness lacking prototype attributes, give him 0.5 points.3. If the student needs a hint to find a symbol, then:

1. If the student associates a prototype different from the one you intended, give him 1 point.2. If the student associates the same prototype as the one you thought of initially, give him 0.5 points.

4. Add all the points obtained by the student. A score of 18 or greater shows that the student has the capacity to symbolize.

The student may not know what to do with the symbolic form shown to him. The teacher may hint the student by saying Let's play a little with this.

Another method is to say I'd like play with this ... followed by the name of a prototype that is very different from the actual prototype. For example, if it's something that resembles a plane, say I'd like to play with this cow. If the student says It's not a cow, it's a plane then tell him Why don't you play with that.

Most likely symbolization occurs gradually. This means that while the student still fails to gather all the necessary 18 points, his score may still grow from one probing to another. When this happens, it is a sign that training must continue.

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Symbolic Play

Teaching play sequencesHaving a rich repertoire of play symbols is not enough. The student must be able to play by himself or with others freely and naturally. Unfortunately, symbolic play does not follow in the footsteps of symbols just as speech does not rise spontaneously from learning separate words. Both speech and play have to be taught explicitly.

A play sequence is formed of several actions, some of them symbolic, some of them not. Although the child may know the actions in isolation, he may be unable to put the pieces together to produce symbolic play. He needs training.

The teacher may use one of the following methods to teach the student how to play symbolically:

By creating play scenarios containing a certain kind of symbolism right from their inception. By enhancing existing non-symbolic play scenarios with a certain amount of symbolism.

Creating symbolic play scenariosCreating scenarios has the advantage that symbolism is not forged into something already existing. Thus the final outcome has better chances to be fluent and natural.

Creating a scenario is easy:

Chain a sequence of real events that are well know to the student. The events must make use of known objects only.

Replace some elements with their symbolic forms.

Obviously, the same chain of events may have more than one resulting play scenario. It is better to have as many as possible: this way the student does not learn mechanically a sequence of events, but learns that the same chain of actions may be represented in many ways during play.

For example, let us consider writing a symbolic play scenario for wake up in the morning. The chain of real events as they happen to the student is the following (showering, use of toilet not included):

1. Sleeps.2. The alarm clock rings.3. Yawning and stretching.4. Getting out of bed.5. Putting sleepers on.6. Going to the lavatory.7. Turning the water on.8. Washing hands and face.9. Drying hands.10. Going to the drawer and dressing.

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Symbolic Play

The teacher may choose from the following symbolic forms when altering the above list in order to produce symbolic play sequences:

Sleeping pretending to sleep silently, pretending to snore. Alarm clock real alarm clock, toy alarm clock, an ad-hoc object in place of an alarm clock, no

physical form. Alarm clock ringing real ringing, another person imitating the sound. Bed real bed, a couch, a lounger, a lounge chair, a sun bed, a towel on the floor, the floor

itself. Sleepers real sleepers, other kind of footwear, nothing (just pretending to put invisible

sleepers on). The lavatory real lavatory, the corner of the room, a balcony, the outside of the house, a part of

the playground. The sink real sink, a bucket, nothing (just pretending to stand in front of an invisible sink). The faucet real faucet, a bottle of water held by a peer, nothing. Water real water, nothing. Washing real washing, pretending by going through the motions. Drying hands real tower, none. Drawer real drawer, imaginary drawer.

While it is tempting to replace all the elements used in this scenario with their symbolic forms, this is rather bad practice. In order to learn how to employ symbolization when playing, the child has to experience the presence of symbols gradually.

This requires that the teacher should begin with the scenarios that resemble reality to the fullest, then slowly replace some of the elements with their corresponding symbolic forms. When selecting a form from a collection of forms for the same prototype, the most obvious forms should be considered first (see Degree of obviousness at page 7).

Enhancing non-symbolic play scenariosGathering already existing play scenarios from various sources (like books, magazines, the Internet) is an effective way to build a portfolio of play activities for a child. Many such games and play ideas do not have symbolism yet they may be transformed to acquire symbolic qualities.

One way to do that is by following the method at page 14, i.e. by replacing some elements of the play sequence with a symbolic form when possible. For example, if the play sequence consists in combing and dressing a play doll, combing may be replaced with a fake combing (like combing with a fake comb).

Another way is to leave the play session untouched but to attach symbolic interpretations to it. For example, if the play consists in stringing beads on a wire, then we can teach the student that the beads are pieces of diamonds, rubies and sapphires. We may also tell the student that's a necklace for Cinderella to wear when she meets her prince. This way the beads mutate into glamorous jewelry that may stir the student's imagination.

Obviously, the second method requires better verbal abilities from the student's part.

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Symbolic Play

Demonstrating how to playNo matter how well we craft the play scenarios, the student must become proficient in applying them. It is necessary that the teacher demonstrates how to play first, then he withdraws to let the student play by himself.

Demonstrating the scenario to the student requires to play either by showing the session from start to finish or by engaging as a partner. Either way, the teacher has to fade his presence, eventually leaving the student to play alone or with a peer.

Using scripts and script fadingThe method of scripting and script fading has been used successfully in teaching conversational skills that are hard to teach via regular establishing operations because motivation is weak in casual talk (see [Teaching Conversation]).

The main advantage of this method consists in the physical support that reminds the student what is to do. Another advantage is that the student controls his own activity schedule which encourages responsibility and discipline.

We believe that scripting and script fading can be used successfully for play as well. The idea is to replace the conversation scripts with play scripts. If the student is empty of play ideas or if he's got idle time, he can open up his activity schedule and follow the script that lays out a play scenario.

There are disadvantages to this method, though:

It requires the student, in its advanced incarnation, to read quite fluently. It is hard to expect that from a child who is so delayed that he doesn't know how to play well.

It requires magnetic cards and a special audio device in its less advanced incarnation. The student is supposed to run the cards through the device in order to learn what the script is about.

It relies partially on images. Images are weak at representing symbols.

For the reasons above it is highly recommended to use scripts and script fading as a last resort only.

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Symbolic Play

Fading adult presenceThe [VB-MAPP] test has several milestones related to play. Some milestones refer to independent play, others to playing with peers. When speaking about play with peers, spontaneous play with no adult guidance is assumed.

It is wonderful that a child with autism can learn how to play, but this is not enough. If the student learns from a teacher how to play it doesn't mean he'll know how to play independently and without guidance. Such an ability may require training as well.

A simple method to fade adult supervision and presence in the case of play exists in [Portage Guide (ro)] and consists of the following steps:

1. The teacher ensures that the student is able to play well in his presence.2. The teacher reduces his involvement in play: instructions, guiding the decision making, suggesting variants.3. The teacher simply watches how the student plays.4. The teacher gradually grows the distance between him and the play area.5. The teacher sits remotely, half-way turned from the student who is playing.6. The teacher sits with his back turned to the student, pretending of being busy with something.7. The teacher exists temporarily the room for periods that grow gradually in duration.8. The teacher leaves the root at the beginning of the play session and comes back at the end.

The teacher cannot parse all these steps over one session. The student requires time to get accustomed to playing by himself. Yet, it is training that has to be done, otherwise the student may remain be unable to play without the teacher's presence.

Choosing what to playIn typically developing children, the ability to play symbolically develops gradually (see Development of symbolicplay below). No child acquires the ability to play suddenly, no matter how simple that play might be. By the same token, when the adult intends to play with his typically developing child, he has to choose toys and games that are age appropriate.

Children with autism and related disorders may be considered as either dysfunctional or developmentally delayed in terms of play behavior. Based on tests that evaluate a child's play behavior, one can compute a psychological age relative to play. This play age is behind the chronological age. The goal of the therapy is to eliminate that delay by developing functionality where missing.

During the therapy, it is important to keep in mind the play age of the student. The symbols, the play sessions and the teaching in general has to be in line with the current development of the child.

Section Development of symbolic play at page 19 helps with determining the play age of a student and what kind of play to choose at any point of the therapy. Section Planning symbolic play training at page 41 shows how to plan symbolic play training while respecting the play age.

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Symbolic Play

Teaching imaginative playA child's play becomes imaginative when the child begins to imagine play sequences he hasn't seen or wasn't taught before. Play imagination does not come out of nothing. The child learns to become imaginative by acquiring first many play patterns from his parents and peers.

Children with autism and related disorders have an overall problem with creativity and imagination. This problem reflects in play as well. However, we believe that children with autism can become creative when they are given systematically a larger number of elements and instances of composition laws that they cannot acquire otherwise by natural means. One such example is the teaching of symbolization (see page 13), i.e. the teaching of an essentially creative endeavor.

Just as with teaching symbolization, there is no silver bullet to teaching imaginative play. The solution is to teach as many play sequences as possible with as many variants as possible each. Eventually, the student starts to create new sequences by the following means:

Combining existing sequences into new ones. Two variants of basically the same sequence are good candidates for such combination.

Altering sequences to produce new variants.

Transferring steps from one sequence to a different, unrelated sequence that supports the steps in a completely different setting.

Probing the existence of imaginative playAssuming that a play session is a period of time during which the student engages in uninterrupted play, imaginative play has the following mastery criteria:

Any play session exhibits novel play sequences that the student has never learned or seen. One play sequence is enough and generating variants of previous sequences is accepted.

The student repeats no novel play sequence identically over the next two subsequent play sessions. Repeating identically the play sequence over one of the next two sessions is permitted, but not over both.

Just like symbolization, imaginative play does not extend from one development stage to another (for development stages, see Development of symbolic play at page 19). This means that it must be checked for each stage of symbolic play development (see Planning symbolic play training at page 41 and further).

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Symbolic Play

Development of symbolic playAccording to the Westby Symbolic Play Scale List (see [Behavioral Intervention] page 303), symbolic play develops in 10 stages from the age of 9 months to 5 years. Each stage exhibits a certain amount of symbolism as well as a certain level of language development.

Age Play Language

1. 9-12 mo Awareness that objects exist when not seen; finds toy hidden under the scarf.

Means-end behavior crawls or walks to get what he wants; pulls string toys.

Does not mouth or bang all toys some used appropriately.

No true language; may have performative words (associated with actions or the total situation).

Exhibits following communicative functions: request (instrumental) and command (regulatory).

2. 13-17 mo Purposeful exploration of toys; discovers operation of toy through trial and error; uses a variety of motoric schemas.

Hands toy to adult if unable to operate.

Context-dependent single words; for example, child may use word car when riding in a car, but not when he sees a car; words tend to come and go in child's vocabulary.

Exhibits following communicative functions:

request command interactional personal protesting label responsive greeting.

3. 17-19 mo Autosymbolic play; for example, child pretends to go to sleep or pretends to drink from cup or eat from spoon.

Uses most common objects and toys appropriately.

Tool use (uses stick to reach toy).

Finds toy invisibly hidden (when placed in box and box emptied under scarf).

Beginning of true verbal communication. Words have following functional and semantic relations:

recurrence existence, nonexistence rejection denial agent object action or state location object or person associated with

object or location.

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Symbolic Play

Age Play Language

4. 19-22 mo Symbolic play extends beyond child's self: Plays with dolls: brushes doll's

hair, feeds doll a bottle or covers doll with a blanket.

Child performs pretend activities on more than one person or object: for example feed self, a doll, mother and another child.

Combines two toys in pretend play: for example puts spoon in pan or pours from pot into cup.

Refers to objects and persons not present.

Beginning of word combinations with following semantic relations:

Agent-action Action-object Agent-object Attribute Action-locative Object-locative Possessive Dative

5. 24 mo Represents daily experiences: plays house is the mommy, daddy or baby; objects used are realistic and close to life-size.

Events short and isolated; no true sequences; some self-limiting sequences puts food in pan, stirs and eats.

Block play consists of stacking and knocking down.

Sand and water play consists of filling, pouring and dumping.

Uses earlier pragmatic functions and semantic relations in phrases and short sentences.

The following morphological markers appear:

Present progressive (ing) on verbs.

Plurals. Possessives.

6. 2 years Represents events less frequently experienced or observed, particularly impressive or traumatic events.

Doctor-nurse-sick child. Teacher-child. Store-shopping.

Events still short and isolated. Realistic props still required. Roles shift quickly.

Responds appropriately to the following wh- questions in context:

What? Who? Whose? Where? What ... do ... ? Asks wh- questions generally

puts wh-word at the beginning of sentence.

Responses to why questions inappropriately except for well-known routines, such as: Why is the doctor here? or Baby sick.

Asks why, but often inappropriately and does not attend to answer.

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Symbolic Play

Age Play Language

7. 3 years Continues to pretend activities of Stage V and VI, but now the play has a sequence. Events are not isolated: for example child mixes cake, bakes it, serves it, washes the dishes; or doctor checks patient, calls ambulance, takes patient to hospital and operates. Sequence evolves, not planned.

Compensatory toy; reenactment of experienced events with new outcomes.

Associative play.

Uses past tense, such as I ate the cake or I walked.

Uses future aspect (particularly gonna) forms, such as I'm gonna wash dishes.

8. 3 - 3 years Carries out play activities of previous stages with a doll and Fisher-Price toys (barn, garage, airport, village).

Uses blocks and sandbox for imaginative play. Blocks used primarily as enclosures (fences and houses) for animals and dolls.

Play not totally stimulus-bound. Child uses one object to represent another.

Uses doll or puppet as participant in play.

Descriptive vocabulary expands as child becomes more aware of perceptual attributes. Uses terms for the following concepts (not always correctly):

shapes sizes colors texture spatial relationship gives dialogue to puppet and

dolls metalinguistic language use such

as Mommy said ... uses indirect requests, such as

mommy lets me have cookies for breakfast

changes speech depending on listener

9. 3 4 years Begins to problem-solve events not experienced. Plans ahead. Hypothesizes what would happen if ...

Uses dolls and puppets to act out scenes.

Builds three-dimensional structures with blocks, which are attempts at reproducing specific structures child has seen.

Verbalizes intentions and possible future events:

Uses modals (can, may, might, will, would, could).

Uses conjunctions (and, but, if, so, because). Note: full competence of these modals and conjunctions does not develop until 10-12 years of age.

Begins to respond appropriately to why and how questions that require reasoning about perception.

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Symbolic Play

Age Play Language

10. 5 years Plans a sequence of pretend events. Organizes what he needs both objects and other children.

Coordinates more than one event occurring at a time.

Highly imaginative. Sets the scene without realistic props.

Full cooperative play.

Uses relational terms (then, when, first, next, last, while, before, after). Note: full competence does not develop until 10-12 years of age.

The following sub-sections contain play suggestions for the first six stages. The examples have been drawn from [Teach Me Do It] and [Raising The Child (ro)]. While the proposed games are not necessarily symbolic in nature, they develop skills that favor symbolization later on.

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Symbolic Play

Stage I: 9-10 monthsSymbolic play:

Awareness that objects exist when not seen; finds toy hidden under the scarf. Means-end behavior crawls or walks to get what he wants; pulls string toys. Does not mouth or bang all toys some used appropriately.

Speech:

No true language; may have performative words (associated with actions or the total situation). Exhibits following communicative functions: request (instrumental) and command (regulatory).

Game 1: where did mama go?Source: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: hide behind a door or a curtain. Ask where did mama go?. When appearing, make a joyful sound (like in the peek-a-boo game).

Game 2: stretch for thatSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: take a desirable object put it close to the child, but not in his reach. He must move, stretch or crawl to get it.

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Symbolic Play

Stage II: 13-17 monthsSymbolic play:

Purposeful exploration of toys; discovers operation of toy through trial and error; uses a variety of motoric schemas.

Hands toy to adult if unable to operate.Speech:

Context-dependent single words; for example, child may use word car when riding in a car, but not when he sees a car; words tend to come and go in child's vocabulary.

Exhibits following communicative functions: request command interactional personal protesting label responsive greeting.

Game 1: plastic boxesSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: while busy in the kitchen, hand plastic boxes to the child and encourage him to put them one into another to discover shape, or stack them to discover size. Hand him small objects (a pile of cereals) that he can fill the boxes with and empty the boxes.

Game 2: the poolSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: in the bathroom or in the back yard, give to the child a large bowl of water and some several objects (sponge, bathroom toys, etc).

Game 3: imitationsSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: ask the child to imitate you while you touch your body parts. Ask the child to imitate you when you use various objects (kitchen utensils, pieces of clothing, telephone, silverware, etc). Commend him when he tries to wear your cloths and imitate you.

Game 4: wall drawing and paintingSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: fix a piece of white paper on the wall and encourage the child to write, draw and paint on it. Instruct the child that the piece of paper is the only area allowed.

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Symbolic Play

Game 5: lost toySource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: show a toy to the child and then cover it with a towel. Let the child find the toy.

Game 6: candy in prisonSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: take the piece of candy and put it into a bottle. Let the child get the candy. You can make the game more complex by putting a cap or a cork the child is supposed to ask for help. More complex game: choose the non-transparent bottle.

Game 7: what's the match?Source: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: put a red sock onto one child's foot and hand him two other sock. Ask him which one he has to put on. You can imagine similar variants with anything that goes in pairs: gloves, shoes, etc.

Game 8: the tour of the houseSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: make daily tours with the child in each room within the house. Talk about the items he sees. Encourage him to touch them and explore them. Encourage him to open doors, turn lights on, etc. so that he develops fine motor skills.

Game 9: the tunnelSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: get a cylinder made of plastic or cardboard. Put an small object inside the tube and then push it with a long stick or spoon until it appears at the other end. Encourage the child to do the same.

Game 10: self portraitSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: take a big sheet of paper or make one by gluing several smaller sheets together. Make the child lay down over the sheet. Draw his contour on the paper with a crayon. Put the sheet on a wall and encourage the child to color the interior of the contour with the colors corresponding to his clothing, skin and hair (see also Game 4: wall drawing and painting at page 24).

Game 11: obstacle raceSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: put many obstacles within the child's room (chairs, a pillow, a box, a large toy) and engage him into a race that has to make him go over all the obstacles. OBS: great care so that the child doesn't hurt himself.

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Symbolic Play

Game 12: puzzleSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: take a picture and cut it in 3 pieces. Ask the child to restore the picture. When he gets used to that, change the picture. When he's proficient with 3 pieces, move to 4 pieces or more.

Game 13: sortingSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: mix many small objects of two different kinds (matches and coins, seeds of two kinds, seeds and beads, etc) and ask the child to separate the two kinds. OBS: make sure the child doesn't swallow anything. Another variant: mix two kinds of silverware. Another variant: mix Lego pieces. Another variant: more than two kinds of objects.

Game 14: the professional tasterSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: make the child close his eyes or cover the child's eyes and give him various foods and drinks to taste (mashed foods are especially suitable). Another variant: make the child taste and smell the food.

Game 15: the balanceSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: make pairs of objects of similar size but of different weight. Have the child compare the weights and tell which one is heavier. Another variant: make the child sort the objects based on weight.

Game 16: trainmanSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: establish a starting point, an end point and a path between the two. The child will be the train. You ask the train to run from start to end and back with various speeds. You can command: faster, slower, even more faster, the fastest, etc.

Game 17: opening and closing itemsSource: [Teach Me Do It].

Description: array in front of the child several bottles and jars of different dimensions with their lids. Ask the child to match the lids to bottles or jars, close them and open them. Another variant: use screws and bolts. Another variant: use boxes and lids. Another variants: use padlocks and keys.

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Symbolic Play

Stage III: 17-19 monthsSymbolic play:

Autosymbolic play; for example, child pretends to go to sleep or pretends to drink from cup or eat from spoon.

Uses most common objects and toys appropriately. Tool use (uses stick to reach toy). Finds toy invisibly hidden (when placed in box and box emptied under scarf).

Speech: beginning of true verbal communication. Words have following functional and semantic relations:

recurrence existence nonexistence rejection denial agent object action or state location object or person associated with object or location.

Game 1: reachin' without stretchin'Source: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: take a desirable object (toy, covered candy) and put it into a place that the child cannot retrieve it except by using a tool. Give the tool to the child (a stick, a long spoon) and let him grab the desired object.

Game 2: going fishingSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: take a small pillow and attach a wire to it. Show to the child that by pulling the wire he can get the pillow. Repeat several times by putting desirable object on the pillow.

Game 3: box with wondersSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: show a toy to the child and put it in a box. Let the child find the toy. Another variant: put the box with the toy into another larger box. Another variant: the the toy out of the box and put it under a towel nearby. The child must look under the towel and not in the box.

Game 4: burning boatSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: put a towel onto the floor, that will be the boat. The child has to sit onto the towel. When you shout burning boat!, the child has to jump into the sea (outside the towel).

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Symbolic Play

Game 5: run to colorSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: name a color and start to count. The child has to find an object of the same color and run to it as fast as possible. Reward better performances.

Game 6: go after soundSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: cover the child's eye or make him close his eyes. Place yourself in some part of the room and make a sound (bell, alarm clock, etc). The child has to find you by following the sound's direction. Start with small distances then grow the distance gradually. Another variant: move slowly while you are making the sound.

Game 7: the robotSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: lay on the floor and pretend you are a robot. The child must turn you on and then command you until you stand up. You may change roles.

Game 8: weave the paperSource: [Teach Me Do It].

Description: have the child to cut narrow rectangles in a sheet of paper. Weave the resulted strips transversally through the paper holes to obtain a small rug. Another variant: color the rectangles before cutting them out.

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Symbolic Play

Stage IV: 19-22 monthsSymbolic play extends beyond child's self:

Plays with dolls: brushes doll's hair, feeds doll a bottle or covers doll with a blanket. Child performs pretend activities on more than one person or object: for example feed self, a doll, mother and

another child. Combines two toys in pretend play: for example puts spoon in pan or pours from pot into cup.

Speech: refers to objects and persons not present. Beginning of word combinations with following semantic relations:

Agent-action Action-object Agent-object Attribute Action-locative Object-locative Possessive Dative

Game 1: follow the colorSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: when you are on a trip, establish a color with the child. During the trip name objects from the environment that have that color. It's forbidden to repeat the objects (like tree, tree, tree, tree ... for color green).

Game 2: monsters in the darkSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: turn the light off in the room or cover the child's eyes. Put an object in the child's hand and ask him what it is.

Game 3: treasure huntSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: when outside in a park or a forest, ask the child to bring to you four objects: one round, one yellow, one thorny and one that can float. Another variant: start with one object. Another variant: ask the child to think about bringing objects with two attributes into the same time.

Game 4: mystery objectSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: take an object and hide it under a towel. Ask the child to guess what it is just by looking the the object covered by the towel. If he cannot guess, allow him to touch the object under the towel.

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Symbolic Play

Game 5: hard and softSource: [Teach Me Do It].

Description: take a soft object and a hard object. Cover the child's eyes. Make him touch the objects and say this is hard and this is soft. Another variant: use three objects, the hardest, the softest and intermediate. Another variant: use four objects, make the child say which object is the hardest and which one the softest. Another variant: go to up to eight objects.

Game 6: smooth and roughSource: [Teach Me Do It].

Description: the same as in Game 5, but with rough and smooth objects.

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Symbolic Play

Stage V: 24 monthsSymbolic play:

Represents daily experiences: plays house is the mommy, daddy or baby; objects used are realistic and close to life-size.

Events short and isolated; no true sequences; some self-limiting sequences puts food in pan, stirs and eats. Block play consists of stacking and knocking down. Sand and water play consists of filling, pouring and dumping.

Speech:

Uses earlier pragmatic functions and semantic relations in phrases and short sentences. The following morphological markers appear:

Present progressive (ing) on verbs. Plurals. Possessives.

Game 1: repeating patternsSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: use various pieces of two colors (like Lego pieces) and form chains of repeating patterns: red, yellow, red, yellow, red ... Ask the child to continue the chain by keeping the pattern. Another variant: grow the number of colors. Another variant: switch from color pattern to shape pattern: square, rectangle, square, rectangle, ... Another variant: switch from color pattern to object pattern: apple, pear, apple, pear, ...

Game 2: imaginary finger drawingSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: draw an imaginary shape on the table with your finger and let the child guess what it is. Another variant: draw on his belly (assuming he doesn't tickle). Another variant: draw simple objects (apple, pear, hat,).

Game 3: mystery drawingSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: draw an image on a large sheet of paper. Cover the image with smaller pieces of paper, but not entirely. Ask the child to guess what object is by looking at the uncovered portion of the drawing. If he cannot guess, take one small piece of paper out, so that the child can see more.

Game 4: mystery soundSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: ask the child to stay with his back turned to you. Make sounds with various objects (open and close scissors, rip paper off, open and close a book loudly, etc) and ask the child to guess what's happening without looking.

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Symbolic Play

Game 5: set the tableSource: [Teach Me Do It].

Description: take a big sheet of paper and draw with a pencil the contours of a plate, fork, knife, glass, spoon and desert spoon. Then ask the child to set the table by matching the objects to their contours. After several trials make the child set the table without the help of contours.

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Symbolic Play

Stage VI: 2 yearsSymbolic play:

Represents events less frequently experienced or observed, particularly impressive or traumatic events. Doctor-nurse-sick child. Teacher-child. Store-shopping.

Events still short and isolated. Realistic props still required. Roles shift quickly.

Speech: responds appropriately to the following wh- questions in context:

What? Who? Whose? Where? What ... do ... ? Asks wh- questions generally puts wh-word at the beginning of sentence. Responses to why questions inappropriately except for well-known routines, such as: Why is the doctor

here? or Baby sick. Asks why, but often inappropriately and does not attend to answer.

Game 1: find the emotionSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: name an emotion and hand a magazine, a book or a pile of pictures to the child. The child has identify a person or an animal showing that emotion. Discuss the reasons to choose one picture over another with the child.

Game 2: the prompterSource: [Raising The Child (ro)].

Description: do an activity that you usually do accompanied by the child. Pretend to forget the next step of what you need. Ask the child to assist you and follow his commands.

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Symbolic Play

Quality of symbolic playIt is hard to talk about the quality of an activity so complex and personal as play. Yet, quality seems to exist considering that parents and educators admonish sometimes the children for not playing nice or commend them when they play in an imaginative and intelligent way.

This section is concerned solely with the quality of symbolic play and not with play in general. For a questionnaire of play observation, see [Autism and Play].

Symbolic play observation sheetThe teacher may use the sheet on the next page in order to record the symbolic content of a play session of the student.

The elements in the sheet have the following meanings:

Nr. Is the ordinal number of the symbolic sub-session. Type Is the type of the session recorded. It may be either the whole play session

or a sub-session with symbolic content. Play session Is a period of time during which the student plays without significant

interruption. Symbolic play sub-session Is a period of time during a play session in which the student performs

symbolic play without significant interruption. Start Is the start moment of the play session or of a symbolic sub-session. End Is the end moment of the play session or of a symbolic sub-session. Symbols Is a symbolic form - symbolic prototype couple representing a symbolic

liaison during play.

With the observation sheet in his hand, the teacher must record the data about the student's play. He must strike out afterwards the repeated symbolic forms, the repeated symbolic prototypes and the indexes of the repeated symbols (repeated form = prototype couples).

After eliminating duplicates, he must transfer the data into the summarizing sheet present at page 36.

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Symbolic Play

Nr. Type Start (hh:mm)

End (hh:mm)

Content

n/a Play session Enter the start and the end of the play session.

1. Symbolic play sub-session ____ : ____ ____ : ____ Symbols: 1. _____________ = _____________ 2. _____________ = _____________ 3. _____________ = _____________ 4. _____________ = _____________ 5. _____________ = _____________

2. Symbolic play sub-session ____ : ____ ____ : ____ Symbols: 1. _____________ = _____________ 2. _____________ = _____________ 3. _____________ = _____________ 4. _____________ = _____________ 5. _____________ = _____________

3. Symbolic play sub-session ____ : ____ ____ : ____ Symbols: 1. _____________ = _____________ 2. _____________ = _____________ 3. _____________ = _____________ 4. _____________ = _____________ 5. _____________ = _____________

4. Symbolic play sub-session ____ : ____ ____ : ____ Symbols: 1. _____________ = _____________ 2. _____________ = _____________ 3. _____________ = _____________ 4. _____________ = _____________ 5. _____________ = _____________

5. Symbolic play sub-session ____ : ____ ____ : ____ Symbols: 1. _____________ = _____________ 2. _____________ = _____________ 3. _____________ = _____________ 4. _____________ = _____________ 5. _____________ = _____________

6. Symbolic play sub-session ____ : ____ ____ : ____ Symbols: 1. _____________ = _____________ 2. _____________ = _____________ 3. _____________ = _____________ 4. _____________ = _____________ 5. _____________ = _____________

7. Symbolic play sub-session ____ : ____ ____ : ____ Symbols: 1. _____________ = _____________ 2. _____________ = _____________ 3. _____________ = _____________ 4. _____________ = _____________ 5. _____________ = _____________

8. Symbolic play sub-session ____ : ____ ____ : ____ Symbols: 1. _____________ = _____________ 2. _____________ = _____________ 3. _____________ = _____________ 4. _____________ = _____________ 5. _____________ = _____________

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Symbolic Play

Symbolic play observation summarizerThe teacher must summarize the results obtained with the sheet at page 35 into the following sheet:

Student name: ________________

Symbolic Play Observation Summarizer Observer's name: ________________ Date: ________________

Nr. Name I II III IV Description

1) Duration of the play session (min) It is the total duration of a play session.

2) Duration of symbolic play (min) It is the sum of the length of all symbolic play sub-sessions.

3) Proportion of symbolic play (%) It is the ratio of 2) to 1).

4) Number of symbolic play sub-sessions It is the number of sub-session symbolic in nature.

5) Average duration of continuous symbolic play (min)

It is the ratio of 2) to 4).

6) Number of different symbols used It is the number of form = prototype unique pairs.

7) Average number of symbols per symbolic sub-session

It is the ratio of 6) to 4).

8) Average number of symbols per minute of play (symbol/min)

It is the ratio of 6) to 1).

9) Average number of symbols per minute of symbolic play (symbol/min)

It is the ratio of 6) to 2).

10) Number of different symbolic forms used It is the number of unique concrete objects or actions used in symbolic play.

11) Average number of symbolic forms per minute of symbolic play (form/min)

It is the ratio of 10) to 2).

12) Number of different symbolic prototypes used It is the number of unique elements represented in symbolic play by symbolic forms.

13) Average number of symbolic prototypes per minute of symbolic play (prototype/min)

It is the ratio of 12) to 2).

14) Average number of forms per prototype (form/prototype)

It is the ratio of 12) to 10).

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Symbolic Play

Interpreting resultsThe values in the summarizer have the following meanings:

I, II, III, IV The summarizer has room for up to four session. By summarizing different sessions on the same sheet, the teacher can compare how the symbolic play behavior evolves over time.

Duration of play session Is the length of time that the child sustains continuous play. This value has to be as large as possible.

Duration of symbolic play It the summed length of time that the child sustains symbolic play. The teacher obtains this number by summing up the lengths of the symbolic sub-sessions. This value has to be as large as possible. It cannot be larger than Duration of play session.

Proportion of symbolic play It tells how much of the play time the student has spent on symbolic play. 0% means total absenc