An Early Start for Your Child with Autism: Using Everyday Activities to Help Kids Connect, Communicate, and Learn

by Rogers, Sally J.

  Summary of Step 1

  If you have followed along and carried out the preceding activities, you now have ideas for using real objects to teach this first step of symbolic play—functional play—during daily joint activities with your child. You have also introduced a doll or other figures into functional play. See if you agree with most of the statements in the following checklist. If so, you are now armed with important skills for expanding your child’s play—knowledge you will use in Step 2. If not, start experimenting during play and caregiving routines until you have found some methods that work for each statement.

  Note: This is a good time to move on to the next chapter. Continue to read this chapter and to focus on building pretend play skills with your child, but start Chapter 13 as well. Chapter 13 focuses on developing speech, and the kinds of play you are doing here will help your child make progress in speech as well.

  Activity Checklist: Am I Using Realistic Objects

  during Symbolic Play Activities?

  ____ I have ideas for what kinds of real-world activities to use when playing with my child.

  ____ I have ideas for what dolls/animals and materials can be included in these activities.

  ____ I have prepared a box of conventional play objects that can be used on myself, my child, and a doll/animal/figure.

  ____ I am adapting the joint activity framework (setup, theme, variation, closing/transition) as suggested above to teach different symbolic play acts to my child.

  ____ I am keeping the joint activity short, interesting, and fun.

  ____ I know how to pause and wait for my child to carry out his or her own functional play acts with the objects.

  ____ I know how to model different functional play acts with the objects for my child to imitate on me and the doll/animal/figure.

  ____ My child and I are practicing several different functional play routines in joint activities (meals, bath, dressing, changing, outdoor play, errands).

  Gracie is 28 months old and has recently started using single words to communicate greetings, protests, and some needs and wants. Gracie’s mother wants to expand her functional play skills to help usher in pretend play. Gracie loves her Yo Gabba Gabba! dolls, and she often carries one or two in her arms when walking around the house. When it’s time for a snack, Gracie’s mom starts to include the dolls in the routine. Gracie seats herself in her chair; Mom sits kitty-corner from Gracie; and two of the dolls are seated on the table between Mom and Gracie. Gracie selects juice from her mother’s choice of crackers or a drink, and Mom responds by pouring juice into the cup, followed by pretending to pour some into the dolls’ cups (she adds a “sssh” sound for effect). Gracie watches her mom intently as she gives the doll a drink from the cup. Mom makes slurping sounds as the doll drinks, which Gracie finds funny. Gracie takes a drink from her cup, which Mom has the doll imitate. When Gracie finishes, Mom encourages her to give a sip to the doll, modeling with her own cup. Gracie watches and then imitates her mother’s action, extending the cup to the doll. Her mother makes the slurping sound, and Gracie laughs. Gracie holds out her cup again and looks right at her mother, as if signaling her mother to make the slurping sound. Her mother responds immediately with the sound again, letting Gracie know that she has understood her gesture. Next, Gracie’s mom shows Gracie how to feed a cracker to the doll, and she adds chewing sounds while the doll eats the cracker. Her mom holds up the juice container or bowl of crackers for Gracie to choose what to give the doll. Gracie says “ca” for cracker, and Mom gives her two pieces—one for Gracie to eat herself, which she does immediately, and the second to feed to the doll with Mom’s help. Mom accompanies the doll’s bite with chewing sounds (“yum yum yum”), which makes Gracie smile. Mom gives the doll a drink and intentionally spills a little juice on its face. She points out to Gracie that the doll’s face is dirty, and hands Gracie a napkin to wipe its face. Gracie wipes her own face first, but after Mom points to the doll and explains again, Gracie helps to wipe the doll’s face. Mom and Gracie continue with these three actions—drink, eat, and wipe—for a few more minutes, until Gracie indicates that she is finished and snack time is all done.

  Ben’s mother often finds that it’s difficult to keep Ben, her 4-year-old, occupied when she is grocery shopping. He often whines and wants to get out of the grocery cart seat. She decides to use pretend play to teach him some appropriate actions. At home, she writes out a list with some food items, and then she places the items (bananas, carrots, toy pizza, ketchup bottle, and a box of animal crackers) in various locations throughout their family room. After she gets Ben’s little sister’s grocery cart, she tells Ben that they’re going to the grocery store at home! She reads the list and says they need to find bananas somewhere in the family room. They stomp around the room looking until Ben vocalizes and points to the bananas on top of the couch. Ben and his mother run over to the bananas and put them in the cart. Next, his mother asks whether they should look for the bottle of ketchup or the pizza. Ben chooses the pizza, and the search is under way. Ben finds the pizza next to the television. Mom chooses the next item from the list to look for and gives Ben a clue to its location. The game continues until all five items from the grocery list have been found. The last item is a box of animal crackers—a favorite of Ben’s. They roll the cart into the kitchen, and Mom puts the items away and has Ben put the animal crackers on the table. They then sit down at the table together with the animal crackers and a drink, ready to celebrate their shopping trip.

  Step 2. Animate Dolls and Animals

  Rationale. Step 2 helps your child understand that dolls can represent people and their actions. Agents of action—people and animals—act spontaneously on the world. They cause actions to happen; this is what defines them as agents, or animate beings. Toys and other inanimate objects cannot act spontaneously, but living things—people and animals—can. Very early on, children understand the difference between animate and inanimate objects. They act it out when they manipulate dolls and animals so that the figures are acting on things—walking, growling, waving, eating, drinking, dancing, and so on. The strategies described above have taught your child how to easily incorporate dolls and animals into lots of pretend play actions. The next step is to help your child learn about how figures can also “act” as independent agents.

  You will continue to use joint activity routines, offering objects and following your child’s interest, taking turns, both participating, both adding ideas, and following your child’s cues about when it is time to be finished.

  Activity: Have Dolls Take on Human Actions

  Here are ideas for adapting the joint activity routine to your child to use dolls or stuffed animals as if they were “alive” and able to act on their own:

  Setup: Begin by bringing out a box of conventional toys or objects that people use on their bodies (brush, comb, sunglasses, hat, necklaces, bracelets, cup, feeding utensils, plate, plastic food, washcloth, soap, telephone, napkin, tissue, and so on). Have your child choose one of the toys, and either show your child an action that she already knows, or let your child show you a functional action with that object. The action will be directed to either your child’s body or yours.

  Theme: As the two of you act this out, name both the action and the person (“Feed Mommy,” “Joshua drink,” “Comb hair”).

  Variation: As you have done before, bring out a doll or an animal, demonstrate doing the action to the animal or doll while naming the action and animal/doll (“Feed Oscar,” “Brush kitty”); then hand the object to your child, and encourage your child to carry out the same action on the figure (“Joshua, feed kitty,” “Joshua, give baby a drink”). Provide physical prompts if your child needs them to succeed. Then take a turn yourself and perform the action on the toy. Go back and forth a few times, you and your child acting on the toy, the child, yourself, while labeling the action and the recipient each time (e.g., “Feed Mama,” “Feed baby,” “Feed Joshua”).

  Variation: Now
have the doll do the action on itself. Hold the object in the doll’s hand, and move the doll’s arm through the action. Narrate for your child (“See, Elmo is eating,” “Baby brushes hair”). Have the doll carry out the act on your child’s body (“Elmo brushes Caitlin’s hair”). In this step, the doll is acting as if it were alive, or animate; it is an independent agent of action.

  Closing/transition: As you run out of ideas, or as your child’s interest starts to wane, offer the box and ask, “All done?” while putting your object into the box. If your child also puts his objects in the box, you can say, “All done with Oscar” (or “kitty,” etc.), and have your child help you put the box away and make a different choice.

  You have just shown your child how the doll can carry out an independent action. Now, as you play out the themes that you have developed in Step 1 with functional play, add this step to each of your routines: Have the doll or character use the objects on itself, on you, and on your child. As this becomes familiar to your child, give your child a turn and help your child “animate” the figure by making it act. In addition to having the figure use the objects, the figure can also jump, run, and go to sleep. Toy animals can “drink” out of water bowls, “eat” their food in their food dishes, and walk on all fours. They can lie down on their sides and go to sleep. Help your child learn to imitate these kinds of actions, in which the characters themselves are doing the actions that are part of the scenes from life you have been playing out with your child. Once your child easily produces acts in which he directs actions to other people and dolls and animals in play (feeds them, gives them drinks, etc.), you will begin to model how the doll or animal can also direct actions inside the play scene.

  Now, in your daily pretend play activities with your child, have the animals or dolls routinely participate in the actions as actors once the theme gets going, and help your child carry out these actions. After you have had your child imitate this successfully many times, wait to see if your child will make a figure act independently, either spontaneously or after your suggestion. If your child helps the character produce an action without a physical prompt, imitate the action on your own body right away, and respond with enthusiasm! If not, keep trying. As your child builds up more ideas, more skill, and more enjoyment from pretend play, he will begin to have characters create actions.

  Here are more ideas for animate play:

  You can incorporate animate play actions into all kinds of daily routines. Having a big doll in the bathtub allows you and your child to wash the baby’s belly, hair, face, and feet, just as you wash your child’s belly, hair, face, and feet. Baby or Elmo can be at the table during a meal, sitting beside your child, getting a bib, getting some “bites” and “drinks,” and having his face wiped with the napkin. Lion can sit on the potty after your child sits on the potty. The baby doll can have a diaper changed after you change Madison’s diaper. Your child can take Curious George on a walk in the stroller after you come back from a walk with your child in a stroller. Thomas the Tank Engine can take turns in the swing with your child, can be on the swing next to your child, or can take turns on the slide. Cookie Monster can go to the doctor’s with your child and have his ears checked, his height measured, his chest listened to. He can go get his hair cut right along with your child. Dora the Explorer can draw her own picture with crayons. Incorporating figures into your child’s daily routines emphasizes the “human” qualities of animate toys and helps your child develop the ideas behind pretend play.

  Physical actions can also be used to illustrate animate characteristics. Have the characters kick balls to your child, jump on the trampoline with your child or off the bottom step, bounce on the bed, and act out song routines that your child knows and loves. Characters can splash water, blow bubbles, drive cars and trucks, and be part of “Ring-around-the-Rosy.” Encourage your child to include the characters and act out these actions, prompting if you need to and then continuing the action with your child so there is a fun reason to continue.

  Summary of Step 2

  If you have followed along and carried out the preceding activities, you will have found object routines that you can make dolls and other figures act out on themselves, on you, and on your child during your joint activity routines. You have also shown your child how to do this, and your child is imitating you in “animating” the figures. See if you agree with most of the statements in the following checklist. If so, you are now armed with important skills for facilitating spontaneous symbolic play—knowledge you will use in Step 3. If not, start experimenting during play and caregiving routines until you have found some methods that work for each statement.

  Activity Checklist: Am I Using Dolls/Animals as “Action Agents”?

  ____ My child likes the dolls, animals, or figures being used in play.

  ____ I know how to offer choices among objects to keep my child motivated to continue a joint activity.

  ____ My child and I are able to carry out conventional play acts with objects on each other and the doll/animal/figure.

  ____ My child can imitate my actions with the figures in several different scenes, including making the figure act independently.

  ____ My child and I clean up the objects together and choose the next joint activity to do.

  What about Gracie? Gracie and her mother have been following the joint activity script to take turns giving crackers and juice to Gracie’s dolls. After reading the suggestions in this part of the chapter, Gracie’s mother sets up snack time a little differently just by adding a variation to the usual routine. She takes Gracie to her room to have a pretend snack, and together they set out the cups, saucers, spoons, plates, and napkins and take a seat along with Gracie’s doll on the floor. Gracie’s mom takes out a bib and asks Gracie to help her put it on the doll (just to vary the play); this is followed by pouring “juice” into each of their cups, including the doll’s. Gracie’s mom now models having one or the other of the dolls carry out one of the different play actions that she has planned with the objects, by manipulating the doll’s hands with an object so that it feeds itself from the plate. (Other actions could be pouring drinks, stirring with the spoon in a cup, placing items on its plate, wiping its mouth.) After she models, it’s Gracie’s turn, and Gracie carries out the action on herself. She is imitating the doll! In Mom’s next turn, she has the doll give Gracie a bite of real cookie. Gracie eats it and then offers a piece to the doll. The doll then gives it to Mom. They continue to carry out actions from snack time with each other, so that there’s a round robin of turn taking among the three play partners—Mom, Gracie, and the doll. When Gracie’s interest in the activity fades, Mom has her help place the materials and dolls in a container, and they move on to the next play activity. In this routine, the doll has acted as an independent agent, and Gracie has treated it as such.

  What about Ben? Ben likes his toy cars more than any doll or stuffed animal, so his mother decides to use these in the play. She tells Ben that his cars need a bath, and they go to the bathroom sink and get a washcloth, soap, lotion, and a towel (all the items she would use for giving Ben a bath). She also includes an Ernie doll as a character. Since this is a new routine for Ben, she models each step with the first car (pouring water into the sink, putting soap on the washcloth, rubbing the car with the washcloth, rinsing the soap off, drying the car off with the towel, and putting lotion on the car), helping Ben participate with each action. With the next couple of cars, Ben is able to do more of the routine, with her prompts. Mom now has Ernie join in the car washing, and Ernie gives props to Ben and also helps with the steps. Mom now uses Ernie instead of herself as the participating partner. Ben likes this new activity and starts to imitate Ernie; he also gives Ernie a car and a towel when Mom suggests it. When all the cars have had their bath, Ben and Ernie empty the water, put away the props, and take the clean cars back to their garage. Mom is pleased that she has figured out a routine that 4-year-old boys might do together. It is the first time Ben has rel
ated to a doll as if it were a person.

  Step 3. Move from Imitation to Spontaneous Symbolic Play

  Rationale. As you and your child play out more and more actions with various props and various action figures (dolls, animals, etc.), your child is building up more and more ideas about pretend actions. The more ideas your child has, the better prepared she will be for suggesting some of these ideas to you. As you play out more themes, you will use more props, and the boxes of objects and action figures will probably be getting fuller and fuller. As your child picks out some toys, add enough so that there are several different actions that you and she could do in these “scenes.”

  Activity: Follow Your Child’s Lead in Spontaneous Play Actions

  Set up the materials in some kind of orderly way (e.g., cups on saucers, eating utensils laid out by the plate; cup and napkin; pitcher or bowl of pretend food; two different action figures available). Then, instead of modeling an action, just wait, looking expectantly at your child, to see what she will do first. When your child produces a spontaneous play action, first comment on it (“Kitty is eating”) and then join in the play by imitating your child and using a related action, following your child’s lead (make another animal eat the food with the kitty). If your child waits for you to start, offer a choice of two objects, and see if your child then begins an action rather than doing the action yourself. Give as little help as is needed to help your child produce the first action directed either to the figure, you, or herself. (This is called a least-to-most prompting hierarchy. You are giving as little help as your child needs to be successful.) Following your child’s lead by imitating her actions with enthusiasm and fun provides your child with reinforcement for her spontaneous play. This is the key to increasing your child’s spontaneous play: Provide familiar and interesting materials, wait, and then follow your child into the play, adding fun and interest to your child’s themes. When you are focusing on spontaneity, you want to follow your child’s lead and be less active than you have been in starting all these routines. It’s fine to add new ideas here and there to keep the play lively and interesting, but you want your additions to be responses to your child’s ideas, rather than leading and directing, so your child’s initiations are being strongly supported.