Social skills and play development in young children with autism

Abstract

The goal of the study was to investigate the contribution of early social skills to play development in preschool children with Autism (ASD). Two social skills, joint attention and imitation and their relationships with simple play and pretend play skills, were investigated. A longitudinal study with three phases of time was conducted to explore the sequence of the development of joint attention and imitation and play skills. Self-developed scales were used to measure the variables of interests and the reliabilities of the scales were established. Multiple regressions showed that imitation at Time 2 mediated the relation between joint attention at Time 1 and play skills at Time 3. The implication of the results for understanding the nature of play development and for design of early interventions for preschool children with ASD are also discussed.