Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) usually experience difficulty regarding symbolic play. However, studies on whether symbolic play test (SPT) can differentiate between ASD and other ...developmental disorders are inconsistent, and evaluating the application value of the SPT in the identification of ASD without global developmental delay (GDD) and developmental language disorder (DLD) is necessary.
A total of 200 children were selected as the research participants. There were 100 cases of ASD without GDD and 100 cases of DLD. All children were tested by SPT and Children Neuropsychological and Behavioral Scale-Revision (CNBS-R2016). Binomial logistic regression was used for multivariate analysis. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the value of SPT in identifying ASD without GDD and DLD.
SPT equivalent age was lower than chronological age in the two groups, the difference between the ASD without GDD group was greater than that in the DLD group, and the proportion of SPT equivalent age retardation was higher than that in the DLD group; the differences were statistically significant. Logistic regression analysis showed that there was a difference in SPT equivalent age between DLD and ASD without GDD. When the cut-off value of the SPT was 8.5, the largest area under the ROC curve was 0.723, and the sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of ASD without GDD were 0.720 and 0.620 respectively.
Symbolic play ability in ASD children is worse than that of DLD children at comparable development levels. SPT may be helpful to distinguish ASD without GDD from children with DLD.
Background
Social communication interventions benefit children with ASD in early childhood. However, the mechanisms behind such interventions have not been rigorously explored. This study examines ...the mechanism underlying a naturalistic developmental behavioral intervention, JASPER (Joint Attention, Symbolic Play, Engagement, and Regulation), delivered by educators in the community. Specifically, the analyses focus on the mediating effect of joint engagement on children’s initiations of joint attention (IJA) skills and whether IJA postintervention are associated with later gains in children’s receptive and expressive language.
Methods
One hundred seventy‐nine children, age 2–5 years, were randomized to immediate JASPER treatment or waitlist (treatment as usual) control. Independent assessors blinded to time and treatment coded children’s time jointly engaged and IJA during a 10‐min teacher–child interaction at baseline, exit, and follow‐up. Age‐equivalent receptive and expressive language scores from the Mullen Scales of Early Learning were collected at baseline and follow‐up. Mediation analyses with linear mixed models were used to explore the potential mediating effect of joint engagement on IJA.
Results
Joint engagement significantly mediated 69% of the intervention effect on young children’s IJA and IJA predicted improvements in standardized language scores.
Conclusions
Small but sustained changes in child‐initiated joint engagement improved IJA, a core challenge in children with ASD, which in turn led to improvements in language.
Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) may not develop symbolic play skills, so such skills need to be taught specifically. We report an experiment regarding a procedure targeting ...“object-substitution” symbolic play skills. The “object-substitution” symbolic play behavior occurred when the child labeled a common object with the name of a substitute and used the object to perform a play action (e.g., As she put a bowl on her head, she called it a hat). A multiple probe across behaviors design was employed with five children (four boys and one girl, aged 3 to 6 years) with ASD. All children had verbal communication and demonstrated functional play and generalized imitation, but no symbolic play skills prior to the study. The instruction consisted of intraverbal training, picture prompts, and modeling of play actions. All children demonstrated object-substitution symbolic play skills after the instruction. The occurrences of response generalization were also discussed.
Background: Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome (RSTS) is a multiple congenital anomaly syndrome characterised by several typical somatic characteristics and by developmental disabilities with various degrees ...of severity. Focusing on children with RSTS, the aim of this study was to describe their psychomotor, cognitive, and socio-emotional developmental profiles.
Method: Twenty-three children with RSTS (12 boys; 11 girls; mean chronological age: 4 years and 10 months) with severe intellectual disability (mean developmental quotient = 32.39) were recruited from an Expert Department of Medical Genetics. Developmental assessments were carried out with the Brunet-Lézine-Revised scale and the Social Cognitive Evaluation Battery.
Results: The participants' developmental profiles were characterised by heterogeneous psychomotor development, homogeneous cognitive and socio-emotional development, by more severe delays in expressive language, vocal imitation, and symbolic play skills, and by better developmental levels in socio-emotional abilities.
Conclusions: Based on these atypical developmental profiles, early interventions should target the three most delayed abilities.
Many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) do not have symbolic play skills. One type of symbolic play involves playing with imaginary objects, in which a child displays play actions without ...actual objects. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of video modeling on the acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of playing with imaginary objects in young children with ASD. Three male Chinese children (aged 4–5 years) with ASD participated in this study. A multiple-probe across three behaviors design was used. The results indicated that video modeling was effective in establishing and maintaining target symbolic play behaviors for the three children. Generalization to untaught imaginary play activities occurred in all three children.
Symbolic play: mother and child behaviours Aksoy, Ayşe Belgin; Özkan Kunduracı, Hurşide Kübra; Aksoy, Merve
Early child development and care,
06/2022, Volume:
192, Issue:
8
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
The aim of the study is to examine the symbolic play behaviours of the child and mother at home and to determine how the mother participated when playing with her child. The study included 19 mothers ...and their children with 24-36 months old children from Turkey. The symbolic play that the mother and child played together in their home environment was recorded in the video for 12 min. As a result of the research, it was determined that mothers involved in the play 'involved director' most, and no mothers were involved in the category of 'uninvolved'.
Symbolic play has long been considered a beneficial context for development. According to Cultural Learning theory, one reason for this is that symbolically‐infused dialogical interactions constitute ...a zone of proximal development. However, the dynamics of caregiver‐child interactions during symbolic play are still not fully understood. In the current study, we investigated informational exchange between fifty‐two 24‐month‐old infants and their primary caregivers during symbolic play and a comparable, non‐symbolic, functional play context. We coded over 11,000 utterances for whether participants had superior, equivalent, or inferior knowledge concerning the current conversational topic. Results showed that children were significantly more knowledgeable speakers and recipients in symbolic play, whereas the opposite was the case for caregivers, who were more knowledgeable in functional play. The results suggest that, despite its potential conceptual complexity, symbolic play may scaffold development because it facilitates infants’ communicative success by promoting them to ‘co‐constructors of meaning’.
The aim of this paper was to assess strengths and fragilities in children aged 6 to 10 who suffered one or more hospitalizations. State and trait anxiety, coping abilities, and cognitive and ...affective functioning through play were assessed using a triangulation approach. Fifty hospitalized children aged 6–10 were compared to 50 non-hospitalized children, and children at first admission were compared with children with more than one hospitalization experience. The State-Trait Anxiety Scales Inventory for Children was administered for assessing trait and state anxiety, and the Children's Coping Strategies Checklist (Revision 1) was administered to assess coping dimensions. The Affect in Play Scale - Preschool - Brief (Extended version) was used to assess cognitive and affective dimensions of play. No significant differences were found for trait anxiety between hospitalized vs. non-hospitalized children. Instead, as expected, state anxiety was significantly higher in hospitalized childen than in the non-hospitalized children. Hospitalized children reported higher scores than non-hospitalized children in support-seeking strategies. As for pretend play, hospitalized children showed significantly higher cognitive scores than non-hospitalized children. However, hospitalized children appeared significantly more restricted in their affect expressions. No significant differences were found for play and anxiety scores between children admitted for the first time in the hospital ward and children with more than one admission. However, children at first admission scored higher in coping and positive cognitive restructuring and in avoidance-coping strategies than children with more than one admission. The initial assessment of the interplay of key variables such as anxiety, coping and play can inform healthcare professionals by serving as a guide in order to determine a child's risk for negative psychological outcomes due to hospitalization, to plan appropriate interventions and to provide substantial assistance to hospitalized children in the future.
This article proposes a synthesis on the current practice of psychoanalytical psychodrama in France and as it may be proposed in many public care institutions. Considered in its historic trajectory ...(and based on the references to the works of J.L. Moreno), this method of mediation is presented in its different forms (the individual psychodrama, the individual psychodrama in group and the individual psychodrama on group), their common denominator being the important part given to the improvised play which is itself based on a group dynamics which is initiated in concert by both the therapists and the patients. In this paper, particular attention will be given to the indications for this type of care, to its therapeutic effects and therefore to the psychical processes that it mobilises (notably in terms of the interconnections between the various ranges of symbolisation). Two clinical vignettes from the personal clinical practice by the authors will illustrate our purpose.
Relations among indices of maternal mind-mindedness (appropriate and nonattuned mind-related comments) and children's: (a) internal state vocabulary and perspectival symbolic play at 26 months (N = ...206), and (b) theory of mind (ToM) at 51 months (n = 161) were investigated. Appropriate comments were positively associated with ToM, but were unrelated to internal state language and perspectival symbolic play. Nonattuned comments were negatively correlated with internal state language and perspectival symbolic play, but were unrelated to ToM. Path analyses indicated that the best fit model assumed: (a) indirect links between nonattuned comments and ToM via children's perspectival symbolic play, (b) a direct link between appropriate comments and ToM, and (c) an indirect link between appropriate comments and ToM via children's concurrent receptive verbal ability.
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