Keys to Play: A Strategy to Increase the Social Interactions of Young Children with Autism and their Typically Developing Peers

By Catherine Nelson, Andrea P. McDonnell, Susan S. Johnston, A. Crompton, Andrew Nelson. Education and Training in Developmental Disabilities, 2007

97 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Crucial to the successful inclusion of young children with disabilities is the premise that benefit occurs when children socialize with peers and are actively involved in preschool activities including play. Playgroups are often primary to learning in typical preschool classrooms since it is within playgroups that preschool-age children learn both preacademic and social skills. However, this critical avenue of learning is often closed to young children with autism who may have difficulty initiating play interactions with other children. This study examined the effects of a visual intervention strategy on the play initiations of four young children with autism in inclusive preschool classes. The strategy was successful in increasing the play initiations of the participating young children with autism. At the same time, the children's engagement time within playgroups concomitantly increased, as did the sophistication level of their play.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Developmental and Educational Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/34fb0a4bed46c902e40a2663fe0746c77e1d2250

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In Clinical Psychology

In Cognitive Neuroscience

In Developmental and Educational Psychology

Citations in the corpus

Facilitating the social participation of pupils with special educational needs in mainstream schools: A review of school-based interventions (2017, background): “In their metaanalysis, Whalon et al. (2015) also reported medium to large effect sizes for some of the single-case studies described in this section (Kohler et al., 2007; Nelson et al., 2007; Owen-DeSchryver et al., 2008; Thiemann & Goldstein, 2004).”
Social Skills Interventions for Individuals with Autism: Evaluation for Evidence-Based Practices within a Best Evidence Synthesis Framework (2010, background): “2008), visual supports (e.g., Delano and Snell 2006; Nelson et al. 2007; Thiemann and Goldstein 2001), and prompting (e.”
Peer-Mediated Intervention for Preschoolers With ASD Implemented in Early Childhood Education Settings (2013, background): “, but only few have measured the length of these interactions (Conroy et al., 2007; Nelson, 2007).”