Teaching Toy Play Skills to Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Scoping Review of the Literature

Abstract

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often present with substantial delays in the development of play skills, requiring intensive intervention. Several literature reviews have explored various strategies to teach play skills. They recommend teaching play in a variety of contexts to include natural settings and peer interactions to enhance generalization. Naturalistic components of play instruction may include natural settings (e.g., home, school play area), natural change agents (e.g., peers, parents), and salient environmental stimuli (e.g., common toys, siblings, peers). Given the complexity of these variables and their impact on the acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of play skills, a scoping review can help organize the literature for clinicians and researchers. Therefore, the purpose of this scoping review was to investigate interventions aimed at teaching toy play to children with ASD and to examine the naturalistic components included in these interventions. We aimed to (a) provide an overview of the current literature on teaching toy play to children with ASD, (b) summarize the naturalistic components of the interventions reviewed, (c) offer suggestions to guide clinicians in teaching toy play skills, and (d) present considerations for future research directions in this area.