Developing Social Abilities Using Play in Children with Autism
Elisa Serafini, Ilaria Torelli, Francesca Cavallini
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have numerous difficulties in social skills, particularly in initiating and maintaining an interaction, sharing attention about something with other people, and making eye contact. These skills are essential for adapting to the environment, for being able to interact with peers, and for creating bonds and friendships. It is therefore clear that these skills need to be promoted and strengthened through specific interventions. Such interventions, however, often neglect play, which is a central experience in children’s lives. Games can be effective in increasing social skills in a fun way. In addition, knowing how to play a game can be a useful tool for engaging in relationships with others. The aim of this review is to investigate studies of structured play-based social skills training. The research was conducted on the databases of PsycINFO and Scopus, selecting studies published between 2012 and 2022 that had expressly used a game to promote social skills in children, aged 2-10 years old, diagnosed with ASD. Data from the selected studies were compared. The results showed that all target social skills were enhanced thanks to the interventions proposed by the various studies. Limitations and ideas for future research are discussed.
Keywords
Social skills, Play, Autism, Training, Children.
