Viviana+Senior+Exit+Project

Does the stage level of play development differ in autistic children compared to regular children of the same age?
====﻿Viviana-I think this is a great question. Now, how do you plan to measure the stage level of play? You need an operational definition for how you would see each play stage level. Can you write them down here on the wikispaces page? Mrs. Ashley==== ==== I plan on measuring the stage level of play by observing kindergarten age children in their classrooms during playtime. I will conduct this study observing the children and looking for 3 different types of play (manipulative, functional, and symbolic). ==== ﻿ ﻿ Viviana- what will you do if the kindergarten children don't display any of this kind of play? What if they don't use any objects? Can you think of how to work with that. Also, you might want to do this where there is full day kindergarten as those classrooms tend to have more play time for students.
 * Manipulative play - identified by children mouthing, fingering, throwing, waving, or banging toys. Including using toys in a non-conventional way.
 * examples : putting a phone in a teapot, or touching a block to a brush
 * Functional play- the use of objects in a functionally appropriate way or the conventional association of objects.
 * exapmles : feeding a doll with a spoon, dialing a telephone, placing a teacup on a saucer
 * Symbolic play - symbolic, or dramatic play. When a child substitutes one object for another.
 * examples : using a teacup as a telephone reciever, propping a bottle in a doll's arm as if it could feed itself, putting imaginary sugar in a cup.

With kindergarten age children I think I will be able to see a lot of functional and symbolic play. Most play could be put into those categories. If they are not using objects and are playing something like tag then that would be organized play and would be more advanced than manipulative play but is not symbolic play so that could be catorgorized as functional play. If they were play house or something like that with out objects it would still be symbolic play because they are pretending and playing a part.

Good. I think you should design some sort of instrument that would be a check off sheet that distinguishes all of these. You might want to time how long each type of play is happening as well. Work on the observation instrument next.

Hypothesis - The children with autism will not show as much symbolic play as the regular children.

Methodology -