Spontaneous Play Profiles in Mandarin-Speaking Preschool Children With Autism, Developmental Delay, and Typical...

Area of Science:

• Child Psychology
• Developmental Neuroscience
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Spontaneous play is crucial for child development.
• Understanding play differences in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is vital for targeted interventions.
• Previous research often uses unidimensional play measures, potentially missing nuanced developmental differences.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare spontaneous play behaviors in Mandarin-speaking preschool children with ASD, developmental delay (DD), and typical development (TD).
• To investigate the utility of multidimensional play analysis in differentiating these groups.
• To identify specific play characteristics that can inform intervention strategies for ASD.

Main Methods:

• Ninety preschool children (30 per group: ASD, DD, TD) aged 36-72 months participated.
• A 15-minute naturalistic parent-child free-play session was recorded.
• A 10-minute segment was coded using a fine-grained developmental framework, analyzing duration, frequency, variety, and mastered play levels.

Main Results:

• Spontaneous play duration and weighted average mastered play level significantly differentiated the ASD group from TD and DD groups, even after controlling for FSIQ.
• Symbolic play was more associated with cognitive level than diagnostic status.
• Children with ASD exhibited lower frequency of Varied Action Sequences (VS) and reduced VS variety compared to DD peers.

Conclusions:

• Multidimensional assessment of spontaneous play effectively captures distinct profiles in children with ASD.
• Play duration and complexity, particularly pre-symbolic play like Varied Action Sequences, are key indicators differentiating ASD.
• Fine-grained play analysis provides valuable targets for developmentally appropriate interventions in ASD.