Definition
Play emerges in a specific developmental sequence (Belsky & Most, 1981). First, children handle toys in manipulative ways by touching, mouthing, and smelling. Functional play or appropriate play with objects develops at approximately 14 months of age in typically developing children. At about 24 months of age, symbolic play emerges. Symbolic play is behavior that is simulative or nonliteral (Fein, 1981) and involves acting as if something is the case when in reality it is not (Leslie, 1987). Definitions of symbolic play used in the majority of research with children with autism typically involve the following three symbolic forms of pretense (Leslie, 1987): object substitution, in which one object is used to represent another (e.g., using a hairbrush as a telephone); attribution of absent/false properties (e.g., pretending that a stove top is hot when it is not); and imaginary objects present (e.g., pouring tea from an imaginary tea pot). A number of terms have been used...
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References and Readings
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. Text revision.
Baron-Cohen, S. (1987). Autism and symbolic play. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 5, 139–148.
Belsky, J., & Most, R. K. (1981). From exploration to play: A cross-sectional study of infant free play behavior. Developmental Psychology, 17, 630–639.
Baron-Cohen, S. (1989). The autistic child's theory of mind: A case of specific developmental delay. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 30, 285–297.
Bigham, S. (2010). Impaired competence for pretense in children with autism: Exploring potential cognitive predictors. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 40, 30–38.
Charman, T., & Baron-Cohen, S. (1993). Brief report: Prompted pretend play in autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 27, 325–332.
Fein, G. G. (1981). Pretend play in childhood: An integrative review. Child Development, 52, 1095–1118.
Harris, P. L. (1993). Pretending and planning. In S. Baron-Cohen, H. Tager-Flusberg, & D. Cohen (Eds.), Understanding other minds: Perspectives from autism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hobson, R. P. (1990). On acquiring knowledge about people and the capacity to pretend: Response to Leslie (1987). Psychological Review, 97, 114–121.
Jarrold, C., Boucher, J., & Smith, P. (1993). Symbolic play in autism: A review. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 23, 281–307.
Jarrold, C., Boucher, J., & Smith, P. (1996). Generativity deficits in pretend play in autism. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 14, 275–300.
Kanner, L. (1943). Autistic disturbances of affective contact. The Nervous Child, 2, 217–250.
Kasari, C., Freeman, S., & Paparella, T. (2006). Joint attention and symbolic play in young children with autism: A randomized controlled intervention study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 47, 611–620.
Kasari, C., Paparella, T., Freeman, S., & Jahromi, L. B. (2008). Language outcome in autism: Randomized comparison of joint attention and play interventions. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 76, 125–137.
Lang, R., O’Reilly, M., Rispoli, M., Shogren, K., Machalicek, W., Sigafoos, J., et al. (2009). Review of interventions to increase functional and symbolic play in children with Autism. Education and Training in Developmental Disabilities, 44(4), 481–492.
Leslie, A. M. (1987). Pretence and representation: The origins of ‘theory of mind’. Psychological Review, 94, 412–426.
Libby, S., Powell, S., Messer, D., & Jordan, R. (1997). Imitation of pretend play acts by children with autism and Down syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 27, 365–383.
Libby, S., Powell, S., Messer, D., & Jordan, R. (1998). Spontaneous play in children with autism: A reappraisal. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 28, 487–497.
Lowe, M., & Costello, A. J. (1976). Manual for the symbolic play test. Windsor: National Foundation for Educational Research.
Rogers, S., & Pennington, B. (1991). A theoretical approach to the deficits in infantile autism. Development and Psychopathology, 3, 137–162.
Rutherford, M. D., & Rogers, S. J. (2003). The cognitive underpinnings of pretend play in autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 33, 289–302.
Rutherford, M. D., Young, G. S., Hepburn, S., & Rogers, S. J. (2007). A longitudinal study of pretend play in autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37, 1024–1039.
Sigman, M., & Ungerer, J. A. (1984). Cognitive and language skills in autistic, mentally retarded, and normal children. Developmental Psychology, 20, 293–302.
Stahmer, A. C. (1995). Teaching symbolic play skills to children with autism using pivotal response training. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 25, 123–141.
Stanley, G. C., & Konstantareas, M. M. (2007). Symbolic play in children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37, 1215–1223.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Ingersoll, B., Jelinek, S. (2013). Symbolic Play. In: Volkmar, F.R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1698-3_636
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1698-3_636
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-1697-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-1698-3
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science