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Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders pp 3053–3056Cite as

Symbolic Play

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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...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, 105B Psychology Building, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA

    Prof. Brooke Ingersoll & Dr. Sara Jelinek

Authors
  1. Prof. Brooke Ingersoll
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  2. Dr. Sara Jelinek
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Correspondence to Brooke Ingersoll .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Irving B. Harris Professor of Child Psychiatry, Pediatrics and Psychology Yale University School of Medicine, Chief, Child Psychiatry Children's Hospital at Yale-New Haven Child Study Center, New Haven, CT, USA

    Fred R. Volkmar (Director, Child Study Center) (Director, Child Study Center)

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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

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  • 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

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