Autism and Play

Autism and Play sets out to discuss the various stages of play that autistic children go through, and ways of dealing with the difficulties this presents them. It's a slim volume that focuses on one of the areas that those on the autistic spectrum tend to have the most trouble with.

This book has a liberal amount of pictures and diagrams, and not a great deal of text. Although it's a brief read, nevertheless it's full of jargon and sentences that masquerade as communication but are nothing but padding. Take this example:



In some ways Autism and Play comes across as patronising, explaining quite basic concepts a little too simply. That's if you can get past the almost impenetrable language. I had the impression that this was a book written for students, or other people who may have never met autistics, rather than parents or professionals.

Why do children play? It's a way of exploring the world, and for most it is a purposeful activity that will help them to learn. The same thing applies to autistic children, only they will typically have difficulty with the social aspects of play. The authors' take on this is that


This is an absurd distinction to make, considering that much of the book is devoted to teaching autistic children to play appropriately. Learning can be fun, and directed play is a subtle, undemanding way of being taught.

I would have expected a book with this title to be full of examples of play sequences that could be put to use in a practical setting. In fact there are a handful, only one chapter is devoted to this specifically. And they are not games and activities that you would have difficulty coming up with on your own. There are some practical ideas worth using, but not nearly enough. In short, this book represents very poor value for money if you are a parent or carer looking to help an autistic child to develop his playing skills.