LISA: Tag Lin Sleboda

Best way to teach play skills: Through Imitation

http://www.speechandlanguagekids.com/how-to-teach-your-child-to-imitate-play/

If the child won’t imitate you…

• Try hand-over-hand with reinforcement (have to figure out what motivates the child)
• Try bringing in other children to provide models to see if he’s more interested in that
• Model with puppets or dolls to see if he’s more interested in that
• Bring in toys that are particular to his area of interest and model using those.  Only allow the child to use them if he imitates your play.
• Make your play look really fun

Still won’t imitate you?

Is this skill a priority?  May need to work on functional communication to get some joint attention and to get the child interested in the world around him