Play Skills

Teaching play skills to improve social relationships

Goal

Assist the learner with progressing through play skill development in order to build their social relationships.

How

• Determine where the learner is currently on the stages of play skill development
• Set the goal as the type of play that is the next stage
• Practice this next stage with the learner by modeling what to do and making play-related comments
• Reinforce the learner’s attempts at copying your actions or comments

Context

When teaching play skills, it is helpful to practice the skills with the learner a few times before moving to playing with peers. When the learner is ready to practice with peers, the teacher can initially assist by modeling what to do and then gradually pull back to let the learners play alone.

Note

There’s no wrong way to play, but learning to play different ways expands opportunities for social relationships.

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