Symbolic Play

Symbolic Play
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................................1
Prerequisites..........................................................................................................................................1
License and disclaimer..........................................................................................................................1
What is symbolic play................................................................................................................................2
Play and autism..........................................................................................................................................3
Symbolic play basics..................................................................................................................................4
Play sequences.......................................................................................................................................4
The importance of play symbols...........................................................................................................4
Components of play symbols................................................................................................................4
Kinds of symbols...................................................................................................................................5
The importance of likeness....................................................................................................................5
Difference between play symbols and likeness.....................................................................................6
Degree of obviousness...........................................................................................................................7
Teaching symbolic play.............................................................................................................................8
Teaching likeness..................................................................................................................................9
Training likeness...............................................................................................................................9
Probing likeness................................................................................................................................9
Teaching symbols................................................................................................................................10
Choosing symbolic prototypes to teach..........................................................................................10
Choosing symbolic forms to teach.................................................................................................10
Choosing symbolic likeness...........................................................................................................10
A teaching protocol.........................................................................................................................11
How-To guidelines.........................................................................................................................12
Teaching symbolization......................................................................................................................13
Probing the existence of symbolization..........................................................................................13
Teaching play sequences.....................................................................................................................14
Creating symbolic play scenarios...................................................................................................14
Enhancing non-symbolic play scenarios........................................................................................15
Demonstrating how to play.............................................................................................................16
Using scripts and script fading...................................................................................................16
Fading adult presence.....................................................................................................................17
Choosing what to play....................................................................................................................17
Teaching imaginative play..................................................................................................................18
Probing the existence of imaginative play......................................................................................18
Development of symbolic play................................................................................................................19
Stage I: 9-10 months............................................................................................................................23
Game 1: where did mama go?........................................................................................................23
Game 2: stretch for that..................................................................................................................23
Stage II: 13-17 months........................................................................................................................24
Game 1: plastic boxes.....................................................................................................................24
Game 2: the pool.............................................................................................................................24
Game 3: imitations..........................................................................................................................24
Game 4: wall drawing and painting................................................................................................24
Game 5: lost toy..............................................................................................................................25
Game 6: candy in prison.................................................................................................................25
Game 7: what's the match?.............................................................................................................25
Game 8: the tour of the house.........................................................................................................25
Game 9: the tunnel..........................................................................................................................25
Game 10: self portrait.....................................................................................................................25
Game 11: obstacle race...................................................................................................................25
Game 12: puzzle.............................................................................................................................26
Game 13: sorting.............................................................................................................................26
Game 14: the professional taster.....................................................................................................26
Game 15: the balance......................................................................................................................26
Game 16: trainman.........................................................................................................................26
Game 17: opening and closing items..............................................................................................26
Stage III: 17-19 months.......................................................................................................................27
Game 1: reachin' without stretchin'................................................................................................27
Game 2: going fishing....................................................................................................................27
Game 3: box with wonders.............................................................................................................27
Game 4: burning boat.....................................................................................................................27
Game 5: run to color.......................................................................................................................28
Game 6: go after sound...................................................................................................................28
Game 7: the robot...........................................................................................................................28
Game 8: weave the paper................................................................................................................28
Stage IV: 19-22 months.......................................................................................................................29
Game 1: follow the color................................................................................................................29
Game 2: monsters in the dark.........................................................................................................29
Game 3: treasure hunt.....................................................................................................................29
Game 4: mystery object..................................................................................................................29
Game 5: hard and soft.....................................................................................................................30
Game 6: smooth and rough.............................................................................................................30
Stage V: 24 months.............................................................................................................................31
Game 1: repeating patterns.............................................................................................................31
Game 2: imaginary finger drawing.................................................................................................31
Game 3: mystery drawing...............................................................................................................31
Game 4: mystery sound..................................................................................................................31
Game 5: set the table.......................................................................................................................32
Stage VI: 2 ½ years.............................................................................................................................33
Game 1: find the emotion...............................................................................................................33
Game 2: the prompter.....................................................................................................................33
Quality of symbolic play..........................................................................................................................34
Symbolic play observation sheet.........................................................................................................34
Symbolic play observation summarizer..............................................................................................36
Interpreting results...............................................................................................................................37
Building a symbolic play repertoire.........................................................................................................39
Building a repertoire of symbols.........................................................................................................39
Building a repertoire of play scripts....................................................................................................40
Planning symbolic play training..............................................................................................................41
Preliminary stage.................................................................................................................................41
Stage I..................................................................................................................................................41
Stage II................................................................................................................................................41
Stage III...............................................................................................................................................42
Stage IV...............................................................................................................................................42
Stage V................................................................................................................................................42
Stage VI...............................................................................................................................................43
Stage VII..............................................................................................................................................43
Stage VIII............................................................................................................................................43
Stage IX...............................................................................................................................................44
Stage X................................................................................................................................................44
Summary..................................................................................................................................................45
Symbolic Play
Introduction
Play in general and symbolic play in special have an important role child development. It is theorized there is a strong
liaison between play and socialization (see [Raising The Child (ro)]), symbolic play and language (see [Behavioral
Intervention]), play and learning by imitation (see [Lovaas 2003]), as well as between sensory abilities (which best
develop through play) and speech (see [Verbal Behavior Analysis]).
Children with autism and related disorders have difficulty with playing and with finding joy in play. When they do
play though, they favor repetitive play within a narrow niche, up to the point that their play seems inappropriate (see
[Lovaas 2003], chapter Early Play Skills).
This document aims to address the issue of teaching children with autism how to play, with a focus on symbolic play.
Prerequisites
It is highly recommended to have access to the following books (see Bibliography at the end) : [Autism and Play],
[Behavioral Intervention], [Caring For Your Young Child], [Teach Me Do It], [Raising The Child (ro)], [VB-MAPP]
and [ABLLS-R].
This document occasionally employs terms from the Verbal Behavior theory of language. Having some knowledge on
Verbal Behavior is recommended. An accessible resource to learn about verbal behavior is [The VB Approach].
The liaison between senses and speech is mentioned by [Verbal Behavior Analysis]. The guidelines for adult
supervision fading have been extracted from [Portage Guide (ro)].
This document has been designed with a focus on children with autism or related disorders. The latest incarnation of
the seminal work of Dr. Lovaas on intensive intervention for young children with autism is [Lovaas 2003]. Having
this resource at hand is highly recommended.
We suggest scripting and script fading as a possible method to teach symbolic play since it has been successfully used
to teach conversation. Hence, having access to [Teaching Conversation] is recommended.
The structural assessment of the quality of play has been partially inspired from our multi-dimensional model of
LRFFC training which is detailed in LRFFC.pdf. For information on how to obtain this document, see the bottom of
the page.
The intent of this document is to get integrated into a verbal behavior therapy. A way to design such a therapy is to
download and read our VBA package1. It is strongly recommended not to use the present document in isolation.
License and disclaimer

You are free to read, use, store and copy for personal use this document at no cost. You may not distribute the
document or parts of it to anyone without explicit permission from the author. You may freely disseminate
information on how to obtain a copy of this document.
The information in this document has not been reviewed by any specialist in Verbal Behavior, language pathology,
behaviorism or psychology. You may use the information herein AS IS, with no warranty expressed or implied. The
author of this document makes no claim of suitability of this information for any purpose and no damage or loss
resulted from the usage of this information may be imputed to him.
Any collision of name, terms, titles or meaning with trademarked elements or works protected by copyright is purely
incidental and may not be interpreted as trademark or copyright infringement in any way.
1 One can find the links to the package and other files by checking the blog at http://mariusfilip.blogspot.com, section
FILES.
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Symbolic Play
What is symbolic play

According to the WordWeb electronic dictionary2, a symbol is “something visible that by association or convention
represents something else that is invisible”. The same source defines symbolism as “a system of symbols and symbolic
representations”.
We define symbolic play as that kind of play which carries a certain amount of symbolism with it. This implies that
the child engages in certain behaviors whose meaning to him is different from their common, generally accepted
meaning. The words amount of symbolism in this definition bear importance because we believe that play symbolism
is measurable.
For example, let us assume that a lone child throws pebbles in the direction of a larger rock which lays a few yards
away. While it is easy to assume this simple activity as purposeless, this kind of play may have various meanings:
1. If the pebbles fall aimlessly around the rock, this activity is probably no play at all but rather a self-
stimulatory behavior so characteristic to children with autism.
2. If most pebbles fall close to the rock and many of them actually do hit the rock, perhaps the child tries to
target the rock on purpose.
This is very akin to the actions that typical children do repetitively in order to hone a motor skill (like
climbing and going down the stairs over and over again). We may assume the activity is play, albeit non
imaginative.
3. If the child says something like “I hit you”, perhaps he “talks” to the rock. Most likely the rock becomes in
his mind some character that deserves to be hit. We can talk about a small amount of symbolism in this kind
of play (rock = character).
4. If the child says “I hit you” and shouts “kaboom!”, probably he imagines himself throwing grenades towards
the rock. This kind of play carries more symbolism (rock = character to hit, pebble = grenade).
5. If the child says “I won't let you pass through!” and shouts “kaboom!” then probably he imagines himself to
be a grenadier in battle. This kind of play carries more symbolism (rock = enemy, pebble = grenade, self =
grenadier).
6. If, after some “fight”, the child starts to run towards the rock yelling “Aaaaa!” while throwing pebbles
intensely, then perhaps he's just launched a counter-attack against the “enemy”. In this case the playground is
endowed with symbolic meaning as well and his play is even richer in symbolism (rock = enemy, pebble =
grenade, self = grenadier, playground = battlefield).
The example above illustrates that the amount of symbolism of a play session can be measured, at least by counting
the number of symbols used.
2 One can download a free copy of WordWeb electronic dictionary from http://wordweb.info/free/.
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Symbolic Play
Play and autism

As shown in [Lovaas 2003], children with autism lack three characteristics that typical children have and make them
spontaneously engage in play:
• Appropriate usage of surrounding objects. Children with autism do not seem to readily understand that the
wheels of a truck exist to roll over ground.
On the contrary, they might turn the truck upside down and spin the wheel over and over, absorbed in the
movement without trying to explore other usages of the toy.
• Symbolism attached to objects and actions. While very young children limit themselves to exploring
physically the surroundings, children beyond a certain age start to assign some symbolism even to simplest
forms of play.
For example, a 3 year old girl who brushes the hair of a doll does not do it merely to see what happens to the
hair when brushed. Most likely, she's playing “mama” while the doll is “the child”.
Yet, when a child with autism plays with the hair of a doll, it's very unlikely that the desire is more than
sensory in nature.
• Joy of play. It seems that autistic children have difficulty to find joy in play, especially when loaded with
symbolism, even if symbolism is in the smallest amount. This seems to happen even when the movements of
a play activity and the symbolic meanings of those movements have been given explicitly to them.
It is no wonder: due to the pervasive impairments induced by autism, past interactions and experiences are not
formative in this respect. Just as the autistic child does not learn from the environment how to talk, he does
not learn how to find joy in play.
Fortunately enough, the three characteristics from above can be learned through systematic intervention:
• Children with autism can learn the appropriate usage of objects and toys when the information is given in a
way appropriate to their learning style. In fact, many programs of ABA (from Block Imitation to Arts and
Crafts) can be seen as ways to teach the child how to make appropriate usage of objects.
• Children with autism are capable of attaching symbols to elements they can observe. If a child with autism
can learn abstractions like classes and associations, he can learn that a pebble can be a grenade and a large
rock can be an enemy tank.
• Children with autism are capable of joy in play. The deep motivations of autistic children are, in their
essence, no different from the ones of typical children. In fact, the behavioral intervention for autism relies on
the fact that autistic children love rewards just as their typically developed peers do.
Concerning the joy to play, Ivaar O. Lovaas gives a suggestive illustration. A man may resist to learning
how to play tennis for reasons like hating to perform physical effort. Yet, the same man may find joy in tennis
once he learns how to play it. Either the dislike of physical effort goes away or tennis becomes more
rewarding than the physical discomfort. Either case, one can reasonably assume that the initial resistance to
tennis came from ignorance rather than from an innate incapacity to enjoy tennis.
Experience suggests that children with autism aren't essentially different: they can find enjoyment in things
characteristic to typical children, including play, once they are taught how to experience those things and the
teaching is conducted in an appropriate way.
We believe that addressing the problem of symbolic play in children with autism requires addressing the three issues
from above. We also believe that children with autism can make tremendous advances in their development by the
mere of resolution of the above mentioned deficiencies.
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Symbolic Play
Symbolic play basics

This chapter describes what symbolic play is made of. Based on the components of symbolic play, the next chapter
suggests methods to teach it.
Play sequences
As mentioned in the Westby Scale of Symbolic Play (see [Behavioral Intervention]), at some point in the development
of a child, play grows in complexity and evolves from isolated actions to longer and more complex sequences of
actions.
Moreover, the symbolic content and the complexity of the symbolic sequences grow with age. Children with autism or
related disorders do not manifest this growth, hence it must be taught explicitly.
A symbolic play sequence may employ non-symbolic elements. But it must include at least one symbol in order to be
symbolic.
The importance of play symbols

As mentioned in section “What is symbolic play” (page 2), a symbol is “something visible that by association or
convention represents something else that is invisible”. In other words, that visible represents something else that is
different yet similar in some way.
A play with no symbols whatsoever, i.e. whose meaning is entirely apparent from its very constituents may be useful,
healthy and beneficial to the child but is not symbolic. There is no symbolic play without symbols.
Being at the crux of symbolic play, the ability to create and maneuver symbols is of paramount importance. Such
ability most likely does not emerge simply by engaging the student in play. Symbols need to be addressed specifically
and in isolation before thinking about symbolic play.
Therefore, the key ingredient to teaching symbolic play is to ensure that the student is able to handle symbols in the
first place.
Components of play symbols

A play symbol has three components:
1. The symbolic form is what an external observer can see. It consists in the objects or actions used by the child
in play. When a child is “fighting” with a “sword” represented by a wooden stick, the wooden stick is the
symbolic form.
2. The symbolic prototype is what the child has in mind when playing. It consists in objects, actions or
characters that the child represents through play. When a child is “fighting” with a “sword” represented by a
wooden stick, the sword is the symbolic form.
3. The symbolic likeness is the relationship between the symbolic form and the symbolic prototype. The
symbolic likeness resides upon a real likeness between the symbolic form and the prototype.
Such real likeness is a commonality of properties between the two (see “The importance of likeness” below).
Besides those common properties, there are others that are part of the symbolic likeness but not of the real
likeness (see “Difference between play symbols and likeness” at page 6).
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Symbolic Play
Kinds of symbols
A symbol may be static or dynamic, depending on the name of the item represented. Dynamic symbols may be
intrinsic or extrinsic.
Static symbols refer to objects. When a child fights with a stick saying it is a sword, the stick is a static symbol.
Dynamic symbols refer to actions. When a child “drives” a car then his “driving” is a dynamic symbol.
Extrinsic dynamic symbols refer to those symbolic actions whose symbolism reside in the symbolism of the objects
employed. When a little girl combs the hair of a doll pretending to comb the hair of “her child”, she is doing extrinsic
dynamic symbolism: combing is real, but “the child” is not.
Intrinsic dynamic symbols refer to those symbolic actions whose symbolism is independent of the symbolism of the
objects employed. When a little boy sits on the driver's sit and “drives” the family car in the garage, he is doing
intrinsic dynamic symbolism: the car is real, but the “driving” is not.
These distinctions are important because we believe they bear different levels of difficulty:
• Static symbols are the easiest to grasp because their symbolism relies on the object likeness between the
symbol and the prototype (see “Components of play symbols” at page 4).
• Extrinsic dynamic symbols are easier than the intrinsic ones because the symbol is virtually identical to the
prototype and only the used object differs from its prototype.
• Intrinsic dynamic symbols are the hardest because actions, by their dynamic nature, are concepts harder to
grasp than objects.
When teaching symbols, is important to keep in mind the above order and to plan the teaching steps accordingly (see
“Teaching symbols”, “How-To guidelines” at page 12).
The importance of likeness

By definition, a symbol is “something visible that by association or convention represents something else that is
invisible” (see page 2).
Assuming that conventions do not apply to young children3, it results that a symbol in children's play is “something
visible that by association represents something else that is invisible”. We call this association symbolic likeness
because it does reside on likeness of some sort.
To illustrate this, let us revisit our little grenadier from page 2 and think a little about his symbolic play:
• The pebbles turned into grenades because pebbles are small like the grenades.
• He pretended to be a grenadier because he threw “grenades” by hand, like real grenadiers do.
• He shouted “kaboom!” that sounds like exploding grenades.
• His playground was wide and flat like the battlefields he probably saw in movies.
3 Symbolic sign conventions are too difficult concepts for young children to understand. They may learn the signs, but
they cannot fully grasp the prototypes behind them.
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Symbolic Play
If our little friend have had pieces of aluminum foil instead of pebbles, an artificial tree instead of a big rock and a
room corner indoors instead of an open playground then most likely he would have tried to “decorate” a “Christmas
tree” instead of fighting heavily with the enemy.
Why? Because aluminum foil is like Christmas tree decorations and not like grenades, the artificial tree may be like a
Christmas tree and not like a tank and the corner of the room may be like a part of his living room at home and not like
a battlefield.
Therefore, in order to ensure that the student has symbolic likeness we must ensure that he is able to detect likeness in
the first place.
Difference between play symbols and likeness

Although play symbols rely on likeness, there are significant differences between the two:
• likeness is a closeness between two entities along a few characteristics. For example, a duck is like a goose
because they have many similarities in shape: body, neck, legs, etc.
• a play symbol is a correlation in which one participant (the symbolic form) takes some of the characteristics
of the other participant (the symbolic prototype) that fall outside their visible likeness.
For example, a pebble is small like a grenade, this is their likeness. Because they are alike, a child can throw
pebbles pretending he throws grenades.
Yet, when he plays this way, he shouts “kaboom!” pretending that the pebble “explodes”. This ability of the
pebble to “explode” exists in the child's mind only and does not belong to the physical likeness between a
pebble and a grenade.
In other words, when constructing a symbol during play, a child does more than identifying a likeness; he endows the
symbolic form with attributes of the prototype that the form does not have at all.
Thus the child creates during symbolic play a “virtual reality” of his own with many made-up attributes. Despite its
“virtuality”, this “reality” is rooted in the objective reality via the likeness between its elements and their prototypes.
This essential difference between play symbols and likeness is so important that the ability to create “virtual realities”
of play symbols has to be trained explicitly (see “Teaching likeness” at page 9).
It is this ability of children to construct made-up worlds that adorns their play with unparalleled originality and
beauty.
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Symbolic Play
Degree of obviousness
The same symbolic prototype may be represented by more than one symbolic form. A child, for instance, may use a
stick, a rod or a toy sword when pretending to fight by sword. Some of the symbolic forms represent more obviously
the prototype than others.
For example, let us consider a girl who does pretend play representing the action “I comb the hair of my child”:
• If she combs the hair of her younger sister, the symbolism is most obvious. The symbolic form differs from
the prototype only in terms of “my child”.
• If she uses a doll, the symbolism is less obvious.
• If she uses a toy comb in the stead of a real comb, the symbolism is less obvious.
• If she uses a rectangular piece of wood for a comb, the symbolism is less obvious.
• If she replaces the doll with a rolled towel, the symbolism is less obvious.
• If she uses no comb whatsoever but pretends to have a comb in her hand, the symbolism is less obvious.
• If she has bare hands and no “child” in her arms but pretends to comb an invisible child with an invisible
comb simply by going through the motions, the symbolism has a very low level of obviousness.
So, we can speak of a degree of obviousness from the most obvious to the very unobvious. While it is nearly
impossible to measure obviousness rigorously, it is useful to assign a value in one of the two forms:
• A numeric value from 0 to 10 where 0 is “least obvious” and 10 is “most obvious” (nearly identical).
• One of the following values: weak obviousness, intermediate obviousness and strong obviousness.
Choosing one form over another depends on the degree of granularity you want to assign to obviousness monitoring.
Needless to say, more obvious symbols are easier for the child than the less obvious ones. Yet, it is important to teach
the child symbols as less obvious as possible. The less obvious the symbols he can grasp are, the more imaginative the
play his play may be.
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Symbolic Play
Teaching symbolic play

This section is concerned with how to teach symbolic play. Teaching how to play in general has been addressed by
many works: [Lovaas 2003], [Caring For Your Young Child], [Behavioral Intervention] or [Portage Guide (ro)], to
name a few.
However, we believe that symbolic play deserves special treatment due to its specifics. The specificity comes from
symbols playing a central role.
Teaching symbolic play goes through specific phases:
1. Teaching likeness The student must be able to detect likeness between objects apart from
symbolization.
2. Teaching symbols The student must have a predefined repertoire of symbols that he can use in
play. As shown in “Development of symbolic play” (page 19) and
“Building a symbolic play repertoire” (page 39), this comes in stages.
3. Teaching symbolization The student must be able to construct his own symbols corresponding to his
level of development. Since symbols come in stages, so does the teaching
of symbolization.
4. Teaching play sequences The student must have a predefined repertoire of play scripts that he can
use in play. As shown in “Development of symbolic play” (page 19), the
scripts consist in isolated actions first but they gradually evolve in more
complex scenarios.
5. Teaching imaginative play The student must be able to construct his own sequences by altering or
combining the ones in his portfolio or by inventing new ones.
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Symbolic Play
Teaching likeness
Teaching likeness comes in two phases: training and probing. Training consists in the teaching itself. Probing is
verifying that the ability is really acquired.
Training likeness
The good thing about likeness is that there are plenty of ABA programs to teach it. The way to go is by showing a
large number of pairs of pictures to the student and the goal is to make him able to decide upon:
• Identity when two images are truly identical.
• Likeness when two images resemble with each other but are not identical.
• More likeness when an image resembles a prototype more than another image. For example, a
rabbit with gray fur resembles a rabbit with dark fur more than a rabbit with white
fur.
• Less likeness is the opposite of More likeness.
• Difference when two images differ more or less.
• What's wrong? when there is an inconsistency within a picture (a rabbit with three ears). This may
not seem like a likeness exercise, yet it is one in some way: the student has to
mentally visualize the correct picture or the absence of the defect and compare the
real image with that mental prototype in some fashion. This resembles both
Difference and Likeness from above.
We believe it is important to verbalize likeness with the student so that the concept of likeness gets a name. Therefore,
using expressions like “alike”, “much like”, “resembling”, “similar” as often as possible during training is
recommended. Such verbal expressions will become vehicles to teach play symbols later on (see “Teaching symbols”
below).
Probing likeness
The student has mastered likeness when he exhibits unhindered ability to detect likeness and more likeness
spontaneously in natural settings: a stick is like a rod, a bicycle wheel is like a circle, a book is like a brick, a donkey
is like a horse, a duck is like a goose and a goose is more like a duck than like a swan. A threshold of 5 instances per
hour assuming favorable circumstances is enough.
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Symbolic Play
Teaching symbols
This section is concerned with teaching play symbols in isolation. Teaching a symbol requires choosing a symbolic
prototype, a symbolic form and a symbolic likeness between the two.
Choosing symbolic prototypes to teach

The teacher should choose symbolic prototypes to teach based on the following criteria:
• The symbolic prototypes must conform to the level of child's development (see “Development of symbolic
play” at page 19).
• The symbolic prototypes must be well known to the child. A good source of prototypes is the student's
repertoire of tacts. A way to probe how well the student knows the tacts is to put them through LRFFC trials.
Choosing symbolic forms to teach

The teacher should choose symbolic forms to teach based on the following criteria:
• The level of obviousness should decrease gradually, from very obvious to the least obvious (see “Degree of
obviousness” at page 7).
• The goal of teaching symbolic forms is to use them later in play. Symbolic forms that do not make good toys
or play actions should be avoided.
Choosing symbolic likeness

Symbolic likeness resides on attributes that the form and the prototype have in common as well as in attributes that the
form does not have except in the child's interpretation during play. Both kinds of attributes have to be chosen
carefully.
When the teacher expresses the likeness to the student, it is better to simply state that the form “is like” the prototype
without much detail. If necessary, one or two characteristics suffice. For example, a wooden stick is “long and stiff”
like a sword.
Expressing likeness is not enough. The teacher must also express the attributes of the prototype that the student may
endow the form with. It is better to start with one such attribute first. For example, when trying to present a wooden
stick as a sword the teacher may say that it “pierces”. Later on, he may add that the wooden stick also can “cut heads”
like a real word does.
Obviously, expressing non-likeness attributes must take place in a playful, pretending mood, otherwise the student
may learn that a wooden stick really pierces and one can really cut heads with such an inoffensive object.
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Symbolic Play
A teaching protocol
The therapist may use the following protocol to teach symbols. It is not the only way to do it and teachers should feel
free to change it as they see fit.
This protocol has several steps for the teacher to carry out:
1. Decide which prototypes to teach.
2. Present the student with the prototypes. Use pictures, 3D objects, objects in their natural placement, in-vivo
demonstrations, whatever is necessary to ensure that the student has them fresh in memory.
3. Present a symbolic form to the student and ask him which of the prototypes is best resembling the form.
If the student has intraverbal skills, the teacher may ask “This resembles a ...” and wait for the student to
complete the sentence.
If the student has no intraverbal skills, then “Show the one that resembles this” is enough. Either case, if the
student masters likeness (see “Probing likeness” at page 9) the answer should not be a problem.
4. Suggest to the student that the form may be endowed with properties that it doesn't have by expressing
attributes of the prototype as naturally belonging to the form.
For example: “This wooden stick looks like a sword. We can pierce the enemy with it!”.
Indirect expressions must be avoided. For example, we don't say: “This wooden stick looks like a sword. It
can also have the property to pierce an enemy!”. We say “We can pierce the enemy with it!”.
In other words, the teacher should not say that the form may have a property of the prototype, it must say that
the form can be the prototype.
5. Rotate the trials by repeating each form/prototype couple several times, each time mentioning slightly
different properties that the form may get from the prototype.
Examples for “This wooden stick looks like a sword”: “We can pierce the enemy with it!” (1st trial), “We can
cut the head off with it!” (2nd trial), “It cuts flesh and bones in battle!” (3rd trial), “We carry it at the hip” (4th
trial).
Using sessions of 20 trials consisting in five symbols repeated four times is in line with the standard teaching practice
of Verbal Behavior Analysis (see [Verbal Behavior Analysis]).
The goal of each teaching session is to make the child utter without prompt the symbol in terms of form, prototype
and one variant of symbolic likeness.
The mastery criteria are:
• A 18/20 rate of spontaneous utterances per session obtained without prompt.
• At least two variants of the symbolic likeness per form/prototype couple.
The second mastery criterion means that no symbol should take the frozen form of rote memorization.
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Symbolic Play
How-To guidelines
When teaching play symbols in isolation, it's recommended to follow several guidelines:
• Static symbols are the easiest, intrinsic dynamic symbols are the hardest (see page “Kinds of symbols” at
page 5). The teacher should start teaching with static symbols.
• The same symbolic prototype may have more than one symbolic form. Teaching as many forms for the
same prototype empowers the student with more choices during play.
• The most obvious symbolic forms are the easiest, the least obvious ones are the hardest (see “Degree of
obviousness” at page 7). Teaching multiple forms for the same prototype should start with the most obvious
ones.
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Symbolic Play
Teaching symbolization
Symbolization is the ability to construct symbols. While acquiring many symbols is important, being able to
symbolize is essential for symbolic play.
Without this ability, the child has to restrict his play to a predefined set of symbols without being able to exploit fully
the potential of his environment. Moreover, there may be a danger that he will not understand the symbols of his
playmates, thus reducing his ability to engage in group play.
Just as we cannot teach speech in itself and we have to resort to teaching verbal operants, verbal capabilities (higher
order operants, see [Verbal Behavior Analysis]) and to practicing phrase expansion over and over, we cannot teach
symbolization in itself.
The only tool at our disposal is to teach as many symbols as possible until spontaneous symbolization eventually
emerges. Whether this ability does emerges and how fast depends heavily on the individual. We cannot offer clear
thresholds in the matter: just teach many symbols and check periodically whether the student exhibits symbolization.
The next sub-section shows how to check for the existence of symbolization.
Probing the existence of symbolization

The teacher can probe the existence of symbolization by checking that the student is able to construct novel symbols
in 90% of the occasions where such an event is prone to occur. A 18/20 rate is common practice in ABA and VBA,
and there is no reason to change it (see [Lovaas 2003] and [Verbal Behavior Analysis]).
The teacher should do the following:
1. Select five objects or actions that the student knows very well (they have been probed through tacting and
autoclitic training, LRFFC training and/or intraverbal training) and that have never been used in symbol
teaching. These five elements will be symbolic prototypes.
2. Choose four symbolic forms for each prototype of various degrees of obviousness (the forms should not be
less obvious than the level of obviousness he's been trained for).
3. Present the symbolic forms to the student one by one in random order and see whether the student is able
to construct a symbol based on it:
1. If the student spontaneously finds a symbol with a correct form/prototype/symbolic likeness triad, give
him 1 point.
2. If the student spontaneously finds a symbol with a correct form/prototype couple but with a symbolic
likeness lacking prototype attributes, give him 0.5 points.
3. If the student needs a hint to find a symbol, then:
1. If the student associates a prototype different from the one you intended, give him 1 point.
2. If the student associates the same prototype as the one you thought of initially, give him 0.5 points.
4. Add all the points obtained by the student. A score of 18 or greater shows that the student has the capacity to
symbolize.
The student may not know what to do with the symbolic form shown to him. The teacher may hint the student by
saying “Let's play a little with this”.
Another method is to say “I'd like play with this ...” followed by the name of a prototype that is very different from
the actual prototype. For example, if it's something that resembles a plane, say “I'd like to play with this cow”. If the
student says “It's not a cow, it's a plane” then tell him “Why don't you play with that”.
Most likely symbolization occurs gradually. This means that while the student still fails to gather all the necessary 18
points, his score may still grow from one probing to another. When this happens, it is a sign that training must
continue.
- 13 -
Symbolic Play
Teaching play sequences

Having a rich repertoire of play symbols is not enough. The student must be able to play by himself or with others
freely and naturally. Unfortunately, symbolic play does not follow in the footsteps of symbols just as speech does not
rise spontaneously from learning separate words. Both speech and play have to be taught explicitly.
A play sequence is formed of several actions, some of them symbolic, some of them not. Although the child may
know the actions in isolation, he may be unable to put the pieces together to produce symbolic play. He needs
training.
The teacher may use one of the following methods to teach the student how to play symbolically:
• By creating play scenarios containing a certain kind of symbolism right from their inception.
• By enhancing existing non-symbolic play scenarios with a certain amount of symbolism.
Creating symbolic play scenarios

Creating scenarios has the advantage that symbolism is not forged into something already existing. Thus the final
outcome has better chances to be fluent and natural.
Creating a scenario is easy:
• Chain a sequence of real events that are well know to the student. The events must make use of known
objects only.
• Replace some elements with their symbolic forms.
Obviously, the same chain of events may have more than one resulting play scenario. It is better to have as many as
possible: this way the student does not learn mechanically a sequence of events, but learns that the same chain of
actions may be represented in many ways during play.
For example, let us consider writing a symbolic play scenario for “wake up in the morning”. The chain of real events
as they happen to the student is the following (showering, use of toilet not included):
1. Sleeps.
2. The alarm clock rings.
3. Yawning and stretching.
4. Getting out of bed.
5. Putting sleepers on.
6. Going to the lavatory.
7. Turning the water on.
8. Washing hands and face.
9. Drying hands.
10. Going to the drawer and dressing.
- 14 -
Symbolic Play
The teacher may choose from the following symbolic forms when altering the above list in order to produce symbolic
play sequences:
• Sleeping pretending to sleep silently, pretending to snore.
• Alarm clock real alarm clock, toy alarm clock, an ad-hoc object in place of an alarm clock, no
physical form.
• Alarm clock ringing real ringing, another person imitating the sound.
• Bed real bed, a couch, a lounger, a lounge chair, a sun bed, a towel on the floor, the floor
itself.
• Sleepers real sleepers, other kind of footwear, nothing (just pretending to put invisible
sleepers on).
• The lavatory real lavatory, the corner of the room, a balcony, the outside of the house, a part of
the playground.
• The sink real sink, a bucket, nothing (just pretending to stand in front of an invisible sink).
• The faucet real faucet, a bottle of water held by a peer, nothing.
• Water real water, nothing.
• Washing real washing, pretending by going through the motions.
• Drying hands real tower, none.
• Drawer real drawer, imaginary drawer.
While it is tempting to replace all the elements used in this scenario with their symbolic forms, this is rather bad
practice. In order to learn how to employ symbolization when playing, the child has to experience the presence of
symbols gradually.
This requires that the teacher should begin with the scenarios that resemble reality to the fullest, then slowly replace
some of the elements with their corresponding symbolic forms. When selecting a form from a collection of forms for
the same prototype, the most obvious forms should be considered first (see “Degree of obviousness” at page 7).
Enhancing non-symbolic play scenarios

Gathering already existing play scenarios from various sources (like books, magazines, the Internet) is an effective
way to build a portfolio of play activities for a child. Many such games and play ideas do not have symbolism yet they
may be transformed to acquire symbolic qualities.
One way to do that is by following the method at page 14, i.e. by replacing some elements of the play sequence with a
symbolic form when possible. For example, if the play sequence consists in combing and dressing a play doll,
combing may be replaced with a fake combing (like combing with a fake comb).
Another way is to leave the play session untouched but to attach symbolic interpretations to it. For example, if the
play consists in stringing beads on a wire, then we can teach the student that the beads are pieces of diamonds, rubies
and sapphires. We may also tell the student that's a necklace for Cinderella to wear when she meets her prince. This
way the beads mutate into glamorous jewelry that may stir the student's imagination.
Obviously, the second method requires better verbal abilities from the student's part.
- 15 -
Symbolic Play
Demonstrating how to play

No matter how well we craft the play scenarios, the student must become proficient in applying them. It is necessary
that the teacher demonstrates how to play first, then he withdraws to let the student play by himself.
Demonstrating the scenario to the student requires to play either by showing the session from start to finish or by
engaging as a partner. Either way, the teacher has to fade his presence, eventually leaving the student to play alone or
with a peer.
Using scripts and script fading

The method of scripting and script fading has been used successfully in teaching conversational skills that are hard to
teach via regular establishing operations because motivation is weak in casual talk (see [Teaching Conversation]).
The main advantage of this method consists in the physical support that reminds the student what is to do. Another
advantage is that the student controls his own activity schedule which encourages responsibility and discipline.
We believe that scripting and script fading can be used successfully for play as well. The idea is to replace the
conversation scripts with play scripts. If the student is empty of play ideas or if he's got idle time, he can open up his
activity schedule and follow the script that lays out a play scenario.
There are disadvantages to this method, though:
• It requires the student, in its advanced incarnation, to read quite fluently. It is hard to expect that from a child
who is so delayed that he doesn't know how to play well.
• It requires magnetic cards and a special audio device in its less advanced incarnation. The student is supposed
to run the cards through the device in order to learn what the script is about.
• It relies partially on images. Images are weak at representing symbols.
For the reasons above it is highly recommended to use scripts and script fading as a last resort only.
- 16 -
Symbolic Play
Fading adult presence

The [VB-MAPP] test has several milestones related to play. Some milestones refer to independent play, others to
playing with peers. When speaking about play with peers, spontaneous play with no adult guidance is assumed.
It is wonderful that a child with autism can learn how to play, but this is not enough. If the student learns from a
teacher how to play it doesn't mean he'll know how to play independently and without guidance. Such an ability may
require training as well.
A simple method to fade adult supervision and presence in the case of play exists in [Portage Guide (ro)] and consists
of the following steps:
1. The teacher ensures that the student is able to play well in his presence.
2. The teacher reduces his involvement in play: instructions, guiding the decision making, suggesting variants.
3. The teacher simply watches how the student plays.
4. The teacher gradually grows the distance between him and the play area.
5. The teacher sits remotely, half-way turned from the student who is playing.
6. The teacher sits with his back turned to the student, pretending of being busy with something.
7. The teacher exists temporarily the room for periods that grow gradually in duration.
8. The teacher leaves the root at the beginning of the play session and comes back at the end.
The teacher cannot parse all these steps over one session. The student requires time to get accustomed to playing by
himself. Yet, it is training that has to be done, otherwise the student may remain be unable to play without the
teacher's presence.
Choosing what to play

In typically developing children, the ability to play symbolically develops gradually (see “Development of symbolic
play” below). No child acquires the ability to play suddenly, no matter how simple that play might be. By the same
token, when the adult intends to play with his typically developing child, he has to choose toys and games that are age
appropriate.
Children with autism and related disorders may be considered as either dysfunctional or developmentally delayed in
terms of play behavior. Based on tests that evaluate a child's play behavior, one can compute a psychological age
relative to play. This “play age” is behind the chronological age. The goal of the therapy is to eliminate that delay by
developing functionality where missing.
During the therapy, it is important to keep in mind the “play age” of the student. The symbols, the play sessions and
the teaching in general has to be in line with the current development of the child.
Section “Development of symbolic play” at page 19 helps with determining the “play age” of a student and what kind
of play to choose at any point of the therapy. Section “Planning symbolic play training” at page 41 shows how to plan
symbolic play training while respecting the “play age”.
- 17 -
Symbolic Play
Teaching imaginative play

A child's play becomes imaginative when the child begins to imagine play sequences he hasn't seen or wasn't taught
before. Play imagination does not come out of nothing. The child learns to become imaginative by acquiring first
many play patterns from his parents and peers.
Children with autism and related disorders have an overall problem with creativity and imagination. This problem
reflects in play as well. However, we believe that children with autism can become creative when they are given
systematically a larger number of elements and instances of composition laws that they cannot acquire otherwise by
natural means. One such example is the teaching of symbolization (see page 13), i.e. the teaching of an essentially
creative endeavor.
Just as with teaching symbolization, there is no silver bullet to teaching imaginative play. The solution is to teach as
many play sequences as possible with as many variants as possible each. Eventually, the student starts to create new
sequences by the following means:
• Combining existing sequences into new ones. Two variants of basically the same sequence are good
candidates for such combination.
• Altering sequences to produce new variants.
• Transferring steps from one sequence to a different, unrelated sequence that supports the steps in a
completely different setting.
Probing the existence of imaginative play

Assuming that a play session is a period of time during which the student engages in uninterrupted play, imaginative
play has the following mastery criteria:
• Any play session exhibits novel play sequences that the student has never learned or seen. One play sequence
is enough and generating variants of previous sequences is accepted.
• The student repeats no novel play sequence identically over the next two subsequent play sessions. Repeating
identically the play sequence over one of the next two sessions is permitted, but not over both.
Just like symbolization, imaginative play does not extend from one development stage to another (for development
stages, see “Development of symbolic play” at page 19). This means that it must be checked for each stage of
symbolic play development (see “Planning symbolic play training” at page 41 and further).
- 18 -
Symbolic Play
Development of symbolic play

According to the Westby Symbolic Play Scale List (see [Behavioral Intervention] page 303), symbolic play develops
in 10 stages from the age of 9 months to 5 years. Each stage exhibits a certain amount of symbolism as well as a
certain level of language development.
Age Play Language

1. 9-12 mo Awareness that objects exist when not No true language; may have performative
seen; finds toy hidden under the scarf. words (associated with actions or the total
situation).
Means-end behavior – crawls or walks to
get what he wants; pulls string toys. Exhibits following communicative
functions: request (instrumental) and
Does not mouth or bang all toys – some command (regulatory).
used appropriately.
2. 13-17 mo Purposeful exploration of toys; discovers Context-dependent single words; for
operation of toy through trial and error; example, child may use word “car” when
uses a variety of motoric schemas. riding in a car, but not when he sees a car;
words tend to come and go in child's
Hands toy to adult if unable to operate. vocabulary.
Exhibits following communicative

functions:
• request
• command
• interactional
• personal
• protesting
• label
• responsive
• greeting.
3. 17-19 mo Autosymbolic play; for example, child Beginning of true verbal communication.
pretends to go to sleep or pretends to drink Words have following functional and
from cup or eat from spoon. semantic relations:
• recurrence
Uses most common objects and toys • existence,
appropriately. • nonexistence
• rejection
Tool use (uses stick to reach toy). • denial
• agent
Finds toy invisibly hidden (when placed in
box and box emptied under scarf). • object
• action or state
• location
• object or person associated with
object or location.
- 19 -
Symbolic Play
Age Play Language

4. 19-22 mo Symbolic play extends beyond child's self: Refers to objects and persons not present.
• Plays with dolls: brushes doll's
hair, feeds doll a bottle or covers Beginning of word combinations with
doll with a blanket. following semantic relations:
• Child performs pretend activities • Agent-action
on more than one person or object: • Action-object
for example feed self, a doll, • Agent-object
mother and another child. • Attribute
• Combines two toys in pretend • Action-locative
play: for example puts spoon in • Object-locative
pan or pours from pot into cup. • Possessive
• Dative
5. 24 mo Represents daily experiences: plays house Uses earlier pragmatic functions and
– is the mommy, daddy or baby; objects semantic relations in phrases and short
used are realistic and close to life-size. sentences.
Events short and isolated; no true The following morphological markers

sequences; some self-limiting sequences – appear:
puts food in pan, stirs and eats. • Present progressive (ing) on
verbs.
Block play consists of stacking and • Plurals.
knocking down. • Possessives.
Sand and water play consists of filling,

pouring and dumping.
6. 2 ½ years Represents events less frequently Responds appropriately to the following
experienced or observed, particularly wh- questions in context:
impressive or traumatic events. • What?
• Doctor-nurse-sick child. • Who?
• Teacher-child. • Whose?
• Store-shopping. • Where?
Events still short and isolated. Realistic • What ... do ... ?
props still required. Roles shift quickly. • Asks wh- questions – generally
puts wh-word at the beginning of
sentence.
• Responses to why questions
inappropriately except for well-
known routines, such as: “Why is
the doctor here?” or “Baby sick”.
• Asks why, but often
inappropriately and does not
attend to answer.
- 20 -
Symbolic Play
Age Play Language

7. 3 years Continues to pretend activities of Stage V Uses past tense, such as “I ate the cake”
and VI, but now the play has a sequence. or “I walked”.
Events are not isolated: for example child
mixes cake, bakes it, serves it, washes the Uses future aspect (particularly “gonna”)
dishes; or doctor checks patient, calls forms, such as “I'm gonna wash dishes”.
ambulance, takes patient to hospital and
operates. Sequence evolves, not planned.
Compensatory toy; reenactment of

experienced events with new outcomes.
Associative play.
8. 3 - 3 ½ years Carries out play activities of previous Descriptive vocabulary expands as child
stages with a doll and Fisher-Price toys becomes more aware of perceptual
(barn, garage, airport, village). attributes. Uses terms for the following
concepts (not always correctly):
Uses blocks and sandbox for imaginative • shapes
play. Blocks used primarily as enclosures • sizes
(fences and houses) for animals and dolls. • colors
• texture
Play not totally stimulus-bound. Child uses • spatial relationship
one object to represent another.
• gives dialogue to puppet and
dolls
Uses doll or puppet as participant in play.
• metalinguistic language use such
as “Mommy said ...”
• uses indirect requests, such as
“mommy lets me have cookies
for breakfast”
• changes speech depending on
listener
9. 3 ½ – 4 years Begins to problem-solve events not Verbalizes intentions and possible future
experienced. Plans ahead. Hypothesizes events:
“what would happen if ...” • Uses modals (can, may, might,
will, would, could).
Uses dolls and puppets to act out scenes. • Uses conjunctions (and, but, if,
so, because). Note: full
Builds three-dimensional structures with competence of these modals and
blocks, which are attempts at reproducing conjunctions does not develop
specific structures child has seen. until 10-12 years of age.
• Begins to respond appropriately
to why and how questions that
require reasoning about
perception.
- 21 -
Symbolic Play
Age Play Language

10. 5 years Plans a sequence of pretend events. Uses relational terms (then, when, first,
Organizes what he needs – both objects next, last, while, before, after). Note: full
and other children. competence does not develop until 10-12
years of age.
Coordinates more than one event occurring
at a time.
Highly imaginative. Sets the scene without

realistic props.
Full cooperative play.
The following sub-sections contain play suggestions for the first six stages. The examples have been drawn from
[Teach Me Do It] and [Raising The Child (ro)]. While the proposed games are not necessarily symbolic in nature, they
develop skills that favor symbolization later on.
- 22 -
Symbolic Play
Stage I: 9-10 months

Symbolic play:
• Awareness that objects exist when not seen; finds toy hidden under the scarf.
• Means-end behavior – crawls or walks to get what he wants; pulls string toys.
• Does not mouth or bang all toys – some used appropriately.
Speech:
• No true language; may have performative words (associated with actions or the total situation).
• Exhibits following communicative functions: request (instrumental) and command (regulatory).
Game 1: where did mama go?

Source: [Raising The Child (ro)].
Description: hide behind a door or a curtain. Ask “where did mama go?”. When appearing, make a joyful sound
(like in the peek-a-boo game).
Game 2: stretch for that

Description: take a desirable object put it close to the child, but not in his reach. He must move, stretch or crawl to
get it.
- 23 -
Symbolic Play
Stage II: 13-17 months

Symbolic play:
• Purposeful exploration of toys; discovers operation of toy through trial and error; uses a variety of motoric
schemas.
• Hands toy to adult if unable to operate.
Speech:
• Context-dependent single words; for example, child may use word “car” when riding in a car, but not when
he sees a car; words tend to come and go in child's vocabulary.
• Exhibits following communicative functions:
◦ request
◦ command
◦ interactional
◦ personal
◦ protesting
◦ label
◦ responsive
◦ greeting.
Game 1: plastic boxes

Description: while busy in the kitchen, hand plastic boxes to the child and encourage him to put them one into
another to discover shape, or stack them to discover size. Hand him small objects (a pile of cereals)
that he can fill the boxes with and empty the boxes.
Game 2: the pool

Description: in the bathroom or in the back yard, give to the child a large bowl of water and some several objects
(sponge, bathroom toys, etc).
Game 3: imitations
Description: ask the child to imitate you while you touch your body parts. Ask the child to imitate you when you
use various objects (kitchen utensils, pieces of clothing, telephone, silverware, etc). Commend him
when he tries to wear your cloths and imitate you.
Game 4: wall drawing and painting

Description: fix a piece of white paper on the wall and encourage the child to write, draw and paint on it. Instruct
the child that the piece of paper is the only area allowed.
- 24 -
Symbolic Play
Game 5: lost toy

Description: show a toy to the child and then cover it with a towel. Let the child find the toy.
Game 6: candy in prison

Description: take the piece of candy and put it into a bottle. Let the child get the candy. You can make the game
more complex by putting a cap or a cork – the child is supposed to ask for help. More complex game:
choose the non-transparent bottle.
Game 7: what's the match?

Description: put a red sock onto one child's foot and hand him two other sock. Ask him which one he has to put
on. You can imagine similar variants with anything that goes in pairs: gloves, shoes, etc.
Game 8: the tour of the house

Description: make daily tours with the child in each room within the house. Talk about the items he sees.
Encourage him to touch them and explore them. Encourage him to open doors, turn lights on, etc. so
that he develops fine motor skills.
Game 9: the tunnel

Description: get a cylinder made of plastic or cardboard. Put an small object inside the tube and then push it with
a long stick or spoon until it appears at the other end. Encourage the child to do the same.
Game 10: self portrait

Description: take a big sheet of paper or make one by gluing several smaller sheets together. Make the child lay
down over the sheet. Draw his contour on the paper with a crayon. Put the sheet on a wall and
encourage the child to color the interior of the contour with the colors corresponding to his clothing,
skin and hair (see also Game 4: wall drawing and painting at page 24).
Game 11: obstacle race

Description: put many obstacles within the child's room (chairs, a pillow, a box, a large toy) and engage him into a
“race” that has to make him go over all the obstacles. OBS: great care so that the child doesn't hurt
himself.
- 25 -
Symbolic Play
Game 12: puzzle

Description: take a picture and cut it in 3 pieces. Ask the child to restore the picture. When he gets used to that,
change the picture. When he's proficient with 3 pieces, move to 4 pieces or more.
Game 13: sorting

Description: mix many small objects of two different kinds (matches and coins, seeds of two kinds, seeds and
beads, etc) and ask the child to separate the two kinds. OBS: make sure the child doesn't swallow
anything. Another variant: mix two kinds of silverware. Another variant: mix Lego pieces. Another
variant: more than two kinds of objects.
Game 14: the professional taster

Description: make the child close his eyes or cover the child's eyes and give him various foods and drinks to taste
(mashed foods are especially suitable). Another variant: make the child taste and smell the food.
Game 15: the balance

Description: make pairs of objects of similar size but of different weight. Have the child compare the weights and
tell which one is heavier. Another variant: make the child sort the objects based on weight.
Game 16: trainman

Description: establish a starting point, an end point and a path between the two. The child will be the train. You
ask “the train” to run from start to end and back with various speeds. You can command: “faster”,
“slower”, “even more faster”, “the fastest”, etc.
Game 17: opening and closing items

Source: [Teach Me Do It].
Description: array in front of the child several bottles and jars of different dimensions with their lids. Ask the
child to match the lids to bottles or jars, close them and open them. Another variant: use screws and
bolts. Another variant: use boxes and lids. Another variants: use padlocks and keys.
- 26 -
Symbolic Play
Stage III: 17-19 months

Symbolic play:
• Autosymbolic play; for example, child pretends to go to sleep or pretends to drink from cup or eat from
spoon.
• Uses most common objects and toys appropriately.
• Tool use (uses stick to reach toy).
• Finds toy invisibly hidden (when placed in box and box emptied under scarf).
Speech: beginning of true verbal communication. Words have following functional and semantic relations:
• recurrence
• existence
• nonexistence
• rejection
• denial
• agent
• object
• action or state
• location
• object or person associated with object or location.
Game 1: reachin' without stretchin'

Description: take a desirable object (toy, covered candy) and put it into a place that the child cannot retrieve it
except by using a tool. Give the tool to the child (a stick, a long spoon) and let him grab the desired
object.
Game 2: going fishing

Description: take a small pillow and attach a wire to it. Show to the child that by pulling the wire he can get the
pillow. Repeat several times by putting desirable object on the pillow.
Game 3: box with wonders

Description: show a toy to the child and put it in a box. Let the child find the toy. Another variant: put the box
with the toy into another larger box. Another variant: the the toy out of the box and put it under a
towel nearby. The child must look under the towel and not in the box.
Game 4: burning boat

Description: put a towel onto the floor, that will be the “boat”. The child has to sit onto the towel. When you shout
“burning boat!”, the child has to jump into the “sea” (outside the towel).
- 27 -
Symbolic Play
Game 5: run to color

Description: name a color and start to count. The child has to find an object of the same color and run to it as fast
as possible. Reward better performances.
Game 6: go after sound

Description: cover the child's eye or make him close his eyes. Place yourself in some part of the room and make a
sound (bell, alarm clock, etc). The child has to find you by following the sound's direction. Start with
small distances then grow the distance gradually. Another variant: move slowly while you are
making the sound.
Game 7: the robot

Description: lay on the floor and pretend you are a robot. The child must “turn you on” and then command you
until you stand up. You may change roles.
Game 8: weave the paper

Description: have the child to cut narrow rectangles in a sheet of paper. Weave the resulted strips transversally
through the paper holes to obtain a small rug. Another variant: color the rectangles before cutting
them out.
- 28 -
Symbolic Play
Stage IV: 19-22 months

Symbolic play extends beyond child's self:
• Plays with dolls: brushes doll's hair, feeds doll a bottle or covers doll with a blanket.
• Child performs pretend activities on more than one person or object: for example feed self, a doll, mother and
another child.
• Combines two toys in pretend play: for example puts spoon in pan or pours from pot into cup.
Speech: refers to objects and persons not present. Beginning of word combinations with following semantic relations:
• Agent-action
• Action-object
• Agent-object
• Attribute
• Action-locative
• Object-locative
• Possessive
• Dative
Game 1: follow the color

Description: when you are on a trip, establish a color with the child. During the trip name objects from the
environment that have that color. It's forbidden to repeat the objects (like “tree, tree, tree, tree ...” for
color green).
Game 2: monsters in the dark

Description: turn the light off in the room or cover the child's eyes. Put an object in the child's hand and ask him
what it is.
Game 3: treasure hunt

Description: when outside in a park or a forest, ask the child to bring to you four objects: one round, one yellow,
one thorny and one that can float. Another variant: start with one object. Another variant: ask the
child to think about bringing objects with two attributes into the same time.
Game 4: mystery object

Description: take an object and hide it under a towel. Ask the child to guess what it is just by looking the the
object covered by the towel. If he cannot guess, allow him to touch the object under the towel.
- 29 -
Symbolic Play
Game 5: hard and soft

Description: take a soft object and a hard object. Cover the child's eyes. Make him touch the objects and say “this
is hard” and “this is soft”. Another variant: use three objects, the hardest, the softest and
intermediate. Another variant: use four objects, make the child say which object is the hardest and
which one the softest. Another variant: go to up to eight objects.
Game 6: smooth and rough

Description: the same as in Game 5, but with rough and smooth objects.
- 30 -
Symbolic Play
Stage V: 24 months
Symbolic play:
• Represents daily experiences: plays house – is the mommy, daddy or baby; objects used are realistic and
close to life-size.
• Events short and isolated; no true sequences; some self-limiting sequences – puts food in pan, stirs and eats.
• Block play consists of stacking and knocking down.
• Sand and water play consists of filling, pouring and dumping.
Speech:
• Uses earlier pragmatic functions and semantic relations in phrases and short sentences.
• The following morphological markers appear:
◦ Present progressive (ing) on verbs.
◦ Plurals.
◦ Possessives.
Game 1: repeating patterns

Description: use various pieces of two colors (like Lego pieces) and form chains of repeating patterns: red, yellow,
red, yellow, red ... Ask the child to continue the chain by keeping the pattern. Another variant: grow
the number of colors. Another variant: switch from color pattern to shape pattern: square, rectangle,
square, rectangle, ... Another variant: switch from color pattern to object pattern: apple, pear, apple,
pear, ...
Game 2: imaginary finger drawing

Description: draw an imaginary shape on the table with your finger and let the child guess what it is. Another
variant: draw on his belly (assuming he doesn't tickle). Another variant: draw simple objects (apple,
pear, hat,).
Game 3: mystery drawing

Description: draw an image on a large sheet of paper. Cover the image with smaller pieces of paper, but not
entirely. Ask the child to guess what object is by looking at the uncovered portion of the drawing. If
he cannot guess, take one small piece of paper out, so that the child can see more.
Game 4: mystery sound

Description: ask the child to stay with his back turned to you. Make sounds with various objects (open and close
scissors, rip paper off, open and close a book loudly, etc) and ask the child to guess what's happening
without looking.
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Symbolic Play
Game 5: set the table

Description: take a big sheet of paper and draw with a pencil the contours of a plate, fork, knife, glass, spoon and
desert spoon. Then ask the child to set the table by matching the objects to their contours. After
several trials make the child set the table without the help of contours.
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Symbolic Play
Stage VI: 2 ½ years

Symbolic play:
• Represents events less frequently experienced or observed, particularly impressive or traumatic events.
◦ Doctor-nurse-sick child.
◦ Teacher-child.
◦ Store-shopping.
• Events still short and isolated. Realistic props still required. Roles shift quickly.
Speech: responds appropriately to the following wh- questions in context:
• What?
• Who?
• Whose?
• Where?
• What ... do ... ?
• Asks wh- questions – generally puts wh-word at the beginning of sentence.
• Responses to why questions inappropriately except for well-known routines, such as: “Why is the doctor
here?” or “Baby sick”.
• Asks why, but often inappropriately and does not attend to answer.
Game 1: find the emotion

Description: name an emotion and hand a magazine, a book or a pile of pictures to the child. The child has
identify a person or an animal showing that emotion. Discuss the reasons to choose one picture over
another with the child.
Game 2: the prompter

Description: do an activity that you usually do accompanied by the child. Pretend to forget the next step of what
you need. Ask the child to assist you and follow his commands.
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Symbolic Play
Quality of symbolic play

It is hard to talk about the quality of an activity so complex and personal as play. Yet, quality seems to exist
considering that parents and educators admonish sometimes the children for not playing “nice” or commend them
when they play in an imaginative and intelligent way.
This section is concerned solely with the quality of symbolic play and not with play in general. For a questionnaire of
play observation, see [Autism and Play].
Symbolic play observation sheet

The teacher may use the sheet on the next page in order to record the symbolic content of a play session of the student.
The elements in the sheet have the following meanings:
• Nr. Is the ordinal number of the symbolic sub-session.
• Type Is the type of the session recorded. It may be either the whole play session
or a sub-session with symbolic content.
• Play session Is a period of time during which the student plays without significant
interruption.
• Symbolic play sub-session Is a period of time during a play session in which the student performs
symbolic play without significant interruption.
• Start Is the start moment of the play session or of a symbolic sub-session.
• End Is the end moment of the play session or of a symbolic sub-session.
• Symbols Is a symbolic form - symbolic prototype couple representing a symbolic
liaison during play.
With the observation sheet in his hand, the teacher must record the data about the student's play. He must strike out
afterwards the repeated symbolic forms, the repeated symbolic prototypes and the indexes of the repeated symbols
(repeated form = prototype couples).
After eliminating duplicates, he must transfer the data into the summarizing sheet present at page 36.
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Symbolic Play
Nr. Type Start End Content

(hh:mm) (hh:mm)
n/a Play session Enter the start and the end of the play session.
1. Symbolic play sub-session ____ : ____ ____ : ____ Symbols: 1. _____________ = _____________
2. _____________ = _____________
3. _____________ = _____________
4. _____________ = _____________
5. _____________ = _____________
2. _____________ = _____________
3. _____________ = _____________
4. _____________ = _____________
5. _____________ = _____________
2. _____________ = _____________
3. _____________ = _____________
4. _____________ = _____________
5. _____________ = _____________
2. _____________ = _____________
3. _____________ = _____________
4. _____________ = _____________
5. _____________ = _____________
2. _____________ = _____________
3. _____________ = _____________
4. _____________ = _____________
5. _____________ = _____________
2. _____________ = _____________
3. _____________ = _____________
4. _____________ = _____________
5. _____________ = _____________
2. _____________ = _____________
3. _____________ = _____________
4. _____________ = _____________
5. _____________ = _____________
2. _____________ = _____________
3. _____________ = _____________
4. _____________ = _____________
5. _____________ = _____________
- 35 -
Symbolic Play
Symbolic play observation summarizer

The teacher must summarize the results obtained with the sheet at page 35 into the following sheet:
Student name: ________________
Symbolic Play Observation Summarizer Observer's name: ________________

Date: ________________
Nr. Name I II III IV Description

1) Duration of the play session (min) It is the total duration of a
play session.
2) Duration of symbolic play (min) It is the sum of the length
of all symbolic play sub-
sessions.
3) Proportion of symbolic play (%) It is the ratio of 2) to 1).
4) Number of symbolic play sub-sessions It is the number of sub-
session symbolic in nature.
5) Average duration of continuous symbolic play It is the ratio of 2) to 4).
(min)
6) Number of different symbols used It is the number of form =
prototype unique pairs.
7) Average number of symbols per symbolic sub- It is the ratio of 6) to 4).
session
8) Average number of symbols per minute of play It is the ratio of 6) to 1).
(symbol/min)
9) Average number of symbols per minute of It is the ratio of 6) to 2).
symbolic play (symbol/min)
10) Number of different symbolic forms used It is the number of unique
concrete objects or actions
used in symbolic play.
11) Average number of symbolic forms per minute of It is the ratio of 10) to 2).
symbolic play (form/min)
12) Number of different symbolic prototypes used It is the number of unique
elements represented in
symbolic play by symbolic
forms.
13) Average number of symbolic prototypes per It is the ratio of 12) to 2).
minute of symbolic play (prototype/min)
14) Average number of forms per prototype It is the ratio of 12) to 10).
(form/prototype)
- 36 -
Symbolic Play
Interpreting results
The values in the summarizer have the following meanings:
• I, II, III, IV The summarizer has room for up to four session.
By summarizing different sessions on the same
sheet, the teacher can compare how the symbolic
play behavior evolves over time.
• Duration of play session Is the length of time that the child sustains
continuous play. This value has to be as large as
possible.
• Duration of symbolic play It the summed length of time that the child
sustains symbolic play. The teacher obtains this
number by summing up the lengths of the
symbolic sub-sessions. This value has to be as
large as possible. It cannot be larger than
Duration of play session.
• Proportion of symbolic play It tells how much of the play time the student has
spent on symbolic play. 0% means total absence
of symbolic play. 100% means the play was
entirely symbolic. This value has to be as large as
possible with the mention that rejecting non-
symbolic forms of play like board games of
physical play is not good either.
• Number of symbolic play sub-sessions It tells how many times the student engaged in
continuous symbolic play. 0 means no symbolic
play. Too large a value means the student
switches from symbolic to non-symbolic play too
quickly.
• Average duration of continuous symbolic play It tells how much, in average, the student sustains
continuous symbolic play. This value has to be as
large as possible.
• Number of different symbols used. It does not include duplicates For example, if the student used
the symbol stick = sword three
times, then the summarizer
records “stick = sword” only
once.
• Average number of symbols per symbolic sub-session It is an indicator of how imaginative the symbolic
play of the child is. This value has to be as large
as possible.
• Average number of symbols per minute of play It is a measure of the amount symbolism
contained by a student's play. This value has to be
as large as possible.
• Average number of symbols per minute of symbolic play It is a measure of symbolic “density” of a
student's play. This value has to be as
large as possible.
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Symbolic Play
• Number of different symbolic forms used It does not include duplicates. For
example, if the student uses a stick both as a
sword and as a flag pole, then the summarizer
records “stick” only once.
• Average number of symbolic forms per minute of symbolic play It is a measure of the student's
proficiency in using the
environment in symbolic play.
This value has to be as large as
possible.
• Number of different symbolic prototypes per minute of symbolic play It does not include duplicates.
For example, if the student
represents a fuse both by a
wooden stick and by a metal
rod, then the summarizer records
“fuse” only once.
• Average number of symbolic prototypes per minute of symbolic play It is a measure of the student's
proficiency in using his
knowledge in symbolic play.
This value has to be as large as
possible.
• Average number of forms per prototype It is a measure of the student's ability to match
available objects to elements in his mind. While
there is not optimal value for this number, a value
as stable as possible from one evaluation to
another is better. A value much larger than 1
means that the student is not very imaginative. A
value much smaller than 1 means that the student
does not know how to exploit the environment.
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Symbolic Play
Building a symbolic play repertoire

A symbolic play repertoire consists of a repertoire of symbols and a repertoire of games and play scripts.
Building a repertoire of symbols

Children with autism have trouble with extracting and using symbols in play. They need to be taught symbols
explicitly.
As shown in “Components of play symbols” at page 4, a symbol has three components:
• The symbolic prototype, which is the concept that the child has in mind and intents to represent in play.
• The symbolic form, which is what the child use or does in play.
• The symbolic likeness which links the two. The attributes that the symbolic likeness rests upon may belong
to a real likeness between the form and the prototype or may belong solely to the prototype, the child
adorning the form with a prototype attribute the form does not have.
The teacher may use the following table to keep track of the symbols taught to the student:
Nr. Symbolic form Symbolic prototype Real likeness Virtual likeness
1. Pebble Grenade Small, round Explodes
2. Stick Sword Long, thin, stiff Cuts, snaps
3. Rock Enemy tank Sturdy, heavy Big, moving,
throwing projectiles
4. ...
It is essential to use symbolic prototypes that the student knows well, as proven by the list of trained tacts and their
usage in LRFFC training. Likewise, the symbolic form must be familiar to the student.
As explained in “Development of symbolic play” at page 19, symbolic abilities grow over time. Therefore, it is better
to devise a repertoire for each stage of development than a single repertoire for all.
Moreover, it is strongly recommended to try to derive new stages' repertoires from the previous ones by enhancing the
existing symbols with new attributes, by reusing the existing forms to represent additional prototypes or by adding
new forms to represent existing prototypes.
- 39 -
Symbolic Play
Building a repertoire of play scripts

After constructing the repertoire of symbols for the current stage of symbolic play (see “Development of symbolic
play” at page 19), the teacher may proceed with creating a repertoire of play scripts for the same stage.
The new scripts should satisfy the following conditions:
• They must be appropriate in contents and complexity to the existing stage of symbolic development. If the
student is developmentally at Stage II, it is useless to design play scripts representing occasional events like
doctor-nurse-patient (see Stage VI: 2 ½ years at page 33).
• They must contain symbols in the repertoire of symbols corresponding to the current stage or earlier stages.
• They should be developments of scripts corresponding to earlier stages.
• The same core scenario should come in as many variants as possible to avoid rote memorization of scripts.
We believe that having a portfolio emerging from an initial set of fifty core scripts into a repertoire of several hundred
variants suffices in terms of the necessary variety necessary teach to children how to play as naturally as possible.
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Symbolic Play
Planning symbolic play training

As [Autism and Play] witnesses, teaching a child with autism is hard yet the reward is great for both the student and
the teacher. Like any difficult task, training symbolic play requires careful planning.
Fortunately enough, we have the Westby Scale of Symbolic Play Development that we can use as a guide. Therefore,
the planning below follows it closely.
Because the half of the scale referring to symbolic play is closely related with the verbal development half, we believe
this correlation should be maintained for children with autism and related disorders. Such correlation requires from
the therapist that he does not advance to the next stage of symbolic play until the child demonstrates the verbal skills
corresponding to the current stage.
One should keep in mind that the planning below refers to symbolic play only. However, it is essential that the student
learns how to play non-symbolically as well. A good source to find non-symbolic games for ages 0 to 6 is [Raising
The Child (ro)].
That being said, the following sub-sections give guidelines for each stage.
Preliminary stage
Before commencing, it is necessary to teach likeness. The teaching steps have already been detailed in “Training
likeness” and the protocol for mastery verification has been laid out in “Probing likeness”.
If the student does not master likeness, then symbolic play training should proceed while postponing mastery
verification for a later moment.
Stage I
If the student is at Stage I of symbolic play development, do the following:
1. Build a repertoire of objects that will be used as symbol prototypes later on.
2. Do the games shown in “Stage I: 9-10 months” at page 23 or other similar games.
3. Check the mastery of likeness capabilities if not already checked.
4. Check for mastery all the verbal milestones corresponding to Stage I before moving to Stage II.
5. Check for mastery of imaginative play at this level.
Stage II
If the student is at the Stage II of symbolic play development, do the following:
1. Build a repertoire of objects by adding objects appropriate for this stage to the repertoire of objects from
Stage I.
2. Do the games shown in “Stage II: 13-17 months” at page 24 or other similar games.
3. Check the mastery of likeness capabilities if not already checked.
4. Check for mastery of all the verbal milestones corresponding to Stage II before moving to Stage III.
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Symbolic Play
Stage III
If the student is at Stage III of symbolic play development, do the following:
1. Start a repertoire of symbols starting from the repertoire of objects of the previous stages augmented with
objects and body parts appropriate for Stage III. Maintain the repertoire of objects separately.
2. Do the games shown in “Stage III: 17-19 months” at page 27 or other similar games.
3. Build a repertoire of very short play scripts appropriate for Stage III. The repertoire should contain a least 20
different scripts.
4. Teach the symbols necessary for the scripts in the repertoire.
5. Teach symbolization at the level of Stage III.
6. Teach the play scripts in the repertoire.
7. Check the mastery of likeness capabilities and do not move to Stage IV until mastery is achieved.
7. Check for mastery of all the verbal milestones corresponding to Stage III before moving to Stage IV.
Stage IV
If the student is at Stage IV of symbolic play development, do the following:
1. Build a repertoire of symbols by:
1. Using the repertoire of objects from the previous stages.
2. Augmenting the repertoire of symbols from the previous stage.
3. Adding new symbols.
2. Do the games shown in “Stage IV: 19-22 months” at page 29 or other similar games.
3. Build a repertoire of short scripts appropriate for Stage IV. The repertoire should contain at least 50 different
core scripts with a few variants each.
5. Teach symbolization at the level of Stage IV.
7. Check for mastery of all the verbal milestones corresponding to Stage IV before moving to Stage V.
Stage V
If the student is at Stage V of symbolic play development, do the following:
2. Do the games shown in “Stage V: 24 months” at page 31 or other similar games.
3. Build a repertoire of short scripts appropriate for Stage V. The repertoire should contain no less than 100
different core scripts with a few variants each.
5. Teach symbolization at the level of Stage V.
7. Check for mastery of all the verbal milestones corresponding to Stage V before moving to Stage VI.
- 42 -
Symbolic Play
Stage VI
If the student is at Stage VI of symbolic play development, do the following:
2. Do the games shown in “Stage VI: 2 ½ years” at page 33 or other similar games.
3. Build a repertoire of short scripts appropriate for Stage VI. The repertoire should contain no less than 150
different core scripts with a few variants each.
5. Teach symbolization at the level of Stage VI-VII. If mastery fails, do not postpone move to Stage VII.
7. Check for mastery of all the verbal milestones corresponding to Stage VI before moving to Stage VII.
Stage VII
If the student is at Stage VII of symbolic play development, do the following:
2. Build a repertoire of scripts appropriate for Stage VII by:
1. Combining similar scripts to obtain longer scripts (sequences).
2. Create scripts that represent play sequences.
4. Teach symbolization at the level of Stage VI-VII if mastery has failed at Stage VI.
6. Check for mastery of all the verbal milestones corresponding to Stage VII before moving to Stage VIII.
Stage VIII
If the student is at Stage VIII of symbolic play development, do the following:
2. Build a repertoire of scripts appropriate for Stage VII by:
1. Combining similar scripts to obtain longer scripts (sequences).
2. Create scripts that represent play sequences.
4. Teach symbolization at the level of Stage VIII.
6. Check for mastery of all the verbal milestones corresponding to Stage VIII before moving to Stage IX.
7. Check for mastery of imaginative play at this level..
- 43 -
Symbolic Play
Stage IX
If the student is at Stage IX of symbolic play development, do the following:
2. Build a repertoire of scripts appropriate for Stage IX by:
1. Modify existing scripts to include hypotheses and problem-solving.
2. Create new scripts in line with the stage.
4. Teach symbolization at the level of Stage IX.
6. Check for mastery of all the verbal milestones corresponding to Stage IX before moving to Stage X.
Stage X
If the student is at Stage X of symbolic development, do the following:
1. Build a repertoire of scripts appropriate for Stage IX by:
1. Modify existing scripts to include cooperative play.
2. Create new scripts in line with the stage.
3. Teach symbolization at the level of Stage IX.
5. Check for mastery of all the verbal milestones corresponding to Stage X before considering the stage
mastered.
- 44 -
Symbolic Play
Summary
Symbolic play is an essential part of child development and there is a strong correlation between the cognitive and
verbal abilities of typically developing children and their play. Children with autism and related disorders have certain
characteristics that prevent them from engaging spontaneously in play or finding joy in it.
This document presents the central role of symbols and symbolization in the ability to perform symbolic play. It
shows the major stages of symbolic play development. It proposes criteria to measure the quality of symbolic play and
it offers guidelines to plan the training of symbolic play.
The document is meant to be used in conjunction with the other kinds of therapies for autism (applied behavior
analysis, verbal behavior, speech therapy) so that the child with autism gains a harmonious and natural development
as possible.
- 45 -
Symbolic Play
Bibliography
[Raising The Child (ro)]: Anne Bacus, Creşterea Copilului de la o zi la şase ani, 2005, ISBN: 973-20-
0675-7
[Behavioral Intervention]: Catherine Maurice et al., Behavioal Intervention for Young Children with
Autism, 1996, ISBN: 978-089079683-2
[Lovaas 2003]: Ivaar O. Lovaas et al., Teaching Individuals with Developmental Delays. Basic
intervention techniques, 2003, ISBN: 978-089079889-8
[Verbal Behavior Analysis]: Douglas R. Greer, Denise E. Ross, Verbal Behavior Alaysis. Inducing and
expanding verbal capabilities in children with language delays, 2008, ISBN: 978-0-205-45837-0
[Autism and Play]: Jannik Beyer, Lone Gammeltoft, Autism and Play, 2000, ISBN: 978-1853028458
[Caring For Your Young Child]: Shelov, Steven P., Hannemann, Robert E. et al., Caring For Your
Baby and Young Child, Birth to Age 5, 1998, ISBN: 0-553-11045-4
[Teach Me Do It]: Maja Pitamic, Teach Me Do It Myself. Montessori activities for you and your child,
2004, ISBN: 0-7641-2789-6
[VB-MAPP]: Mark L. Sundberg, Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program,
2008, ISBN:
[ABLLS-R]: James W. Partington, The Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills - Revised,
2008, ISBN:
[The VB Approach]: Mary Lynch Barbera, Tracy Rasmussen, The Verbal Behavior Approach. How to
teach children with autism and related disorders, 2007, ISBN: 978-1-84310-852-8
Portage Guide (ro): S. Bluma et al., Ghidul PORTAGE pentru educaţia timpurie, 1985
[Teaching Conversation]: Lynn E. McClannahan, Patricia J. Krantz, Teaching Conversation to
Children with Autism. Scripts and script fading, 2005, ISBN: 978-1-890627-32-4
- 46 -

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What is symbolic play

Play and autism

Symbolic play basics

The importance of play symbols

Components of play symbols

The importance of likeness

Difference between play symbols and likeness

Teaching symbolic play

Choosing symbolic prototypes to teach

Choosing symbolic forms to teach

Choosing symbolic likeness

Probing the existence of symbolization

Teaching play sequences

Creating symbolic play scenarios

Enhancing non-symbolic play scenarios

Demonstrating how to play

Using scripts and script fading

Fading adult presence

Choosing what to play

Teaching imaginative play

Probing the existence of imaginative play

Development of symbolic play

Age Play Language

Exhibits following communicative

Age Play Language

Events short and isolated; no true The following morphological markers

Sand and water play consists of filling,

Age Play Language

Compensatory toy; reenactment of

Age Play Language

Highly imaginative. Sets the scene without

Full cooperative play.

Stage I: 9-10 months

Game 1: where did mama go?

Game 2: stretch for that

Stage II: 13-17 months

Game 1: plastic boxes

Game 2: the pool

Game 4: wall drawing and painting

Game 5: lost toy

Game 6: candy in prison

Game 7: what's the match?

Game 8: the tour of the house

Game 9: the tunnel

Game 10: self portrait

Game 11: obstacle race

Game 12: puzzle

Game 13: sorting

Game 14: the professional taster

Game 15: the balance

Game 16: trainman

Game 17: opening and closing items

Stage III: 17-19 months

Game 1: reachin' without stretchin'

Game 2: going fishing

Game 3: box with wonders

Game 4: burning boat

Game 5: run to color

Game 6: go after sound

Game 7: the robot

Game 8: weave the paper

Stage IV: 19-22 months