Poster #23 - Characterizing Caregiver Input to Children With Diverse Developmental Outcomes During Pretend Play

• In Event: Poster Session 01

Abstract

Play is a primary way in which young children explore the world and is a key context for the development of language, cognitive and social skills (Belsky & Most, 1981; Lillard, 2007). In neurotypical development, infants begin to engage in pretend play at 22-24 months old (Belsky & Most, 1981). Toddlers diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are delayed in meeting this benchmark (Campbell et al., 2016; Charman et al., 1997), and toddlers with language delays (LD) engage in less advanced pretend play than their typically developing peers (Christensen et al., 2010; Rescorla & Goossens, 1992). To date, little research has examined the relationship between pretend play and caregiver input in toddlers with ASD and LD.
The present study addressed two questions: 1) does the type of play caregivers encourage vary depending on their child’s developmental status?; and 2) How often is caregiver input prompted by the child’s words or actions?
Participants included toddlers with an older sibling with ASD, who are at elevated likelihood (EL) for ASD and LD. EL participants were classified into three outcome groups: EL-ASD (N=10), EL-LD (N=17), and EL-no diagnosis (ND; N=14). A comparison group consisted of children at typical likelihood of ASD, with no familial history (TL; N=11). Caregiver-child dyads were videotaped in their homes engaging in toy play at 36-months old. Caregiver utterances were transcribed and classified into categories denoting the types of pretend play encouraged: pretend functional (discussing pretend properties of objects), pretend person (pretense play directed at a real person), pretend object (pretense play directed at an inanimate object), and substitution (decontextualization of an object), as well as non-pretend categories. Pretend utterances were further categorized as prompted or unprompted by the child’s own actions.
Pretend play-focused speech constituted approximately half of caregiver utterances across groups (Mdns=0.4-0.6) and pretend object utterances were the most frequent pretend utterance type (Mdns=0.6-0.89; see Figure 1). Pretend functional utterance use, while relatively infrequent (Mdns=0-0.08) differed across groups (p=0.01). Specifically, the caregivers in the ASD group produced a significantly smaller proportion of pretend functional utterances (Mdn=0, Range=0-0.11) than the caregivers in the TL (Mdn=0.08, Range=0-0.31) and EL-LD (Mdn=0.07, Range=0-0.42) groups (ps<0.05). Additionally, approximately half of overall pretend play-related utterances were prompted, with no significant differences between groups (Mdns=0.43-0.75; see Figure 2a). As pretend object was the most frequent category, we further examined how these utterances were prompted across groups. EL-ASD children prompted a significantly smaller proportion of pretend object utterances (Mdn=0.3, Range=0-0.8) than their TL peers (Mdn=0.67, Range=0.17-0.92; p<0.05; see Figure 2b). These preliminary analyses suggest that caregivers of differently developing children encourage pretend play at similar rates, although types of play-related utterances may vary. Groups demonstrated similar overall proportions of prompted utterances, though differences existed within the context of certain utterance types. This study helps us to understand the role caregivers play in encouraging children to engage in imaginative play, as well as the bidirectional interactions between children and caregivers during play. 

Authors

• Kathryn Beth Altman, University of Pittsburgh
  Presenting Author

• Emily Roemer Britsch, University of Pittsburgh

• Samantha Plate, University of Pittsburgh

• Jana M Iverson, Boston University