Parenting Tips: The Struggles of Encouraging Play and Social Skills in Autism
For parents of children with autism, fostering play and social skills can be a challenging and often misunderstood process. Many parents believe that simply providing opportunities for their child to interact with typical children—such as sending them to kindergarten, group classes, or family gatherings—will naturally improve their social abilities. However, this well-meaning approach often falls short, especially for children with moderate to severe autism.
The Misconception of Learning Through Exposure
Parents often hope that placing their autistic child in a typical social environment will lead to improvements in socialization and play skills. While this might work for children who are high-functioning or on the mild end of the autism spectrum. It overlooks the fact that most autistic children lack the ability to learn purely from exposure or observation.
Children with high-functioning autism may be able to pick up social cues and behaviors by watching and interacting...
