Exploring Play Therapy's Impact on Social Interaction and Engagement in Children with Autism Spectrum DIsorder
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Authors
Lam, Kimiko
Issue Date
2025-04
Type
Capstone
Language
en
Keywords
autism spectrum disorder , child-centered play therapy , play therapy , social engagement , play
Alternative Title
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is one of the fastest-growing neurodevelopmental disorders that impairs social relationships and communication. Children with ASD have challenges in initiating and maintaining interactions with their peers, which affects their experience in play. Play is essential to children’s development as it allows children to learn and explore the world. Play also teaches children important skills that are essential to their growth. Playing and interacting with others helps children with social interactions, which can help them expand their social network. Restricted repetitive interests, behaviour, and patterns can limit the play ability in children with ASD. The purpose of this capstone is to explore play therapy's impact on children with ASD in supporting and improving their social interaction and engagement. Using play as a tool, play therapy provides an outlet for children to explore, communicate, and express themselves in a safe environment without judgment. Play therapy frameworks, such as child-centered play therapy, support children with ASD through acceptance and an open attitude toward the child, which helps them to discover their strengths. These factors are important as they can help children with ASD improve their social engagement, communication, extend their attention span, and reduce aggression. Ultimately, this capstone seeks to provide insights for counsellors, play therapists, and parents so that they are aware that alternative tools and interventions such as play therapy can support their children with ASD in developing and improving their skills.
Description
Citation
Publisher
License
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States
openAccess
openAccess