Play and imitation among children with autism

Three waves of video data were collected over the course of 12 weeks and were\ud coded for play type. Participants, (A= 30) included 12 children with Autism (5-10\ud years) and 18 typically developing children (5-11 years) who participated in\ud Integrated Play Group???s at Grattan Elementary School in San Francisco. It was\ud believed that functional play would be positively related to immediate imitation,\ud and that immediate imitation, functional and symbolic play would increase over\ud time. A positive relationship between functional play and immediate imitation\ud was detected as well as an increase in functional and symbolic play. Findings may\ud lead to additional research in the field of imitation using naturalistic observation\ud and a better understanding of cognitive processes among children with Autism