Developmental specificity in targeting and teaching play activities to children with pervasive developmental disorders

Developmentally specific play programs were designed for three children with pervasive developmental disorders being served in a home-based program. Using the Developmental Play Assessment, six activities for each of three adjacent developmentally sequenced play categories were targeted for direct instruction using different toy sets. A modified multiple-baseline across play targets design was employed. Teaching procedures capitalized on following the child's lead and employed least-to-most prompting procedures. Results showed children reached acquisition criteria for 85% (range: 75-100%) of 40 play activities that were generated from emerging play categories and 81% (range: 50-100%) of 16 play activities generated from successive, but non-emerging play categories. Findings are discussed related to the importance of increasing developmental specificity when targeting and teaching play activities.