"Play" Is Not A Four Letter Word

Posted by Ashley, Special Educator

...Okay, so maybe it is a four-letter word, but not the bad kind!

Very often when people think about Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), they immediately picture a miserable-looking child sitting at a desk with a therapist who is running mass trials (i.e. drilling the child).  The therapist presents all instructions and praise using a monotone and robotic voice, then pats the child on the head, hands over a cookie, and records some data.  Yes, I too have seen these scary YouTube videos!  I'll be honest with you: these types of therapists and programs do exist.  In my opinion, this type of therapy is grossly outdated.  This is what you need to know: although that type of ABA may exist, it does not represent all therapists or all programs.  It certainly does not represent our "Getting the Words Out" team, if we haven't already made that clear!  Our core behavioral belief system is probably pretty consistent with those therapists [see posts on ABA and Behavior Modification], but our implementation and practice is quite different!  It's those old-school-totally-uncool-therapists who give our beloved ABA a bad reputation!

If I could send one message to the therapists in those videos, it would be this: "play" is not a four letter word!  Especially when working with little learners, our instruction should be embedded in play and natural daily routines as much as possible!  In Early Intervention we are talking about babies and toddlers.  What do typically-developing babies and toddlers do?  Do they spend all day sitting at a desk?  Of course not!  They play!  Play, play, play!  Should I say it again?  PLAY!  

There are countless reasons that I support play-based ABA intervention in early childhood.  I will highlight just a few of the primary reasons here:

• Motivation:  It's common sense that we will get the best performance from our students when they are motivated to learn!  If our students are bored, distracted, or simply don't like us (because we've done a poor job of pairing), we will not be able to effectively teach them anything!  When we can successfully embed our instruction in fun and playful activities, we will see higher levels of attention, motivation, and performance.  This, by the way, is a key element of ABA [see future posts on Motivating Operations].

• Social-Emotional Development:  Although the principles of ABA apply to everyone, the majority of ABA centers are primarily geared towards children with Pervasive Developmental Disorders.  Our Center, in particular, primarily serves children diagnosed with Autism or Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS).  If you have researched these diagnoses, you are probably aware that they are often characterized by differences/delays in social skills [more information].  So, as an educator, if I have a student with socialization delays, that is obviously going to be one of my main instructional goals!  Am I going to teach appropriate social skills by plopping a child in a desk for long periods of time and being totally boring?  No way!  We can teach countless important and developmentally-appropriate social skills through play!  By using play-based instruction, we are (a) teaching the child that it's fun to engage with other people and (b) modeling the types of activities that his/her typically-developing peers are engaging in.  How could we possibly teach these skills any other way?

• Generalization/Functional Skills Use:  Finally, while there are plenty of important skills for us to teach our little learners, we must also remember to keep it meaningful!  Nothing we teach matters if the child can't do it outside of the workstation!  Generalization (i.e. ability to demonstrate skills across multiple settings, materials, people, etc.) is an area of difficulty for many of the children with whom we work.  If we only teach them in the same way, in the same place, and in an unnatural fashion, we are just exacerbating this issue.  Who cares if, sitting at a desk, a child can identify a spoon?  What I care about (and probably most of you parents out there, too!) is whether the child can actually USE this skill in real life.  When Mom or Dad tells the child to get a spoon during breakfast, can he do it?  That's what matters!  By getting the heck out of the work station and playing in a different environment and with various materials, we can work on skill generalization.  We can use play as a way to expand a child's skills and make it fun, functional, and meaningful!

For these reasons, and countless others, I highly support the use of play-based ABA intervention with young children.  Contrary to some popular belief, ABA and child-focused, play-based instruction can and should co-exist.  If you truly study the foundations of ABA, this type of instruction is supported by behavioral principles (e.g. motivating operations, reinforcement, etc.)!  Sure, for some learners, at some points, or with some skills, a more structured, repetitive approach may be necessary.  I am not arguing against this.  What I am arguing against is using only that type of instruction.  And, even when completing structured work at a desk or station, why can't play be a part of it?  Why can't it be fun?  Rather than asking a child to demonstrate a skill, then handing over a toy with a monotone, "good job", try handing over a toy and actually playing with it with the child!  Not to mention that you should be the best toy of all!  We should be refining our play skills to the point that our students would rather be playing with us than with any silly toy or cookie [more information]!  But, that's a whole new can of worms, so I'll save that for another post!

Anyway, my point here is that play is an integral part of any effective instructional program!  If you can't play with a child, then you are most definitely in the wrong field!  How could you not want to play with these adorable little guys anyway?!   For all of our teacher and therapist readers, please take some time to think about how you can more effectively build play into your instruction!  For our parents out there, please make sure that both you and your child's team are incorporating play into teaching time!  It's okay for learning to be fun and games (because we know it's really much more than that!)

*See future posts on Natural Environment Teaching (NET) for more information on how to incorporate teaching into play*