GENERATIVITY IN THE PLAY OF YOUNG-PEOPLE WITH AUTISM

Examines the ability of young people with autism to generate ideas for play. Young people with autism, children with learning difficulties, and younger normal children were asked to generate 12 different action s and follow 12 instructions with a car and a doll. The young people w ith autism were impaired, relative to the controls, at generating orig inal actions with the car, but were as able as the controls to follow the instructions. However, the young people with autism were not impai red at generating original actions with the doll. All three groups pro duced similar amounts of symbolic play. Possible explanations for the difference in results for the two toys are discussed.