CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 248Autism Spectrum Disorder ResearchChild and Animal Learning DevelopmentChild Therapy and Development

Social Play and Autistic Spectrum Disorders: A Perspective on Theory, Implications and Educational Approaches

Jordan, Rita·2003·Autism
DOI 10.1177/1362361303007004002
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

The article considers the nature of the presumed social play deficit in autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs). The nature of play and its typical development is outlined and discussed in relation to play development in ASDs. It is suggested that social play is a confluence of two strands of development that are affected in autism: social and emotional development, and the cognitive development of play. It is shown that social play develops in a transactional way and in ASDs initial social difficulties prevent the development of social interaction, with its role in eliciting and enriching spontaneous play. At the same time, cognitive and affective difficulties prevent the play of children with autism developing to the extent of attracting other children and being of a complexity from which social play might develop. This cycle of impoverished play opportunities for children with ASDs may be broken through direct teaching and there are encouraging models of teaching social play with some success.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1177/1362361303007004002

Cites

69 of 69 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Social play deficits are observed in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD), early-onset schizophrenia, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

    “Social play deficits are observed in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD), early-onset schizophrenia, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (Alessandri, 1992; Moller and Husby, 2000; Jordan, 2003).”

    From Sex-specific modulation of juvenile social play behavior by vasopressin and oxytocin depends on social context (2014) · cites this paper as Jordan, 2003

  • Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show deficits in social play.

    “Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show deficits in social play (Mundy, 1995;Jordan, 2003) which are likely due to disrupted reward-seeking tendencies, especially in social contexts (Chevallier et al., 2012;Kohls et al., 2012Kohls et al., , 2013)).”

    From Vasopressin regulates social play behavior in sex-specific ways through glutamate modulation in the lateral septum (2025) · cites this paper as Jordan, 2003

  • Deficits in social play have been associated with ASD, ADHD, and schizophrenia.

    “Notably, deficits in social play have been associated with ASD, ADHD, and schizophrenia (Alessandri, 1992; Jones et al., 1994; Jordan, 2003).”

    From Sexually dimorphic role for vasopressin in the development of social play (2014) · cites this paper as Jordan, 2003

  • Social play deficits are observed in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorders, early-onset schizophrenia, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

    “Conversely, social play deficits are observed in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD), early-onset schizophrenia, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (Alessandri, 1992; Moller & Husby, 2000; Jordan, 2003).”

    From Sex-specific modulation of juvenile social play by vasopressin (2013) · cites this paper as Jordan, 2003

  • Deficits in social play are a prominent feature of ASD that can be measured in preclinical animal models by measuring the frequency and duration of species-typical play behaviors.

    “Deficits in social play are a prominent feature of ASD [72,73] that can be measured in preclinical animal models by measuring the frequency and duration of species-typical play behaviors.”

    From Behavioral Phenotyping of Juvenile Long-Evans and Sprague-Dawley Rats: Implications for Preclinical Models of Autism Spectrum Disorders (2016) · cites this paper as [72]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Jordan, R.
Affiliations
University of Birmingham (GB)
Corresponding author
Jordan, Rita
Venue
Autism
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Published
2003-12
Volume
7
Issue
4
Pages
347-360
ISSN
  • 1362-3613 (ISSN-L)
  • 1461-7005
DOI
10.1177/1362361303007004002
OpenAlex
W2138766007
Cited by
248
References
69
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 19 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 5
FWCI
0.27
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license (tdm)
Locations
  • Autism (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • University of Birmingham Research Portal (University of Birmingham) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Therapy and Development
Keywords
social play, autism spectrum disorder, play development, social interaction, social-emotional development, cognitive development, spontaneous play, direct instruction
MeSH terms
Autistic Disorder, Child, Child, Preschool, Cognition, Humans, Parent-Child Relations, Parents, Peer Group, Play and Playthings, Psychological Theory, Social Behavior

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review