Early social communicative behaviours of preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder during interaction with their mothers.

Warreyn et al. (2005) watched preschoolers with autism play with their moms. They counted four key acts: pointing to share interest, looking where mom looks, checking mom's face for cues, and copying her actions. They compared these kids to typical peers of the same age.

The team filmed 10-minute toy-play sessions in a quiet room. Later they scored each child's acts from the video. They wanted to see which behaviors set the autism group apart.

Kids with autism started fewer pointing-to-share moments. Their pretend play was a little lower too. Yet they looked at mom's face for help and copied her actions just as often as typical kids.

When the team ran the numbers, the behaviors fell into two clear piles. One pile held symbolic acts like pretend play and pointing to show. The other held people acts like checking faces and copying.

Barrett et al. (1987) first showed that both pretend play and pointing predict later language. Petra's two piles match that old split, giving it new life. The finding says you should test both piles, not just one.

Crawford et al. (2015) asked if girls with autism have milder social gaps. They found no big gender gap on the same skills Petra measured. So the reduced pointing and play looks true for both boys and girls.

Weiss et al. (2021) moved the lens down to toddlers. They saw even younger kids with autism rarely turn to their name or share sounds. Petra's preschoolers still point less, showing the gap lasts as kids grow.

Ruiz (1998) looked at moms instead of kids. Those moms talked off-topic more often, even though they could follow the child's focus. Petra shows the child's side: the kids point less, so moms may fill the air to keep the game alive.

You now have two tidy buckets to track: symbolic acts and people acts. If a preschool client points or pretends little, target those first—they link straight to later language. But if the child looks at you for help or copies well, praise that strength while you build the missing bucket. Use preferred toys from Dominguez et al. (2006) to spark pretend play, and give plenty of chances for the child to point just to share, not to request.