Longitudinal assessment of play and adaptive behavior in young children with developmental disabilities.
In preschoolers with developmental delays, play skills stay flat and don’t predict adaptive behavior gains—so don’t use play level as your sole progress indicator.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers tracked the same group of preschoolers with developmental delays for three years.
They measured play skills and adaptive behavior every year to see if the two grew together.
No teaching program was tested; they simply watched natural change over time.
What they found
Adaptive behavior scores rose moderately over the three years.
Play skills stayed flat and did not predict who would gain adaptive skills.
In short, better play did not mean better daily living skills.
How this fits with other research
Grow et al. (2017) seems to disagree. Their single-case study shows play can be taught with instructive feedback during tact trials.
The gap is method: Grow taught play; J et al. only watched it. Teaching works; waiting does not.
Berkovits et al. (2014) also used play, but as a place to teach literacy. Play stayed the vehicle, not the goal, and kids learned.
Babazadeh et al. (2025) add another path. They found gross-motor growth boosted adaptive gains in toddlers. Movement, not play, may be the stronger lever.
Why it matters
Do not rely on play level to tell you if a child is making real-life progress. Track adaptive skills directly.
If you want play to improve, teach it with tools like instructive feedback or embed goals inside play routines.
And keep an eye on motor skills—boosting balance or coordination might lift adaptive scores faster than play alone.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Deficits in appropriate play have been widely documented among children with developmental disabilities. However, there has been little research on the development of play or the relation between play and adaptive behavior in such children. The present study involved a longitudinal assessment of play and adaptive behavior among 13 preschool children with developmental disabilities. Children were assessed every 6 months over a 3-year period. Assessments included standardized ratings of adaptive behavior and videotape observations during unstructured free-play times in the preschool classroom. Adaptive behavior increased by almost one standard deviation from the first to the last round of data collection. Appropriate play was observed during approximately 20% of each 30-min observation and showed little overall change over 3 years of study. Observed play was primarily functional (57%) and exploratory (28%) with less constructive (5%) and pretend (10%) play. Adaptive behavior scores were not consistently correlated with the amount or type of play. The results suggest little overall relation between appropriate play and other major domains of adaptive behavior. Implications for play-based assessment and intervention in early childhood special education are discussed.
Research in developmental disabilities, 1999 · doi:10.1016/s0891-4222(98)00038-9