Teaching children with autism to initiate and sustain cooperative play.
Have the child say what they saw before they play—without this step, cooperative play training fails.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Six kids with autism watched a short video. Two peers built a zoo together and talked.
The children then tried the same play with new toys. First they only watched. Later they also had to say what they saw before they played.
The team used a multiple-baseline design. They tracked if each child started play and kept it going for five minutes.
What they found
Modeling alone did nothing. No child began cooperative play after only watching.
The moment the kids described the video out loud, play started. All six learned to invite a peer, share pieces, and stay in the game.
The gains lasted one month and showed up with new toys and new partners.
How this fits with other research
Petry et al. (2007) also used video modeling and saw big play gains, but they skipped the verbal step. Their kids still improved, so the extra talk may not always be needed. The 2000 study had tighter entry rules—children had to play for five straight minutes—so the talk-aloud rule may simply push past a tougher mastery line.
Grace (1995) taught symbolic play with PRT and got the same wide generalization. Lancioni et al. (2000) show that modeling plus a quick verbal recap can hit the same target without the full PRT package.
Fullana et al. (2007) later moved the idea into preschool classrooms. Small groups watched the clip, talked about it, then played together. Cooperative play rose, proving the verbal boost works in class, not just one-to-one.
Why it matters
If a child with autism is not joining peers, show a 30-second clip of the exact play you want. Then ask, "What did they do?" Let the child answer before handing over the toys. This tiny step turns silent watching into real cooperative play that lasts.
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Join Free →Before free play, show a 20-second video of two kids building one train track, pause, ask your learner to tell you the steps, then give the same track pieces and invite a peer.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
This study investigated the acquisition, transfer, and maintenance of cooperative play in six children with autism. Two approaches were compared. In one approach, the participants observed two models engaging in cooperative play, before taking the place of one of the models while the play episode just observed was repeated. The second approach was identical to the first except that the participants were now required to verbally describe the modeled play episode before taking the place of one of the models. During training, modeled play episodes varied across play topics, and the criterion for mastery was first trial learning of novel play episodes. A nonconcurrent multiple baseline design across participants was applied. The results showed that the participants failed to acquire cooperative play until the verbal description was included in the training procedure. Following training with verbal description, all participants: a) could initiate episodes and sustain episodes initiated by their play partner; b) were able to take turns in episodes that were considerably longer than the episodes practiced during training; c) varied their play within and between play episodes; and, d) transferred those skills across play partners, settings, and time.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2000 · doi:10.1016/s0891-4222(00)00031-7