A longitudinal examination of the relationship between object play and maternal responsiveness in minimally verbal ASD children

Background: Object play is important for the development and learning of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) children. It is also a natural context for responsiveness that supports the development of ASD children. Since object play creates a context for responsiveness and responsiveness supports the development of ASD children, the relationship between these two variables should be understood. Aim: In this observational study, we longitudinally investigated possible explanatory and predictive relationships between maternal responsiveness and object play development in minimally verbal ASD children. Methods: Thirty-one minimally verbal children (30 boys and 1 girl) diagnosed with ASD and aged between 28 and 79 months and their mothers participated in the study. We measured the frequency and diversity of maternal responses during a 15-minute unstructured mother-child play interaction and evaluated object play in two unstructured play contexts. We used a kitchen set in one of the play contexts and a doctor set in the other. Results: A positive, moderately significant relationship was found between relational, functional, and symbolic play and follow-in comments, follow-in directives for behavior, and nonverbal responses. Furthermore, follow-in directives for behavior predicted relational play, while follow-in comments predicted functional and symbolic play. Conclusions: The findings emphasize that mothers should use more follow-in directives for behavior and nonverbal responses, especially follow-in comments, to support the development of relational, functional, and symbolic play in minimally verbal ASD children.