Examination of play and language skills of children with autism and typical development

In this study, it was aimed to comparatively examine the play and language skills of children with autism and typical development (TD) between groups and to examine the relationships between these two skills within the group. The Gazi Early Childhood Assessment Tool (GEÇDA) was applied to measure the cognitive development levels of 20 children with autism and 20 children with TD in the pre-school period participating in the study. Children with autism and TD with equal cognitive performance were included in the study. In the study, children's play skills were evaluated using the Developmental Play Assessment (GOD) developed by Lifter (2000). A Natural Language Sample was taken in the free play environment and the Average Word Length (MLU), Total Number of Words and Number of Different Words values calculated through the Turkish SALT program were used in the evaluation of language skills. According to the results of the research, no statistically significant difference could be found between the MLU values of the children in the two groups, while the total number of words and the number of different words values of the children with TD were statistically higher than those of the children with autism. While the play performances of the children differed between the groups, children with autism displayed more play behaviors in the category of indiscriminate play than their peers with TD. Children with TD, on the other hand, exhibited more play behaviors in the special physical combinations, child-mediated and additive play category than their autistic peers. It was concluded that there is a statistically significant relationship between children's OSU, the number of words and number of different words values and their play skills.