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As you play with your child, work on encouraging play skills in a non-direct manner.

Work on building their imaginative play skills with puppets or dolls. Create a story with characters made out of figurines or mini lego people. Get your child engaged with you. Play house, fixer man, or pizza store. This helps expand your child’s imagination.

Don’t forget to praise your child when you notice good social or play skills as you play together.

Work on expanding your child’s play. If he/she is playing with a toy horse say, “This horse is about to be in a race. This is the start line.”

When working on imaginative skills this brings out language, social, emotional, and thinking skills in your child.

Children are more inclined to vocalize when they are having a good time and feel relaxed. They are much more inclined to use language skills in an hour of play with a therapist then sitting at a table with 1:1 teaching. Language is developed naturally through social interactions and play.

Pretend play brings out language skills in your child. When playing house, they will pretend to be the mom and repeat phrases that they hear mom say. It also helps them work on seeing another person’s view. When they are pretending to be a teacher, mom, or baker, they are learning to think about what someone else is thinking or feeling. They are learning to “put themselves in someone else’s shoes. “

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