Introduction: Play is an important part of child development as it encourages active participation and exploration of the environment. Through play, children improve their motor skills, as well as cognitive and social interaction skills, while the skill of play is interrelated with imitation and praxis. Purpose: The goal is to present the purpose of play for children with autism spectrum disorder and emphasise the importance of praxis for children’s participation in play. Methods: The final thesis is based on the quantitative research method, with the chosen measurement tool being a questionnaire. 39 parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (aged from 3 to 6 years and 11 months) participated in the study. The collected data was processed, analysed and translated into a visual context. Results: The results show that 51% of children with autism spectrum disorder are partially motivated for play and require their parents’ encouragement to engage in play. When researching how often certain behaviours occur during play, we found that 54% of children often choose the same play activities, 36% often need more time to learn a certain physical activity, and 28% struggle with movement imitation. The parents also expressed that their children experience difficulties with using buttons and tying shoe laces (33%), using objects according to their intended function (51%), and skipping or switching steps in daily activities (28%). Discussion and conclusion: Play is a spontaneous, voluntary and internally motivated activity that is above all pleasant for a child. Children with autism spectrum disorder typically display repetitive behavioural patterns and limited interest, which is often reflected during play. These primary deficits affect the child’s ability to participate in purposeful activities, and are connected to deficits in other areas, namely sensory processing, imitation, motor planning and praxis. Children with autism spectrum disorder who struggle with praxis participate less in complex play and are less motivated to play than children, who do not have those issues. Children with dyspraxia face issues when it comes to fine and gross motor skills, coordination, manipulation, execution of consecutive actions, the ability to imitate, connecting sequences of movements or actions, and understanding the connection between an action and a final result. The skills of play, imitation and praxis improve with sensory integration, which is an approach occupational therapists typically use when working with children.
|
