teach2play™ is the revolutionary new series of four videos on DVD from teach2talk™ designed to help teach play skills to children with autism and other developmental disorders and to all other children who need assistance with their play skills.

Play skills are an important component of every child’s socialization and language, motor and mental development. Furthermore, learning play skills contributes to a child’s language development.

However, for some children, play skills don’t come as naturally as they do for others. Fortunately for those children who need a little more help with their play, child development experts have spent a lot of time studying the subject and have learned the sequence in which children learn how to play.

Our teach2play™ series uses video modeling to teach play skills in a systematic and scientific way. We have developed a “play ladder” which we use to teach play skills, with each successive “step” in the play ladder representing a new, more advanced level of play skills, starting from the lowest step (simply putting toys together) and progressing systematically through the highest step (playing dress up).

Our teach2play™ system combines our play ladder and teaching methods with video modeling, a powerful teaching tool which research shows is an effective method to teach children, including children with autism and other developmental disorders. The series also models appropriate language use when playing to contribute to children’s speech and language development.

Volume 1 of the teach2play™ series, Basic Play, covers the following steps in the teach2play™ play ladder:

• Step 1: TAKE APART/PUT TOGETHER: At this play step, the child both separates items fixed in an arrangement (for example, takes pieces out of a puzzle) as well as recreates combined arrangements of items from their individual parts (for example, puts puzzle pieces into the puzzle).
• Step 2: PUT IN / PUT ON: At this play step, the child puts two different items together in a simple combination, such as placing one item into a different item or putting one item on top of another item.
• Step 3: PRETEND TO EAT: At this play step, the child uses an external object to take an action which is directed at him or her, such as putting on a hat, combing hair, or eating play food.
• Step 4: BUILD A TOWER: At this play step, the child combines items which are intended to go together in an appropriate manner based on their nature, such as stacking nesting cups, stringing beads together or connecting segments of a train track.

teach2talk™ Co-Founder Sarah Clifford Scheflen, M.S., CCC-SLP, developed the teach2play™ system based on her clinical experience, personal research into teaching play skills to children through video modeling, and peer reviewed research (reference Lifter, 1993 and Kasari, Freeman & Paparella 2001 & 2006).

We believe that you will find the teach2play™ system to be an effective tool to help your child or client learn developmentally–appropriate play skills.

In addition, if you have the time and inclination, you can be an active participant in helping your child or client make progress with their play skills using the teach2play™ system and our suggestions on best practices for use.