Requires social interaction with an attentive, engaged adult care-sharer (is not solitary)
The child and adult are enjoying the play and feel safe, within a range of allostasis (good stress)
The child, not the adult, generally sets the agenda
The play is characterized by reciprocity and mutual engagement
Play as a Neural Exercise: Healing Behavioral and Emotional Dysregulation
According to Mona Delahooke, a licensed clinical psychologist with more than 30 years of experience caring for children and their families, she states that playing with individuals on the Autism Spectrum is a “neural exercise. It’s a necessary tool in our toolbox for supporting children with behavioral challenges. It’s a neural exercise in that it flexes the ‘muscle’ of emotional regulation through reciprocal interactions under conditions of safety with others… Play allows for children to integrate and use bottom-up and top-down functioning in real time. It’s one of the most therapeutic things we can do with children.”