For Therapists & Educators: A Free Joint Attention & Parallel Play Lesson Plan (ReThink Compatible)

Lesson Plan: from solitary to social

This program offers learners the opportunity to advance from solitary play into parallel play. It is best for learners who have already progressed from sensorimotor play and into at least exploratory (pre-functional) object play. Complementary support on specific play skills can be offered concurrently but should not be integrated into this program.

Therapists and educators can offer this instruction in a milieu setting but is also appropriate for 1:1 sessions in a home or clinic if a cooperative “helper” is available.

Goal:

Client will accrue the necessary history of reinforcement and acquire the prerequisite skills for parallel play, defined as— independent play that is adjacent to a peer, during which the client observes and learns from the peer, but neither child attempts to influence the other.

Objective 1: 

Client will increase joint attention and joint attention prerequisites like tolerating the proximity of another person during independent play.

Targets:

• Plays independently for 1 minute per occurrence
• Tolerates an adult nearby making occasional bids for joint attention during their independent play
• Tolerates an adult commenting on a preferred item between them or in front of them
• Tolerates an adult doling out pieces of a set one by one
• Tolerates peers in their proximity while engaging in independent toy play
• Attends to a toy that an adult puts in their field of vision during independent play

Objective 2: 

Client will expand their repertoire of skills that support parallel play, specifically those in joint attention, observational learning, imitation, and age-appropriate self-management.

Targets:

• Attends to an adult imitating their actions with toys
• Attends to an adult narrating their play
• Joins an adult in playing with with simple organizational toys (e.g., blocks)
• Learns to work a toy correctly after an adult demonstrates its use (e.g., push buttons on a pop-up toy)
• Tolerates peers interacting with some of the same kind of item they have (as in, tolerates peers playing with 5 of the 40 blocks they are playing with)
• Sits near a peer who is playing independently, when the adult makes a gestural bid for them to do so.

Objective 3: 

Client will engage in emerging parallel play skills. Prerequisite: some motor imitation

Targets:

• Imitates an adult who is adding one step to their independent play routine
• Sits next to a peer during independent toy play and occasionally attends to what that peer is doing in their own independent toy play for 30s
• Observes a peer access reinforcement for an independent play skill, when the adult makes a gestural bid for them to do so.

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Measurement:

• Collection Type: Opportunity Based
• Mastery Criteria: min 4 trials 75% across 4 consecutive Sessions
• Maintenance Mastery Criteria: min 3 trials 65% across 5 consecutive Sessions
• Trigger Maintenance For Mastered Targets: Yes
• Maintenance Schedule: Weekly
• Automatic Phase Change Line: Yes

Exercise:

Client is enjoying unstructured time with a few mostly-preferred toys. The interventionist approaches and shares the client’s enjoyment of the toys but does not intrude.

Client is enjoying semistructured time with a few mostly preferred toys which include multiples (blocks, themed sets like a “toolbox”, a few similar dolls). The interventionist picks up an item like the one the client is using and imitates their action with it, with or without a playful elaboration like a comment.

Helpful hints:

Prerequisite to Reciprocal Imitation Teaching: Attends to an imitative adult during independent play.

Client’s progression to peer-play will displace parallel play. These non-occurrences of parallel play should be taken into account when considering mastery and maintenance.

Resources:

Assessments

• JASPER manual SPACE data collection form 3.1
• ABLLS items K1-2. These are from the leisure domain, read more at The Autism Helper. 
• VB-MAPP Play Milestones 1 and 2
• Early Start Denver Model Listener Responding Level 1

About parallel play

Parallel Play: Definition, Benefits & Activities by Victoria Wood OTR/L writing for The OT Toolbox

Research

• The Effects of the Establishment of Adult Faces and/or Voices as Conditioned Reinforcers for Children with ASD and Related Disorders
• Effects of coaching on the fidelity of parent implementation of reciprocal imitation training
• Jointly structuring triadic spaces of meaning and action: book sharing from 3 months on
• Enhancing Joint Attention Skills in Children on the Autism Spectrum through an Augmented Reality Technology-Mediated Intervention
• Number and type of toys affect joint attention of mothers and infants