Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Vol. 25 No. 3, 1995 Effects of Sociodramatic Play Training on Children with Autism 1 Danielle M. Thorp, Aubyn C. Stahmer, and Laura Schreibman 2 University of California, San Diego We assessed the effects of teaching sociodramatic play to three children with autism. The training was conducted using a variation of Pivotal Response Training (PRT), a program traditionally used to teach language to children with autism. Measures of play skills, social behavior, and language skills were obtained before treatment, after treatment, and at a follow-up period. The cor- relation between language and pretend play was explored, as was the relation- ship between sociodramatic play and social competence. Positive changes were observed in play, language, and social skills. These changes generalized across toys and settings, although little generalization to other play partners occurred. Effects of play training with children with autism and maintenance of behavior change is discussed. Play deficits are consistently cited as a major behavioral deviation in children with autism (Demeyer, Mann, Tilton & Loew, 1967; Rendle-Short & Clancy, 1971; Rutter, 1978; Webster, Konstantareas, Oxman, & Mack, 1980). The play behavior of these children is not simply delayed, but differs in com- plexity from that of normally developing children (Baron-Cohen, 1987) in that this population does not use play forms prevalent in nonhandicapped youngsters (Wulff, 1985). In particular, there is a striking lack of symbolism in the play of the child with autism (Baron-Cohen, 1987; Mundy, Sigrnan, Ungerer, & Sherman, 1987; Wulff, 1985). A profound impairment in social IThis research was supported by U. S. Public Health Service research grants MH39434 (Laura Schreibman, Principal Investigator) and MH28210 (Robert L. Koegel, Principal Investigator) from the National Institute of Mental Health. The authors thank Tami Schiern, Jay Goldschmidt, and Stacy .Amano for assistance in data collection and reliability; Karen Pierce and Doug Andersonfor reviewing an earlierdraft of the paper, and in particular the families and teacherswho participatedin the project. 2Address all correspondence to Laura Schreibman,Psychology Department0109, University of California, San Diego, La JoUa, California92093-0109. 265 0162-3257/95/0600-0265507.50/0 9 1995 PlenumPublishing Corporation