The Power of Play: Linking Play to Language, Cognitive, Social-Emotional & Literacy Development
$50 | 4 CE Hours
About this course
This course is designed to give an overview of Dr. Carol Westby’s stages of symbolic play in typically developing children, as well as the relationship between symbolic play and cognitive, language, social and literacy development. Patterns of play in children with various developmental diagnoses, including autism spectrum disorder, will be described. Informal methods for observing and evaluating play skills will be explored. The elicitation and facilitation of language through symbolic play will be discussed. Case examples and videos of symbolic play sessions will be presented.
Program Objectives
- Review stages of presymbolic and symbolic play and their relationship to language, cognitive, social-emotional and literacy development
- Describe how the assessment of level of play development in children determines appropriate therapeutic goals
- Describe specific intervention techniques/strategies that can be used in therapy, as well as at home
Takeaways
- Identify examples of presymbolic and symbolic play
- Assess levels of play using Westby’s Symbolic Play Scale
- Differentiate differences in play skills with children with ASD
- Develop therapeutic interventions using appropriate play based strategies
Course Outline
- Introduction
- Presymbolic/symbolic play; Relationship to language/cognitive development
- Assessment of play
- Case examples
- Higher stages of symbolic play
- Differences in play with children with ASD
- Treatment strategies
- Case examples
About the instructors
Lori Goldberg
Lori Goldberg, MS, CCC-SLP has a Masters Degree in Communication Sciences & Disorders from Syracuse University. She has 30+ years experience in evaluating and providing speech and language therapy services to children of all ages. Before starting at PPT, Lori worked for a number of years in the Palm Beach County and NJ public schools. Prior to working in schools, she worked at Bradley Hospital in Providence, RI and Tufts Medical Center in Boston, MA. Lori has been a presenter at the Massachusetts Early Intervention Consortium.
Adrienne Wolf
Hosted by Adrienne Wolf, CCC-SLP, Speech Language Pathologist with over 20 years of experience working in the public school system and advocating for children and families in the IEP process.
Course outline
- 1. Course Video 4 lessons
- 2. Course Completion 1 lesson