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Melbourne, FL: February 27, 2019—ABA Technologies, Inc., in partnership with Florida Institute of Technology, announces the launch of a new, two-part continuing education course for behavior analysts on teaching children pretend and imaginative play skills. The courses prepare participants to assess and develop the imaginative play repertoires of young children. Presenters Nancy Champlin, MS, BCBA, and Melissa Schissler, MS, BCBA, of ACI Learning Centers introduce their research-based program and product line: Pretend Play and Language Assessment and Curriculum (PPLAC) and PlayTubsTM. Both courses offer Type 2 BACB credit.

Pretend and imaginative play activities, like playing house and traveling in cardboard box spaceships, enrich cognitive and social development. Decades of research point to its impact and importance. Even researchers who arrive at contradictory conclusions about the benefits of play acknowledge it as a catalyst for expanding expressive language and social skills.

Pretend play skills start to develop around 2½ to 5 years old, but how are these skills taught if they are not naturally occurring? How can pretend play impact other areas of learning? Nancy Champlin and Melissa Schissler overview their research on independent and sociodramatic play in relation to other developmental domains.

Along with its identification as one of the core deficits in children diagnosed with autism, often described as lacking in symbolic qualities and flexibility, Nancy and Melissa developed PlayTubs™ to increase appropriate independent and sociodramatic play skills in children with autism and other developmental or language delays.