Abstract
The present study is aimed to investigate an effect of models and physical guidances on the facilitation of play behavior that involve symbolic meanings. Subjects are 2 autistic children. Task A is one in which trainer modeles actions according to music, and subjects imitate these actions. Modeled actions are constituted from the extension and constraction of the legs and arms and so on. In this respect, Task A is the same as Task B. But, Task B, where each action inolve symbolic meanings, is different from Task A which does'nt involve them. Trainings are administered across 20 sessions. Results are as follows: (1) Performance in Task B is inferior to one in Task A. (2) In both tasks, play behavior improves, while the amount of physical guidance decreases. These results indicateds: (1) Whether symbolic meanings is involved in tasks or not has an effect on performance on both tasks. (2) Cognition of symbolic meaning is improved by repitative presentation of models and physical guidances across sessions and is able to motivate subjects to perform gragually.
