games, as children's universal and inalienable rights, are of universal and important significance to children's growth and development in all aspects. Play is the most important activity in childhood and can be carried out at any time and anywhere. Children play games instinctively, spontaneously, out of interest, and without purpose. They do not need other people to teach or force them, they can play games by themselves.
From a psychological point of view, games are for children to pursue inner perfection, not to obtain external rewards. Through games, children can absorb information from the external world to build their own inner conceptual world.
Through games, children can learn knowledge that cannot be learned in the classroom. They use play to explore and adapt to real-world concepts—time and space, objects, animals, structures, and people. In the process of play, children learn to understand the meaning and value of our symbolic concepts, while they explore, verify and learn about the world in their own way.
Autistic children are children first and follow the growth and development rules of ordinary children, so games are also crucial for them. Play is linked to advances in cognitive, social, communication, language and emotional development. Exploratory play continues to deepen children's understanding of the functions and uses of objects. Symbolic play that involves changing the purpose of objects supports the development of logic, memory, and abstract thinking skills.
Socially, social games can improve those intrinsically connected social cognitive functions, which are essential for developing social skills and forming friendships. However, the lack of spontaneous social interaction and symbolic expression is a typical feature of children with autism, which also leads to difficulties in their participation in games.
So, from this perspective, providing autistic children with opportunities to train their gaming skills is a top priority. Moreover, both in experiments and practical operations, a unified conclusion has been drawn, that is, with social support, autistic children perform better in both the quantity and quality of games in both symbolic and social forms. show greater potential.
Games are not only of great social, cultural and developmental significance to children, but are also closely related to advances in cognitive abilities, language, artistic expression and emotional development.
In terms of cognition, children's knowledge about function, space, cause and effect and classification relationships all come from early game activities. Games create flexibility and creativity in people's behavior and thinking, allowing children to solve problems more efficiently and creatively.
In terms of language, in early development, children play with language in different forms and rules. By trying out the rules of pronunciation, grammar and semantics, children practice and improve their newly acquired language skills. Moreover, peer play can promote children's learning of new vocabulary, complex language structures, and rules of conversation.
In terms of emotional development, play is a natural way for children and adults to cope with stress. Games achieve a cathartic effect by enabling children to overcome and control past and present confusing and painful experiences. Moreover, some studies have shown that social pretend play is related to children's self-regulation.
Games are one of the main ways preschoolers learn. Children with autism may be lagging behind in cognitive, language and emotional development to varying degrees, and effective play settings can actually accelerate learning and understanding.
