Imitation Play Therapy for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Tiffany Field, Ph.D. This talk is a brief review of the literature on the enhancing effects of adult imitation on the social behavior of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Ours and others’ studies are reviewed showing that children with ASD respond more to imitative than contingently responsive adults. After repeated imitation sessions the children showed more distal social behaviors (looking, vocalizing) and proximal social behaviors (moving close to and touching adult). In another coding of these videotapes the children showed more joint attention behaviors following the imitation condition. And in still another analysis of these data, the children with ASD showed less repetitive/stereotypic behavior during the imitation condition.