Playing and Growing with Autistic Infants and Toddlers
A Parent's Guide to NDBI in Everyday Life

This book was published with the purpose of providing parents of autistic infants and toddlers with accurate information about autism and guiding them on how to play and learn together in everyday life. It is the 7th book in the 'Guidebook for Social Adaptation of People with Developmental Disabilities' series, produced by the Together Laughing Foundation with support from the Hana Financial Group Sharing Foundation.


The author is an expert in the education of autistic infants and toddlers.
The author, an early intervention specialist who majored in special education in college and earned a doctorate in special education through research on 'NDBI', contains the problems and answers he encountered while supporting autistic infants and toddlers and their families in early childhood education classes, daycare centers, therapy rooms, and kindergartens at welfare centers.


Our society still has a lot of misinformation and unproven treatments about autism.
Autistic infants and toddlers are constantly being shuttled between various treatment rooms, often lacking a peaceful daily routine. It's also difficult for parents to know how to connect with their children, play with them, and learn from them in their daily lives.
To this end, the author systematically organizes scientific and proven effective parenting and education methods for autistic infants and toddlers to provide parents with the right direction.

NDBI, which the author suggests as a core direction, is a parental intervention (Intervention) based on developmental science (Developmental) and utilizing behavioral science (Behavioral) in a natural environment (Naturalistic) of daily life.
It is more effective for autistic infants and toddlers to develop social and communication skills by interacting with their parents and playing in natural environments in their daily lives.
The book provides detailed instructions so that parents can easily understand the method.
You will easily understand how to play together and teach in everyday life.


This book will be of great help to autistic infants and toddlers and their parents as they escape from excessive treatment and energy drain, find a stable daily routine, and grow through play and learning together in everyday environments.

This book provides parents with scientifically proven, accurate information about autism and systematically organizes detailed methods to guide their children's development through everyday play.

--- p.18

Just as important as the diagnosis is the child's current development.
Parents raising children with social communication difficulties due to autism, language delays, and other factors need a good guide on how to be with their children at home and in daily life, and what roles and efforts can be made to help their children grow and develop.
This is because parents are the ones who can closely observe their child's development and have the most diverse interactions that can promote development.
This book scientifically and systematically guides you on how to incorporate it into your daily life.

--- p.19

Above all, parents must become experts.
I'm not saying you have to become a doctor, a teacher, or a therapist.
During infancy and early childhood, the place where a child spends the most time is home, and the people they spend the most time with are mom and dad.
If you know your child better than anyone else and help them develop properly, you can be a great helper in their development.

--- p.22

Not only is there no miracle cure, but unproven treatments can actually be harmful.
We have limited time and money.

--- p.58

The NDBI we will be looking at is an intervention that synthesizes various evidence-based practices.
It is an intervention method that collects various evidence-based practices known to be effective in developing daily life skills, problem behaviors, communication, play, and social skills, which are especially essential in infants and toddlers, and applies them to children's play and daily life.

--- p.62

Effective interventions for promoting the development of young children with autism and reducing the difficulties associated with autism symptoms were those that were 1) naturalistic, 2) based on developmental science, and 3) utilized behavioral science.
The first letters of these three elements are combined to form the name Natural Developmental Behavioral Intervention (NDBI).

--- p.64

So, NDBI emphasizes that parents teach their children naturally through play within the home routine.
Moreover, because children need to learn through play, NDBI emphasizes engaging children in play for as long and as enjoyable as possible.
This way, you can utilize what your child likes and increase his motivation.

--- p.67

NDBI refers to an intervention that combines the principles of developmental science and behavioral science and implements them in the ordinary daily lives of infants and toddlers with autism to promote their development.

--- p.75

For a child to grow well, he or she must experience Love, Play, and Learn.
Loving, playing together, and learning through play are all important, but there is a sequence.

--- p.82

So how do we teach eye contact? "Look at Mom!" "Look straight into my eyes!" Like that? No.
Eye contact should be natural.
Rather than teaching the child to look to mom and dad, mom and dad should go to the child's eyes.
You have to feel like you're going to be there at the crossroads where your eyes pass.

--- p.116

I call this play time where I focus entirely on my child “special play time.”
So how much of this time do you need to support your child's development? The good news is that just 15 minutes a day of special playtime is enough.

--- p.123

Our goal is to enable our children to live in ways they enjoy, with meaningful relationships and with people who are meaningful to them.
If the trust, love, and respect of mom and dad are passed on, our children will surely be able to live happily with others.

--- p.338