Designed for parents or teachers of young children with autism, this guide outlines the development stages in nonverbal or visual thinking, communication, imitation, and play in children with and without autism. In the section on nonverbal or visual thinking skills, the paper addresses simple sorting and matching, the purpose of sorting, and more complicated sorting and matching techniques. The section on communication discusses expressing needs, expressing specific needs, using gestures, joint attention, using visual information to communicate, signing, using words, and understanding communication. Communication pointers for encouraging communication are provided. The section on imitation reviews the developmental stages, including the imitation of facial movement, the imitation of actions that objects' do not usually perform, imitation of actions that a child cannot see himself perform, object imitation, imitation of body movements, imitating two actions at one time, and imitation of a sequence of actions. The final section on play discusses early social play, toy play, and play with peers. Throughout the paper, sample activities for children with autism have been included as examples of teaching techniques that can be adapted to different developmental levels. The paper closes with a discussion of the unique development of children with autism. (CR)