Autism Turn Taking Activities: 12 Fun Ways to Teach Sharing

Key Points:

Teaching turn-taking to autistic children can significantly enhance their social communication, reduce meltdowns, and support daily interactions.
Games like rolling ball play, sensory bins with rules, and visual-based board games can make learning turns more predictable and enjoyable.
ABA therapy helps break down complex social skills into manageable steps, supporting consistent turn-taking across various settings.

Learning to take turns may seem like a simple childhood milestone, but for children with autism, it often requires explicit teaching and lots of practice. That’s because turn-taking is about more than just waiting—it involves understanding perspective, regulating impulses, and staying engaged even when it’s not “my turn.” These are all areas where children on the spectrum may struggle. Fortunately, autism turn taking activities can offer structure, predictability, and fun to help build this foundational social skill.

In this guide, you’ll discover 15 engaging ways to teach turn-taking, whether you’re at home, in a classroom, or working alongside an ABA therapist. These ideas are practical, developmentally sensitive, and tailored to meet kids where they are. Let’s break it down.

Why Turn Taking is a Challenge for Kids with Autism

Turn-taking requires a child to pause their own agenda, tolerate delayed gratification, and follow a social rhythm that may not be intuitive to them. Many children with autism find these steps challenging because of:

Delayed social reciprocity: Difficulty interpreting social cues or understanding shared engagement.
Communication delays: Trouble expressing interest, initiating play, or responding to others.
Rigid thinking: A strong preference for routine or a specific way of doing things.
Difficulty with joint attention: Struggling to shift focus between a task and another person.

That’s why effective autism turn taking activities often need visual support, structured routines, and lots of practice to be successful. With consistency and creativity, you can help your child master this crucial life skill.

Play-Based Turn Taking: 7 Fun Activities to Try

Young children learn best through play, especially when the activity is motivating and interactive. These playful strategies are great entry points for teaching turn-taking with both structure and flexibility.

Before diving in, remember: model the behavior, use clear visuals or cues (like “my turn” and “your turn” cards), and keep sessions short and positive.

Here are 7 tried-and-tested play-based activities to support turn-taking:

Rolling Ball Game: Sit across from your child and roll a ball back and forth. Start with short turns and increase time between rolls as your child gets more comfortable with the idea of “wait” and “go.”
Tower Building: Use blocks or stacking cups. Take turns adding pieces while saying, “Now it’s your turn,” or using a turn card. It adds structure and visual progression.
Musical Instruments Jam Session: Use a drum, maracas, or xylophone. One person plays while the other waits. Add a simple rhythm or song to make the transition between turns more predictable.
Pop-Up Toy or Cause-and-Effect Toys: These toys are highly motivating for kids. Let your child press the button after you do. Repeat several rounds to reinforce shared control.
Swing or Slide Turns at the Park: If your child enjoys movement, this is a perfect opportunity. Clearly label whose turn it is and use a timer or countdown if needed.
Bubble Blowing: You blow, they pop. Then switch. It’s playful, sensory-friendly, and encourages communication with gestures or simple words.
Turn Taking in Pretend Play: During tea parties, car racing, or doll play, take turns using props or narrating roles. Keep it simple and short to start.

These activities can be repeated daily to build predictability and fluency. Over time, you’ll notice your child start to anticipate their turn—and yours.

5 Structured Group Games That Promote Social Sharing

When children are ready for more complexity, structured games offer a great opportunity to practice shared space, shared materials, and patience.

Group games also encourage flexibility, especially when a child doesn’t win or has to follow unfamiliar rules. ABA therapists often use these kinds of games in social skills groups.

Here are some great options for structured turn-taking:

Simple Board Games: Think: Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, or Zingo. These games are predictable, visual, and have a clear sequence of turns.
Matching or Memory Games: Flip two cards, take turns, and work on waiting and observing others. Memory games also build focus.
Hot Potato: Pass a soft item around to music. Stop the music randomly. Whoever has the item at the end gets a “point” or does something silly. It adds energy and excitement to the turn-taking process.
Simon Says (With Modifications): One child leads, others follow. You can create a version where everyone gets a turn being “Simon.” This supports imitation, attention, and leadership skills.
Color Sorting Races: Use colored balls or blocks. Players take turns running to sort one item at a time. It encourages shared effort and pacing.

When selecting games, focus more on process than outcome. Even if your child doesn’t follow every rule, the act of turn-taking is the goal.

Visual Supports That Make Turn-Taking Easier

Some children benefit from seeing the structure of turn-taking rather than just hearing it. Visual supports reduce anxiety, create predictability, and clarify expectations.

Before starting an activity, introduce the visual tool with clear, simple language. Keep it visible throughout the play session.

Here are some visual strategies you can try:

Turn-taking cards: Cards labeled “my turn” and “your turn” can be handed back and forth. This gives a concrete representation of the abstract idea of taking turns.
First-Then Boards: Use a simple “first it’s my turn, then your turn” visual. This works especially well for children who need to see their turn coming up.
Timers or countdown strips: Visual timers help manage the anxiety of waiting and promote understanding of how long the turn will last.
Turn-taking tokens: Use a token or object that passes from one person to another when it’s their turn to act or speak.

Supportive visuals paired with clear routines can help bridge the gap for children who find abstract social rules difficult to understand.

Using Everyday Routines to Teach Turn-Taking

You don’t need special materials to teach turn-taking. In fact, daily routines offer some of the most natural and consistent opportunities to model and reinforce this skill.

Turn-taking in real life helps children generalize the concept outside of structured games. This is an area where ABA therapy—like the services offered by Supportive Care ABA—can be especially helpful. Therapists can embed learning goals into mealtime, transitions, and chores to increase consistency.

Everyday examples include:

Brushing teeth: “My turn to brush. Now your turn.”
Serving food: “You give one spoon to me, then I give one to you.”
Pushing the stroller or cart: Take turns “driving” or choosing which direction to go.
Story time: You read one page, your child reads or turns the next.
Meal preparation: “You stir, I pour,” back and forth.

With enough exposure, turn-taking can become part of how your child engages with others—not just during “therapy time,” but in the flow of their day.

When Turn-Taking Becomes a Meltdown Trigger

For many kids, waiting for a turn is hard. When a favorite toy or activity is involved, sharing can feel like a loss, not a skill. If your child melts down when it’s not their turn, know that it’s not just defiance—it’s often communication.

Here are a few common reasons children with autism struggle with turn-taking emotionally:

Lack of predictability: They don’t understand when the turn will end or if they’ll get it back.
Limited impulse control: The urge to grab or continue playing overrides any instruction to wait.
Difficulty regulating emotion: A missed turn feels overwhelming and unmanageable.

This is where ABA therapy can provide crucial support. At Supportive Care ABA, individualized programs are created to:

Break down the skill into smaller, teachable steps.
Use reinforcement to reward successful waiting.
Fade prompts and supports so your child builds independence.
Teach replacement behaviors for grabbing, crying, or yelling.

Turn-taking is teachable—but it takes patience, empathy, and consistent structure.

Teaching turn-taking doesn’t need to be confined to one method or moment—it’s a skill that can be nurtured across different types of experiences, from playful games to everyday routines. In the following ideas, you’ll find ways to make the learning process engaging, visual, and supportive. Whether your child thrives on hands-on activities, benefits from clear visual cues, or is ready for more structured group interaction, there’s a strategy to meet them where they are.

Let’s explore some fun and practical approaches to help turn-taking feel more natural and less stressful for everyone involved.

Wrapping Up: How ABA Therapy Supports Turn-Taking Skills

Teaching turn-taking is about more than rules—it’s about building relationships. The ability to wait, respond, and share space with others opens the door to conversations, friendships, classroom participation, and smoother daily routines. But it doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t happen the same way for every child.

That’s why personalized support through ABA therapy can be so powerful. At Supportive Care ABA, we design individualized programs to meet children at their developmental level and scaffold skills like autism turn taking activities in meaningful, manageable ways.

We’d love to support you and your child on this journey. Whether your child is just starting to explore shared play or working on peer interaction goals, we’re here to help build those foundational skills—one turn at a time.

Get in touch with us today to learn more about ABA therapy in North Carolina, Georgia, Oklahoma, Virginia, and Indiana.