Childhood Play and Autism

After reading this edited book: Play = Learning by Singer, Golinkoff, & Hirsh-Pasek, I understand how childhood creative and imaginative play is so important as a step to self-regulation, self-talk, and early literacy learning. What interests me is that if a child with autism struggles with imaginative play, then they are missing a key element to literacy learning. How can a special education teacher overcome this?

Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/Play-Learning-Motivates-Childrens-Social-Emotional/dp/0199733821/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421735803&sr=8-1&keywords=play+%3D+learning