The present study examined the social significance of changes resulting from teaching symbolic play skills to children with autism using Pivotal Response Training (PRT). Qualitatively obtained results from a previous study indicated that, following symbolic play training, children with autism increased their symbolic play behaviors and play complexity to levels similar to that of typically developing children of similar language ages (Stahmer, 1995). To evaluate the social importance of these results, naive judges rated the play of these same children before and after PRT. The judges rated the play of the children with autism as significantly better after training than before. The ratings indicated that the typically developing children exhibited qualitatively better play skills than the children with autism at both time periods. These findings demonstrate that improvements in symbolic play and play complexity after PRT are meaningful to people in the environment. In addition, they indicate continued qualitative symbolic play deficits for the children with autism that were not apparent in the objective measures. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)