Active Play as a Window Into the Worlds of Twins and Triplets With Autism

Background: Research indicates that play can facilitate communication and emotional connection for children with autism and their parents. Currently, there is no research exploring the perceptions that parents of twins and triplets with autism have regarding their children's play, despite these parents' unique opportunity to observe and interpret the play behaviours of multiple same-age, same-diagnosis children raised in the same home environment. The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to describe the value that parents of twins and triplets with autism place on active play. Method: The researchers used purposive sampling to recruit abroad sample of mothers (N = 9) of twins and triplets with autism aged 4-11 years old. Participants took part in one semistructured online interview with the researcher which was then thematically analyzed. Results: One central theme emerged from our analysis. This theme is entitled active play as a "window into a child's world" and contains five subthemes: (1) parent perceiving child's strengths and weaknesses in active play, (2) parent facilitating active play experiences, (3) parent perceiving child's intrinsic motivations for active play, (4) parent interpreting child's active play behaviours, and (5) active play experiences as a medium for parent/child communication. Conclusions: These findings suggest that parents value active play because it affords them opportunity to observe their children's characteristics through their active play behaviours (e.g., strengths and weaknesses) and use what they have learned to facilitate new active play experiences that encourage overall development. Through active play, parents also practice communicating verbally and nonverbally with their child.