ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we argue for the importance of prioritising play as a proactive and naturalistic way of supporting the wellbeing of young autistic children in Early Childhood Education settings. We present arguments showing that as well as being a right for all children; play presents an important opportunity in the education and care of young autistic children to celebrate neurodiversity and to promote meaningful social engagement for all children. We focus on play as a support for social and communication differences in autism as these are often framed as a significant challenge for autistic children compounded by the social demands of education. However, more recent conceptualisations in the field of autism studies emphasise that successful comunication is a two-way street, arguing that communication challenges are not inherent to autism but rather a property of interactions in which diversity of communicative styles is not considered. We argue that play provides a powerful and protective context for the development of all children’s social and communication skills, making play an important strategy part in early education approaches to foster communication between children of all neurotypes. We conclude this chapter by discussing research evidence on the potential of play in interventions aimed at supporting autistic children within educational contexts and highlighting key take-aways for contemporary approaches to Early Childhood Education (ECE) for autistic children. By supporting a strength-based neurodiversity-informed and inclusive perspective on play, we propose that families, early childhood educators and the broader community can directly impact children’s resilience and wellbeing.
