Observational assessment of play

Autistic children often demonstrate different patterns of visual attention when compared with neurotypical children. For example, in a study, they demonstrated a higher visual preference towards trains than faces. Even though initially it was assumed that this preference had to do with a lack of interest in faces, it is now understood that this preference is linked with personal interests (Alcañizm et al., 2021). In fact, some studies suggest that both neurodivergent and neurotypical children show a visual preference for trains over faces, driven by personal interests as opposed to avoidance of faces (Scheerer et al., 2021), which goes against the traditional view of faces being something that babies and young children are naturally drawn to. Eye-tracking devices have also revealed different patterns of eye gaze in autistic children, such as, for example, looking more at bodies than faces. Similarly, instead of interpreting this as a lack of interest in social interactions, it is understood that autistic individuals process social information differently (Alcañizm et al., 2021). This reveals that autistic children have a different way of engaging with the world. Our assumptions about typical developmental patterns have led to pathologising any deviations from the norm and the overwhelming dominance of a medical perspective on different processing styles in education.

This suggests that the lens through which we observe and assess children’s play and social interactions during play may be unhelpful and damaging to the children’s progress. In this chapter, the focus will be on the assessment of play using different lenses and approaches. This chapter aims to challenge assumptions related to the hierarchy of play types through the exploration of processing styles that deviate from the assumed ‘mainstream norm.’ This should form the start of a much-needed discussion around what we value as educators and how we can aspire to learn from the children under our care and help them grow both in confidence and in academic achievement.