Navigating play-based contexts: examining the ways teachers support children with autism in kindergarten

Empirical evidence consistently demonstrates that structured tasks, predicable instructional contexts, and explicit teaching contribute to better social and academic success for kindergarten students with autism. Kindergarten classrooms in Ontario, Canada follow a play-based model, where the emphasis is placed on play, inquiry, and elements of child-led learning to aid in developmental and academic growth. This research explores how teachers instruct and plan for children with autism in play-based kindergarten environments. Given the evidence supporting structured learning contexts for students with autism and the open-ended nature of play-based learning, little is known about how teachers navigate this dichotomy. A qualitative multiple case approach was utilized to examine how four teachers supported the social and academic needs of students with autism in a play-based environment. One-hour semi-structured virtual interviews were conducted with each teacher. Three themes emerged from the inductive qualitative analysis: (1) engagement, connection, and adaptation, (2) teaching and planning play-based learning, and (3) play in the kindergarten classroom. Building on the findings of this study, we provide recommendations for how kindergarten and play-based curricula can be adapted to support students with autism are provided.