Active Play as a Window Into the Worlds of Twins and Triplets With Autism.
Marie Abu Itham, Serene Kerpan, Robert Balogh and 1 others
PMID 40213079WHAT IT FOUND
Parents of twins and triplets with autism described active play as a window into each child's world.
They used it to notice strengths, motivations, and nonverbal cues, and to understand how each child communicated.
Key findings
01Parents described active play as a window into each child's world, with themes covering strengths, facilitation, motivations, interpretation, and communication.
02Parents said observing active play helped them notice motor skills, problem solving, creativity, and intrinsic motivations such as movement, people, mischief, competition, performance, textures, music, curiosity, and creativity.
03Parents described active play as a medium for verbal and nonverbal parent-child communication, and they said observing emotions, sensory regulation, and behaviour helped them perceive enjoyment or dislike of activities.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
Only nine parents were interviewed, all mothers, and eight were parents of twins while one was a parent of triplets, so the sample is narrow. Child diagnoses were reported by parents and not verified in the supplied text. Recruitment used purposive sampling, a support group, and first-come first-serve acceptance, so self-selection bias is possible. Parents who volunteered may already be highly engaged in their children's play, which limits transfer to less engaged families. The study used interviews about perceptions, not direct observation of play, and it did not test an active play programme or measure child or parent outcomes. Member checking was limited: five of nine parents responded to transcripts and three of nine responded to the theme document. As a qualitative study, it produces themes rather than evidence of effectiveness or causation.
Declared interests
The supplied text does not report funding or author conflict-of-interest declarations. It states that participants received a $50 Amazon gift card.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that active play improves communication or reduces parenting stress. The study asked nine parents to describe their perceptions in interviews; it did not test an intervention or measure child or parent outcomes.