World Autism Awareness Day | PhD research reimagining Autistic children’s play

On a playground slide, a child jumps up and down. To many, it looks like the same repeated action, but to Yasmeen Multani, it tells a far richer story.

Yasmeen’s doctoral research is challenging long-held assumptions about how Autistic children play and, crucially, how that play is understood.

An Autistic researcher, former early years teacher and now a senior lecturer at the University of South Wales, Yasmeen is using her PhD to shift the narrative away from weakness and towards strength.

“For so long, Autistic children’s play has been seen through a lens of what needs to be fixed,” she explained. “But when you really look, there is so much that is happening. There is curiosity, problem-solving, communication, even risk assessment. It just looks different.”

Traditionally, research and education have often framed Autistic children’s play as something to correct, encouraging it to align with neurotypical expectations. Behaviours such as lining up toys or repeating actions are frequently labelled as ‘restrictive’ or ‘non-functional’.

Yasmeen’s work aims to change that thinking.

Drawing on a complex theoretical framework known as agential realism, her research looks beyond the child alone, considering the whole environment -— objects, space, movement, and relationships — as part of the play itself.

Yasmeen said: “Everything is connected. The child, the slide, the weather, the space. They all shape what’s happening. When you step back and really observe, what might seem repetitive is often deeply sensory, exploratory, and meaningful.

“All of that learning is happening. But if we don’t see it, we can’t support it.”

At the heart of her PhD is a new way of observing and recording play, designed to reveal what often goes unnoticed.

Rather than ticking boxes or measuring children against developmental norms, Yasmeen is developing ‘lively stories’, which are detailed, descriptive narratives that capture the full experience of a child’s play. These stories focus not just on what a child does, but how they interact with the world around them.

The implications for education are significant. If children’s abilities are overlooked because they don’t fit conventional expectations, their development can stall. That’s not because they lack ability, but because their strengths go unrecognised.

“Sometimes Autistic children are already engaging with complex ideas through play, like early maths or problem-solving, but it’s missed,” Yasmeen said. “Then later, they’re taught the same concepts in a way that doesn’t connect with how they naturally learn.”

Her work also highlights the importance of subtle, often non-verbal communication, the shared understanding between children and educators that can easily be invisible to outsiders.

“It can be breathtaking,” she says. “A child who might be described as ‘non-verbal’ is actually communicating constantly but just in ways we don’t always recognise.”

Yasmeen’s research is deeply personal. As an Autistic academic with ADHD and dyslexia, she brings lived experience to her work.

“What drives me is that the narrative needs to change,” she said. “Autistic children deserve to have their strengths recognised and valued.”

Beyond classrooms, Yasmeen hopes her work will have a lasting impact on families.

Too often, she says, parents are told what their child cannot do. Her research offers a different perspective, one that celebrates capability, creativity and individuality.

“When a parent hears about their child’s day, it shouldn’t just be ‘they like the slide’. It should be a story that shows who they are, what they’re exploring, what they’re capable of.”

By making the unseen visible, Yasmeen’s work is not just reshaping academic thinking, it is helping to build a more compassionate and accurate understanding of Autistic lives.