Autism and Play: An Overview of the Methodological Approach and Preliminary Results

Recent research has discussed co-designing with autistic children in several settings. However, none of these studies have investigated the inclusive play field. This project aims to co-design and evaluate a tool to promote inclusive, collaborative play with and for autistic children in an educational context. It is structured into three phases: Contextual Inquiry, Co-Design, and Joint Engagement Evaluation. This paper aims to provide an overview of the methodological approach used within this project and the preliminary results obtained. In the contextual inquiry phase, observations and interviews with specialists revealed key themes influencing collaborative play, such as the role of structured activities and inclusive environments in promoting engagement. The co-design phase actively involved autistic and non-autistic children in iterative workshops, resulting in a multisensory collaborative play prototype. The final phase, Joint Engagement Evaluation, combined qualitative and quantitative methods, including the Joint Engagement and Reciprocity Index (JERI) and computer vision-based pose estimation using Mediapipe, to measure engagement levels during play sessions. Preliminary results indicate that structured tools and inclusive settings supported turn-taking, joint attention, and collaborative play. Future work will focus on refining the prototype and developing machine learning models to predict engagement patterns, further supporting inclusive play environments.