Playfulness of Preschool-Aged Children With Autism in a Sensory Integration Room

Playfulness can be determined by evaluation for the presence of 3 elements: intrinsic motivation, internal control, and the freedom to suspend reality. Playfulness may be affected by the child's physical, social, and cognitive skills and the physical, social, and cultural aspects of the play environment. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the playfulness of children with autism in a sensory integration room. Thirty-six children with autism, with a mean (SD) age of 62.1 (7.1) months, participated. Demographic Information Questionnaire and Turkish version of Test of Playfulness were used. The playfulness of the children with autism were analyzed according to children's gender, age and birth order, parents' age, education level and employment status, family income, and number of siblings. The playfulness is related to the father's education level (<i>r</i> = -0.534, <i>P</i> < .01), the mother's employment status (<i>r</i> = 0.335, <i>P</i> < .05) and family income (<i>r</i> = -0.469, <i>P</i> < .01). Implications are discussed and suggestions for future research are formulated.