Behavioural problems and playfulness of young children with ASD: the moderating role of a teacher’s emotional availability

ABSTRACT

Play and playfulness have a key role in children’s development. Not enough is known about the playfulness of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and its relationship to children’s behavioural problems, as well as the role of caregiver behaviours during play in this relationship. The present study examines the moderating role of teachers’ emotional availability (EA) in the relationship between behaviour problems and playfulness in children with and without ASD. Sixty-three teacher–child dyads, 31 children with ASD and 32 typically developed children, aged 3–6, were videotaped in play interactions, analysed using the Test of Playfulness and Emotional Availability Scales, and teachers completed the Child Behaviour Checklist. A significant negative correlation was found between behaviour problems and playfulness for children with ASD only. Teachers’ EA moderated this relationship, such that high EA eliminated the correlation between behaviour problems and playfulness. Teachers’ EA has an important role in promoting interactions with children with ASD.

KEYWORDS:

• Playfulness
• autism spectrum disorder
• teacher–child interaction
• behavioural problems
• emotional availability

Acknowledgements

The first author would like to thank the Harry and Sylvia Hoffman Leadership and Responsibility Programme and the Samuel and Lottie Rudin Scholarship Foundation for their support during her studies. The authors would also like to thank the teachers, mothers and children who generously gave their time during the course of the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr. Shulamit Pinchover got her PhD form the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare in the Hebrow University of Jerusalem. Currently she is a post doctoal fellow in the Center for Attachment Research in the New School for Social research, New York. Her resrech fucose on parnet-child interactions and children’s play, in children with special needs and children at risk.

Cory Shulman is a professor in the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare and director of the Autism Center in the Hebrow University of Jerusalm, where she heads the specialization in infant and early childhood mental health. Professor Shulman has over thirty years of experience working with individuals and families with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Her current research focuses on longitudinal studies of children with a suspicion of autism, specifically on developmental trajectories. Professor Shulman has helped establish numerous programs for students with ASD in mainstream classrooms, has consulted throughout the country for the Ministry of Education and has led special diagnostic teams for ASD in the country’s HMOs.