Where Are the Children’s Voices? A Scoping Review of Autistic Children’s Participation in Primary School Recess

Abstract

Recess is a distinct context in the school day, presenting unique opportunities for participation. However, data collected about recess for autistic children lacks consistency, while participation itself remains largely undefined. In this scoping review, we synthesised research on recess involving autistic children, identifying study characteristics and methods of data collection and mapping the data to a comprehensive participation framework, the family of participation-related constructs (fPRC). We identified 104 studies, mainly interventions, and found that data on participation was mostly absent and instead focussed on child competencies using inconsistent approaches. While subjective experiences are crucial to understanding participation, child self-reports of their recess experiences were typically missing. Furthermore, data was lacking on important contextual and environmental influences on recess, including school culture and climate. We recommend developing tools that collect subjective participation data from children and engaging stakeholders, including autistic children and schools, to help understand, measure and support optimal recess participation.