Participation of Children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorders in Social, Leisure, and Recreational Activities

Background: Participation, as defined by the World Health Organization, refers to involvement and engagement in life situations, including social, recreational, and leisure activities. Participation in activities provides opportunities for social interaction and the formation of peer relationships.  For children with physical and developmental disabilities (DD), participation has been shown to be associated with a number of positive developmental outcomes, including competency-related benefits (e.g., skill development), social benefits, and psychological/emotional benefits (e.g., enhanced self-confidence) (King, Petrenchik, Law, & Hurley, 2009). Although participation in social, recreational and leisure activities is essential to overall well being, previous literature shows that in comparison to peers without disabilities, school aged children, adolescents, and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) (e.g., Orsmond, Wyngaarden Krauss, & Mailick Seltzer, 2004) are not participating, or participate less, in activities. Whether this finding holds true for preschool and early school-aged children with ASD needs to be investigated.

Objectives: The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the frequency and intensity of participation in social, leisure, and recreational activities for preschool and early school aged children with ASD, in comparison to their typically developing (TD) peers. For purposes of this study, recreational activities will refer to more formally organized and structured activities such as team sports and lessons. Social activities will refer to activities the child engages in with peers occurring outside of the context of a formal recreational activity (i.e., presence of a coach). Leisure activities will refer to activities that the child does alone or with a parent without peers present.

Methods: Parents of young children between the ages of 3 and 8 years were invited to complete an online survey that asked for information about family demographics, child adaptive and maladaptive behaviour, child social skills, parental stress, advocacy and empowerment, family preference for recreation, family cohesion, and service utilization. Additionally, parents were asked about their child’s participation in activities, the frequency of participation, whether the participation occurred with typically developing children, and who supported the child in the activity.

Results: To date, eighty parents of children with ASD (mean age = 68 months) and eighty parents of TD children (mean age = 67 months) completed the survey. As data collection is ongoing, results are preliminary. Data will be presented regarding the child’s level of functioning (adaptive behaviour), social competency, and frequency of participation in social, formal recreational and informal leisure activities, in comparison to similar aged TD peers.

Conclusions: The results of the current study will provide valuable information regarding the frequency of participation of young children with ASD in comparison to their TD peers to see whether previously reported discrepancies in rates of participation of older children and adolescents occur in younger children. The implications of these findings will be discussed in relation to the inclusion of young children with disabilities in activities; and the service needs of these children and their families.