ANALYZING SOCIAL PLAY AND SOCIAL INTERACTION OF A CHILD WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER IN THE INCLUSIVE KINDERGARTEN EDUCATION

The benefits of social play and social interactions have been accepted for children with special needs attending inclusive kindergarten education. This study aims to examine social play and social interaction of a child with autism spectrum disorder in the inclusive kindergarten education. Social play observation form, social interaction observation form, activity adaptation form and parent interview was employed for data collection. Case study was conducted and the sample of this study included one special needed child with ASD. Free play times of the child was video recorded, activity adaptations were reviewed, and an interview with the mother was conducted. The data was analyzed using descriptive analyses technique. The research findings indicated that the child with ASD in an inclusive kindergarten education has limited number of social play and social interactions. Even though these limited social play and social interactions, they had an important impact on the social behavior of the child with ASD.  Inclusive classroom teachers and researchers would get benefit for their teaching skills using this study results.