Whilst acting as a participant observer, which may have altered the perceptions and the way children play, I uncovered that the children didn’t play in a gendered manner. This finding was striking, as I didn’t expect this to be the case. I found that the boys contested social gender norms (Blaise, 2005) by playing with dolls as well as toys such as cars. I also found that one girl in particular contested to social gender norms (Wohlwend, 2012). …show more content…
This finding is founded on the picture-based activity conducted with the children. The results of this activity oppose what I found in my observations. This finding astonished me because from past experience in working in early years, usually the children’s ideologies are existent and apparent in their play (Burghardt, 2011 and Pellegrini, 2009). Yet here, this was not the case. Which poses the question what are the affects of autism spectrum disorder on gendered