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Description: Play is an essential part of children’s lives (Zhao et al., 2019), a fundamental right of all children (UNCRC, 1989) and a central pedagogical approach within national and international education (UNICEF, 2018). Over the years, there has been much contention in reaching a universal definition of play resulting in difficulties demonstrating its “unique value in relation to children’s development with sufficient strength and rigour” (Howard, 2019, p.201). The role of play as a mechanism for supporting the learning and development of autistic children is even further neglected (O’Keeffe & McNally, 2020; Papoudi & Kossyvaki, 2019). Instead, the overwhelming body of research has focused on a deficit perspective of autistic play with increasing calls to embrace a holistic and strengths-based understanding of autistic play (Hancock, 2020; Pritchard, 2022). Despite the centrality of play in childhood, our understanding of play has centred on ‘adult centric’ perspectives whereby the key players themselves have been overlooked (Fleer, 2021; Howard, 2019; Mukherjee et al., 2023). This research based on consultations with 87 autistic and non-autistic children aims to address this significant gap and seeks to ascertain a child-centred inclusive conceptualisation of play, in line with broader rights-based and participatory research recommendations (UNCRC, 1989; 2013) whereby ‘all voices and forms of voice are valued’ (Wall et al., 2019, p.271).