How caregivers play with their children is often observed and assessed by community practitioners. Such observations may be used in decisions about child welfare and family support. However, most research and practice focuses on how autistic children play based on neuro-normative models. Building on both academic literature and community experiences, we ask the question: How do autistic parents describe playing with their children? We aim to highlight a gap in understanding, and challenge neuro-normative ideas of play. METHODS: The lead researcher is autistic themselves. I canvassed opinion of autistic people before and during planning, and engaged with an academic autistic mentor throughout all stages of research design and implementation. I conducted semi-structured interviews with autistic parents of autistic children aged 4–10 years old and living in the UK. Interviews focus on experiences of play, including: materials played with, where and when play occurs, and who leads the play. I also asked participants about their experiences of play-observation by professionals. Transcribed interviews were analysed using Thematic Analysis. RESULTS: Eleven participants took part in the study. I used thematic analysis techniques to identify: 1) what autistic parents do when playing with their autistic children; 2) their feelings about and understandings of play; 3) their perceptions of others’ on their play. Five themes were apparent in the data are these were: experience of negative judgements from others; distinctively autistic play; empathic connection; impact on the parent and purposeful play. DISCUSSION: Findings have relevance for a range of autism research and practice settings, challenging ideas based on neuro-normative models. Insight into the characteristics and the natural play styles of autistic parent-child pairs have been extrapolated to generate recommendations relevant to the assessment of play by professionals, in both research and practice settings. For example, noting features of the materials autistic parent-child dyads play with and the environments in which they play. Findings also have important implications for outcome measures in clinical trials which frequently draw on play samples for coding. This project topic specifically provides the foundation for further study of autistic parenting and parent- child interaction, including developing and evaluating new community-endorsed outcome and assessment measures.