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Essential Conditions for Research with Children with Autism: Issues Raised by Two Case Studies
Author(s) -
Conn Carmel
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
children and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.538
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1099-0860
pISSN - 0951-0605
DOI - 10.1111/chso.12018
Subject(s) - autism , mainstream , psychology , perspective (graphical) , developmental psychology , citizen journalism , participatory action research , sociology , computer science , philosophy , theology , artificial intelligence , world wide web , anthropology
This article discusses conditions for research into the social experiences of children with autism in real‐life contexts using material from case studies of two boys with autism and their friends in mainstream school settings. It is argued that essential conditions for research with children with autism in ordinary social contexts should include a participatory approach, take a wide perspective of group processes, and account for multiple influences on social behaviour. Socially focused, participatory research design allows the social competencies that children with autism do have to be seen and produces multiple perspectives on children's social activity. Children and adults thinking together and sharing their ideas about the nature of experience for a child with autism and their friends allows for shared interpretations and reduces the very real possibility of one researcher alone making wrong assumptions about the nature of the investigation.