High School Experiences and Support Recommendations of Autistic Youth

Bottema‐Beutel, Kristen; Cuda, Josephine; Kim, So Yoon; Crowley, Shannon; Scanlon, David

doi:10.1007/s10803-019-04261-0

Cited by 19 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…1 The effects of ableism on autistic people include, but are not limited to, underemployment, mental health conditions, and victimization. [2][3][4][5][6] The motivation for this article stems from ongoing discussions between autism researchers and the autistic community, [7][8][9] with noteworthy contributions from individuals who belong to both groups. [10][11][12][13][14][15] We prioritize the perspectives of autistic people because they have first-hand expertise about autism and have demonstrated exceptional scientific expertise.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Avoiding Ableist Language: Suggestions for Autism Researchers

Bottema‐Beutel

Kapp²,

Lester

et al. 2021

Autism in Adulthood

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In this commentary, we describe how language used to communicate about autism within much of autism research can reflect and perpetuate ableist ideologies (i.e., beliefs and practices that discriminate against people with disabilities), whether or not researchers intend to have such effects. Drawing largely from autistic scholarship on this subject, along with research and theory from disability studies and discourse analysis, we define ableism and its realization in linguistic practices, provide a historical overview of ableist language used to describe autism, and review calls from autistic researchers and laypeople to adopt alternative ways of speaking and writing. Finally, we provide several specific avenues to aid autism researchers in reflecting on and adjusting their language choices.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Avoiding Ableist Language: Suggestions for Autism Researchers

Bottema‐Beutel

Kapp²,

Lester

et al. 2021

Autism in Adulthood

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329

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“…Research has repeatedly shown that autistic children and adolescents have fewer reciprocal friendships 202 , 203 , are often on the periphery of social networks 202 , 203 and spend less time with their friends outside school than their non-autistic counterparts 204 . Autistic adolescents also report a growing awareness of feeling different from others despite wanting to ‘fit in’ 205 , 206 , and frequently experience social exclusion and bullying 135 , which might exacerbate their challenges in making and keeping friends. These patterns persist into adulthood 207 .…”

Section: A Capabilities Approach To Autistic Livesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A capabilities approach to understanding and supporting autistic adulthood

et al. 2022

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There is little comprehensive research into autistic adulthood, and even less into the services and supports that are most likely to foster flourishing adult autistic lives. This limited research is partly because autism is largely conceived as a condition of childhood, but this focus of research has also resulted from the orthodox scientific approach to autism, which conceptualizes autistic experience almost entirely as a series of biologically derived functional deficits. Approaching autism in this way severely limits what is known about this neurodevelopmental difference, how research is conducted and the services and supports available. In this Review, we adopt an alternative research strategy: we apply Martha Nussbaum’s capabilities approach, which focuses on ten core elements of a thriving human life, to research on autistic adulthood. In doing so, we identify areas where autistic adults thrive and where they often struggle, and highlight issues to which researchers, clinicians and policymakers should respond. The resulting picture is far more complex than conventional accounts of autism imply. It also reveals the importance of engaging autistic adults directly in the research process to make progress towards genuinely knowing autism and supporting flourishing autistic lives.

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“…[210] Individuals also spoke about their difficulties socially interacting and communicating [195] which resulted in them being labelled and left out by peers. [197] They often referred to themselves in a derogatory manner (e.g., using terms such as 'freak', 'having a bad brain', 'mentally disabled', 'nerd', 'not normal', 'weird') which some researchers state is shaped by the reactions of others to them. [215] For many this resulted in them masking their autism in an attempt to fit in with peers, which proved exhausting, [193,223] with many bullied because of their differences.…”

Section: 'Their' Autismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It was clear throughout the literature that internal-horizontal or day-to-day transition support was crucial for individuals. [199,207,219] This support commonly included study skills support, [197,205] mentoring, [192,222,226] peer support [193,204,210] and, sometimes, other types of alternative measures such as access to sensory free spaces, activity groups, therapy groups and life skills training. [194,220] Study skill support was common throughout primary and secondary phases [197,204,222] and individuals tended to receive this support through a teaching assistant which they stated was helpful.…”

Section: Transition Supportmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[199,207,219] This support commonly included study skills support, [197,205] mentoring, [192,222,226] peer support [193,204,210] and, sometimes, other types of alternative measures such as access to sensory free spaces, activity groups, therapy groups and life skills training. [194,220] Study skill support was common throughout primary and secondary phases [197,204,222] and individuals tended to receive this support through a teaching assistant which they stated was helpful. [197,205] Assistants aided the individual in a number of ways such as breaking work down into smaller chunks, visualizing learning, discussing academic learning and helping them to prepare for lessons.…”

Section: Transition Supportmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Stories of students with autism, their lived experiences and journey throughout education: A narrative analysis

Pickard-Hengstenberg¹

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Students with autism face a multitudinous array of day-to-day internal horizontal transitions, and school-to-school external vertical transitions, during their educational journey. This research explores the educational and lived experiences of five students with autism. Its intentional aim is to promote greater understanding about their unique needs, to positively inform, influence, policy, and practice. To contribute towards the reduction of autistic disabling educational barriers, in turn enabling students to reach their full potential. Narrative analysis methods were used to explore participants unique first-person experiences, to interpret and analyse their fabula, transcribed spoken words, and sjuzet, non-verbal cues, as a means to represent their true reality. Transition and change theory models were adapted as a tool to represent these findings. Case comparisons were made to identify common themes, which were then compared with general and reviewed literature, to gain a comprehensive understanding about the educational experiences of the wider autistic population. Findings indicated that all participants faced a wide range of academic and emotional-social difficulties, termed concurrent stressors. It was evident that a diagnosis and autism specific support did not guarantee a reduction in stressors and improvement in state of health, due to core autistic features such as co-occurring depression, obsessive phobias, and inescapable social difficulties. All participants experienced the greatest number of stressors and a major deterioration in health, during the secondary phase. All participants experienced a reduction in stressors and improvement in health, during the sixth form phase. The university phase had mixed results with the minority of participants’ health deteriorating, or remaining stable, and the majority of participants showing an improvement overall. This research concludes, autism is a lifelong disabling condition, requiring early diagnosis, to ensure that stressors are understood, supported through autism specific support, to minimise deterioration in state of health, and to improve educational, academic, emotional-social, experiences.

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High School Experiences and Support Recommendations of Autistic Youth

Cited by 19 publications

References 44 publications

Avoiding Ableist Language: Suggestions for Autism Researchers

Avoiding Ableist Language: Suggestions for Autism Researchers

A capabilities approach to understanding and supporting autistic adulthood

Stories of students with autism, their lived experiences and journey throughout education: A narrative analysis

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