How children with autism spectrum disorder perceive themselves: A narrative research

Abstract

Aim: The purpose of this article is, through a dialog between the child and the author, to clarify how children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) perceive themselves. Methods: The qualitative study's participants were nine children with ASD. Their ages were 8–18 years. Data were collected through two sessions of dialog between the child and the author. Data were analyzed through a qualitative inductive approach based on the perspectives of narrative analysis. Results: There were eight categories of how the children perceive themselves. The children talked about themselves as follows. The children with ASD wished to share feelings with others, sensitively read between the lines, and talked about the belief to cherish their friends. They were able to anticipate that repetitive behavior or interest in one thing would end someday. And they then made an effort to deal with problematic matters in social life. Conclusion: This article proposes to understand the experience of “increasing alienation” in children with ASD. As a type of support to understand the child, this article proposed a dialog that elicits communication arrangements, specifically a dialog that focuses on forming a profound relationship of being able to share and communicate with each other.