Kids Across the Spectrums: Supporting Autistic Children’s Friendships in the Digital Age

ABOUT THE PRESENTATION:

Young people on the autism spectrum often struggle to establish and maintain stable interpersonal relationships. Current research suggests that their social engagement with media has important differences from and similarities to usage of non-autistic children. While there is a growing body of work on the topic, no studies to date have used ethnography to understand the first-hand perspectives of autistic children with diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, their understandings of friendship, and the role that different media forms play in their experience of peer relationships. Drawing on fieldwork from her latest book, Kids Across the Spectrums: Growing Up Autistic in the Digital Age (MIT Press, 2023), Dr. Meryl Alper of Northeastern University will discuss opportunities and challenges for autistic children’s friendships online and offline, as well as offer reflections and parent tips on the shifting nature of friendship and implications for the social spaces that youth on the autism…