Narratives from the autistic spectrum : what does it mean for a young person to be the bearer of an autistic spectrum diagnosis at secondary school?

The aim of this research was to facilitate the voices being heard of two
young people at secondary school bearing an autistic spectrum diagnosis
using a narrative approach. By definition this diagnosis suggested impaired
communication and social interaction skills that should have made the
open questioning style recommended for narrative interviewing difficult to
access. However, insightful descriptions generated by autistic 'insiders', my
own professional encounters and my experience as a mother of a child
with a diagnosis inclined me towards more optimistic constructions of the
autistic spectrum. Adopting a psychosocial, constructionist approach, I
hoped to use narratives to illustrate the complexity of social constructs like
the autistic spectrum and to facilitate the potential for agency:
emancipation from thin, 'problem saturated' discourses. I was keen to coconstruct
thicker narratives as a form of action research that might
generate 'unique outcomes' for my subjects as co-researchers.
I used free-association narrative interviewing to facilitate the coconstruction
of narratives with the two young people. I hoped to explore
meanings the experience of their diagnosis might generate for these young
people against the context of a range of other narratives being told around
them. I reflected upon and analysed each narrative to identify wider
discourses, interpretative repertoires and identity scripts that might be
interacting with the voices of the two young people. I realised that my own
powerful voice as adult co-researcher also required interrogation.
The 'storying' of their experiences suggested to me there was potential for
agency for these young people. Externalising autism as a functional
repertoire could position it as a strength within their experience. However, I
sensed competition between complex, powerful and inter-woven
narratives. Some, like the discourse of normalcy, introduced ambiguous
meanings. I concluded that meaning-making through language was
interactive and inevitably subjective, but could also be unique, generative
and optimistic.