This study investigates how adolescents with autism use autobiography to negotiate and co-construct their identities. This creation of multimodal autobiographical works took place in an afterschool inquiry group. Using practitioner inquiry in an ethnographic tradition, I examine how the teens created these works in the contexts of the group and…

This current issues piece will explore how autobiographies written by people with autism can help identify sensory processing differences that might be viewed as possible attributes in an enabling society, but for which ableist perceptions are often negative. In concrete terms, these constructions may be preventing people from entering employment…

Autobiographical memory impairments in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have been attributed to a failure in using the self as an effective memory organisational system. To explore this hypothesis, we compared self-defining and everyday memories in adults with and without ASD. Results demonstrated that both groups were able to distinguish between…

Assumptions of difficulties with social interaction, or lack of interest in social interaction, are central to many definitions and conventional understandings of autism. However, many individuals with autism describe a strong craving social interaction. This article uses autobiographical accounts written by individuals who identified as autistic…

Narrative analysis of personal events provides an opportunity for identifying autism specific issues related to language and social impairments. Eight personal events were elicited from three groups of schoolage children: 14 high-functioning with Autism Spectrum Disorders (HFA), 12 non-autistic with developmental language disorders (DLD), and 12…

Much can be learned about the experience of autism by listening to the voices of individuals so labelled. They describe their understanding of competence, living in a culture where autism is considered deviant, deficient and outside the range of 'normal' human experience. This paper utilises autobiographical accounts written by individuals who…

There is a wealth of autobiographical material produced by people who describe themselves as experiencing autistic spectrum disorders. Increasingly, these writers and academics are suggesting that professionals should be using this material to help develop understanding. This paper describes a small scale, qualitative research project that…

Analysis of descriptive reports about individuals with autism included case studies, diagnostic reports, single-subject research studies, family accounts, and autobiographies. Seven distinct types of descriptions were identified, including a child on a specific occasion, typical behavior, what a child should have done, how behavior was…

Autism is currently identified by a set of diagnostic criteria which are based on observable behaviour, denoting a pattern of impairments in communication and social reciprocity, and a tendency for restricted and stereotyped patterns of behaviour and interests. During the past eighteen years, biographical accounts have enriched the conventional…