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Abstract
Research on people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (henceforth autism) is often based upon biomedical understanding. Such understanding tends to view the characteristics related to autism diagnosis, such as the lack of or atypical use of speech, as a sign of incompetence that can be reduced as an underlying pathology of an individual. However, little research has explicitly investigated how methodological decisions in research might influence the perception of these characteristics. This paper draws on two separate research cases involving minimally verbal children with autism to examine how methodological decisions in research design, data collection, data analysis, and data interpretation influence the construction of communicative (in)competence in these children. The paper encourages researchers to carefully consider and reflect on the methodological decisions they make throughout the research process.
Acknowledgements
Katja Dindar and Professor Kärnä are grateful to the participants of the Children with Autism Spectrum disorders as Creative Actors in a strength-based Technology-enhanced learning Environment (CASCATE) project for allowing them to video record and analyse their interactions. Anne Lindblom gives special thanks to her Indigenous family members in Canada, and all the Indigenous participants, informants and gatekeepers who have been a part of her research project.
Notes
1. The researcher was given permission to use the Travelling song by Ojibway traditional teacher Louise Milburn.