The mismeasure of a young man: an alternative reading of autism through a co-constructed fictional story

Abstract

The combination of academic article and the fictional story it contains represents an attempt to convey our combination of qualitative participatory research and collaborative creative writing as used in a project with a group of young people with disabilities. Through our story involving the fictional character Jasper, we have tried to distil some of the essence of his real-life inspiration, Peter, a young man with autism. At the same time, we recognise the impossibility of "pinning down" any character as a representation of any psychological condition. By questioning the boundaries between science and art, and by considering alternative ways of creating research reports, we present the story as an alternative reading of autism. We suggest that the value of fiction in this context is that it allows a reframing of problems while presenting readers with an accessible means of connecting with others across disciplinary, methodological, and social divides.

Agency of Autistic Children in Technology Research—A Critical Literature Review

“…We have also aimed at providing methodological support for HCI researchers [233]. As an alternative approach to eliciting first-person perspectives Satchwell and Davidge [215] co-created stories that allow insight into how a person might understand their autism for themselves. These findings support de Jaegher's theory about sense-making of autistic individuals [73].…”

Stories as findings in collaborative research: making meaning through fictional writing with disadvantaged young people

“…One limitation of this article is the absence of YRs' own perspectives on the extent to which they felt the process enabled democratisation of meaning-making through collaborative data analysis and storytelling. However, articles they have contributed to and co-authored demonstrate that they feel they had some control over the storytelling and they felt represented in the stories (Satchwell and Davidge, 2018;Satchwell, 2018;Dan et al, 2019). In this article, we reflect on how we facilitated these processes, with attention to our own influence.…”

“…So, to what extent are these evaluative criteria relevant for a participatory project like ours where children are co-authors of stories? In an academic article submitted for publication (see Satchwell and Davidge, 2018), one of the reviewers chose to assess the embedded co-constructed short story using Leavy's (2016) criteria; the story 'failed' on several counts. The inclusion of precise details from our research data at the expense of plot devices and sensory imagery in our fictional story had resulted, according to the reviewer, in a story of diminished artistry.…”

“…One recurrent ambiguity arose from writing stories from the perspectives of the young people themselves: they do not dwell on a 'diagnosis', 'condition' or a 'label', and Satchwell and Davidge (2018) argue for the importance of focusing on human characteristics rather than medical or psychological diagnoses. Writers responded through storytelling techniques: there is no reference in Lenny to SEND, and yet as readers, we recognise his idiosyncrasies, anxieties and triumphs as a human being.…”

Professional Education with Fiction Media

“…The actual process of writing the stories is less under scrutiny in this chapter than in some of the team's other written outputs (see e.g. Satchwell 2018, Satchwell andDavidge 2018), as the focus here is on how the outputs might be useful for professionals. However, it is highly relevant to the present discussion that the fictional stories have been crafted in ways that have always made the young people's perspectives central to the story, along with the additional layers of interpretation and creativity applied by the writer who chooses what to foreground and what to background or delete.…”