Are you a parent of a child aged 8-13 with a diagnosis of autism and/or ADHD in the Greater Boston area? We are researchers at Northeastern University studying the ethics of XR (extended reality) technologies (like VR headsets and PokémonGo) for neurodivergent children who need your help! Complete a 15-minute parent survey and supervise your child participating in a 45-minute Zoom interview. Receive a $75 Amazon gift card for your family’s participation. Please contact study PI, Professor Meryl Alper, at m [dot] alper [at] northeastern [dot] edu if interested.
Hello! We are a team of researchers at Northeastern University looking for autistic women and non-binary individuals who are willing to briefly provide feedback on stimuli we are considering using for a study on autism, body image, and TikTok. The stimuli consist of TikTok content about body image and eating behavior from autistic creators. The stimuli are grouped into two categories: 1) positive messaging on body image and eating behavior and 2) negative messaging on body image and eating behavior. The survey should take no more than 5-10 minutes, and the link to the survey is provided here: https://neu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3kPHmxBDDnR3IgK. Thank you!
Are you a parent, educator, clinician, or therapist of kids ages 8-13 with a diagnosis of autism and/or ADHD in the Greater Boston area? We are researchers at Northeastern University studying the ethics of XR (extended reality) technologies (like VR headsets and PokémonGo) for neurodivergent children who need your help! Participate in a one-time 90-minute in person focus group where you’ll play with an XR game, watch videos about XR, and have a group discussion about your opinions. Receive a $100 Amazon gift card for your participation. Please contact study PI, Professor Meryl Alper, at m.alper@northeastern.edu if interested.
The cover art was created by Jen White Johnson, an immensely talented “Afro-Latina, disabled artist, designer, educator, and activist, whose visual work explores the intersection of content and caregiving with an emphasis on redesigning ableist visual culture.”
“Follow the Light” itself perfectly represents the core message of KAS for several reasons:
1) It’s an artistic collaboration between Jen and her autistic son, Knox. As I note in the book, there’s much to be learned about maximizing the benefits of media and technology for children on the spectrum by better understanding and appreciating relationships between neurodivergent parents and kids, like Jen and Knox.
2) As a collaborator, Knox also showcases how young people on the spectrum can be active media creators, not just passive media consumers, as they are commonly assumed to be.
3) Graphically, the image shows a Black neurodivergent child containing multitudes of color and movement. This is symbolically important considering the insidious ways that structural racism and anti-Blackness have been embedded in the history of autism as a diagnosis and cultural category, as well as how non-White autistic children are regularly denied freedoms and expressions of joy in society.
4) The image reflects “the digital” through pixilation without being so overtly technological. Research for the book took place over several years, from 2013-2020, so I tried to avoid overfocusing on any one technological trend or platform.
I can’t say enough good things about Jen’s work, and encourage you to check out her website (https://jenwhitejohnson.com/), as well as her social media accounts (Twitter and Instagram).
Lastly, I’m excited to share that Kids Across the Spectrums will be made available open access online through MIT Press’ Direct to Open (D2O) program, a publishing approach fully aligned with the book’s emphasis on digital accessibility.
More to come this Fall 2023! Please reach out at m.alper@northeastern.edu if you’d like to arrange a book talk or event in Fall 2023 and Spring 2024.
I’m delighted to share that I’ve recently signed a contract with MIT Press for my next book, titled “Kids Across the Spectrums: Growing Up Autistic in the Digital Age.” Thank you to everyone who has supported me in working on this ambitious project over the past several years.
“Kids Across the Spectrums” will be the first book (academic or trade) to chronicle how kids on the autism spectrum—and across the socioeconomic spectrum—are succeeding and struggling with technology in their daily lives, often-marginalized experiences that I argue also speak to broader questions and concerns about what it means to be “social” with media in contemporary society and amidst a pandemic.
A black keyboard, unattached to a computer, sits atop a small child’s table in the living room of an autistic boy. The table is surrounded by an array of colorful objects, including a TV remote, picture books, and foam letters. (Photo by Meryl Alper)
Over recent decades, assumptions about autistic youth’s “natural” proclivity for technology have underpinned major investments into therapeutic robots and educational apps, as well as workforce training programs in the high-tech sector. At the other extreme, the idea that autistic youth prefer technology over human interaction has manifested in news reports that falsely imply a link between autism, violent video games, and aggressive behavior.
The book centers on the following questions: How are children and adolescents diagnosed with autism actually using media and technology in their everyday lives, of which very little is known? In turn, how might these uses inform more nuanced theoretical understandings of the social and technical worlds, as well as better implementation of technology in therapeutic and educational settings for kids on the spectrum?
Over the past seven years, up through the start of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, I conducted qualitative research in the homes of over 60 racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse autistic children ages 3- to 13-years-old in Boston and Los Angeles. Informed by ethical, communicative, and practical considerations, I interviewed adolescents, for example, about their technology likes and dislikes, consulted with caregivers regarding their hopes and concerns about remote schooling, and observed autistic children playing video games, chatting on FaceTime, and making YouTube videos.
I found, contrary to popular belief, that what autistic kids are doing with media is not necessarily radically different from their non-autistic counterparts. The experiences that they have though are less explained by their diagnosis alone and more by the intersections of their disability with other aspects of their identity. Youth on the spectrum differentially face significant social and health inequalities—including limited recreational opportunities, poor neighborhood safety, and challenges receiving appropriate therapeutic services—and these disparities spill over into their media use in impactful ways.
As I do not identify as a person on the autism spectrum, the book additionally incorporates the research of autistic scholars who focus on autism from a variety of disciplinary, theoretical, and methodological perspectives, as well as the popular writings of disability activists, journalists, and youth themselves, especially regarding their experiences with media and technology.
At its heart, “Kids Across the Spectrums” is about what it means to be “social” around and through technology. I argue that the lived experiences of autistic youth underscore the intricacies, anomalies, and expectations of the socially mediated world. Implicating autism in the complexity of the sociotechnical disrupts the use of autism a symbol through which social normativity is reinforced and opens up new theoretical possibilities within a hypermediated post-COVID social world.
Meryl Alper 