Kids Across the Spectrums: Growing Up Autistic in the Digital Age (MIT Press, 2023)
Read a free open access version through the MIT Press Open to Direct Program here.
2024 American Sociological Association Honorable Mention, Best Book Award, Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology (CITAMS) Section
2024 Choice Outstanding Academic Title, American Library Association (top 10% percent of ~5,000 works reviewed annually in Choice)
An ethnographic study of diverse children on the autism spectrum and the role of media and technology in their everyday lives.
In spite of widespread assumptions that young people on the autism spectrum have a “natural” attraction to technology—a premise that leads to significant speculation about how media helps or harms them—relatively little research actually exists about their everyday tech use. In Kids Across the Spectrums, Meryl Alper fills this gap with the first book-length ethnography of the digital lives of autistic young people. Based on research with more than sixty neurodivergent children from an array of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds, Kids Across the Spectrums delves into three overlapping areas of their media usage: cultural belonging, social relationships, and physical embodiment.
Alper’s work demonstrates that what autistic youth do with technology is not radically different from their non-autistic peers. However, significant social and health inequalities—including limited recreational programs, unsafe neighborhoods, and challenges obtaining appropriate therapeutic services—spill over into their media habits. With an emphasis on what autistic children bring to media as opposed to what they supposedly lack socially, Alper argues that their relationships do not exist outside of how communication technologies affect sociality, nor beyond the boundaries of stigmatization and society writ large. Finally, she offers practical suggestions for the education, healthcare, and technology sectors to promote equity, inclusion, access, and justice for autistic kids at home, at school, and in their communities.
Events
September 8, 2023: Keynote Address at MediaPsych 2023, Luxembourg
October 10, 2023: NYU/Tech Kids Unlimited, New York, NY (Virtual)
October 18-22, 2023: Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) Conference, Philadelphia, PA
October 25, 2023: Ph.D. Colloquium Talk at Rutgers University, School of Communication and Information, New Brunswick, NJ (Virtual)
November 27, 2023: Drexel University, A.J. Drexel Autism Institute, Philadelphia, PA
November 29, 2023: University of Surrey, Surrey Sociology Dialogues, Digital Societies Series, Surrey, UK (Virtual)
December 21, 2023: Boston Medical Center, Department of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, Grand Rounds, Boston, MA (Virtual)
January 29, 2024: Disability Justice and Crip Culture Collaboratory and the READi Program, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON (Virtual)
February 9, 2024: ALLIED (Allies for Leading, Learning, Inclusion, and Education of Disabilities) Project, Northeastern University, Boston, MA
May 1, 2024: University of Washington, Seattle, WA
June 11, 2024: Boston Ability Center, Wellesley, MA (Virtual)
August 19, 2024: Curtin University, Centre for Culture and Technology, Perth, Australia (Virtual)
November 15, 2024: The Help Group Summit, Los Angeles, CA
November 20, 2024: The Parent Venture, Menlo Park, CA (Virtual)
Endorsements
“Weaving together empathetic research with autistic children with a critique of society’s prejudices and expectations, Alper lays to rest a host of myths, offering instead a deeply humane insight into their digital and not-so-digital lives.”
—Sonia Livingstone, Professor, Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics; author of Parenting for a Digital Future
“This groundbreaking book cuts through the clichés about kids and ‘screen time’ to reveal how young autistic people use digital media to construct identities and communities in a world built for neurotypicals. A timely and important read.”
—Steve Silberman, author of NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity
“This deeply humane book presents a vivid account of how autistic children and their families use media to create rich and rewarding social lives. Parents of neurodivergent children will find validation and reassurance in these pages.”
—Kristen Harrison, Professor of Communication and Media, University of Michigan
Media/Press
Imagine Otherwise, “Meryl Alper on autistic kids’ digital media” (September 2023)
NGN Magazine, “A new book shatters stereotypes about autism and technology” (August 2023)
Women’s Health Magazine, “How a community of TikTokers is debunking disability, one viral video at a time” (July 2022)
Critical Technology Podcast, “Kids across the spectrums” (December 2021)
Meryl Alper 