Interview needed for graduate level paper

[Alexa]

Hi everyone! I am a graduate student looking to interview family members of individuals with ASD for a paper. I do not personally know a family of an individual with ASD, so I have joined this forum.

If anyone would be so kind and respond to this post answering these questions I would greatly appreciate it!
If you don't want your responses seen, you can email me! [email protected]
I am not using names or identities, just your feedback on the questions. Feel free to use fake names or "my child, sister, my brother, uncle, dad, mom, etc" if it makes you more comfortable.

1. Your perception of ASD:
2. The effect ASD has had on his or her family or themselves
3. Coping strategies they have developed to handle its effects.

 

[Ken S.]

Welcome to the forum. Just a bit of friendly advice. You might get more responses if you had a contract of anonymity and confidentiality as many people don't want their identity known. Also if you had a link to an external site where nobody else could see the responses it might be beneficial. Hope you do well in your studies.

 

[Tom]

1. It's like one of those old legendary enchanted swords. It can give the wielder great power. But you have to be careful that you don't poke your own eye out.
2. I'm on the spectrum myself so it means I 'get' them and they understand me.
3. The ability to make NTs comfortable by making them feel they are the superior/normal ones.

 

[Ken S.]

@Tom Number three is pure gold.

 

[Alexa]

Welcome to the forum. Just a bit of friendly advice. You might get more responses if you had a contract of anonymity and confidentiality as many people don't want their identity known. Also if you had a link to an external site where nobody else could see the responses it might be beneficial. Hope you do well in your studies.

You make a great point! thanks!

 

[Ken S.]

1. It's like one of those old legendary enchanted swords. It can give the wielder great power. But you have to be careful that you don't poke your own eye out.
2. I'm on the spectrum myself so it means I 'get' them and they understand me.
3. The ability to make NTs comfortable by making them feel they are the superior/normal ones.

Here is 1.)

 

[Tom]

Here is 1.)

Never heard that one before. But one of my favorite songs ever is another Moorcock inspired song.

Apologies to OP. We don't mean to hijack. We can just go tangental sometimes. Michael Moorcock is a fantasy/science fiction author who wrote a popular series based on a character called Elric of Melnibone, an anemic and albino king, who is very intelligent, and can be very powerful with the aid of herbs (or an enchanted sword). And '...his subjects find him weak, odd and unfathomable'. Moorcock was a pioneer in presenting non-typical complicated central character.

 

[menander]

I get the feeling that people who study us never really get us anymore than we get them. Like people who study poverty who just got a multi-billion dollar grant. Or people who have had billions to study homelessness and it took a pandemic to make anyone even try to solve the problem.

No, unless you have it or have a family member with it, you won't get it. So I'd like to ask you:

1. Why do you want to study ASD? What is your motivation?
2. Do you have it or does a family member have it?
3. Have you personally (and long-term) dealt with anyone with ASD and how you perceived it?

Just to even things up........

 

[Wolfgangus Faldestolius]

I think you need to have two groups of subjects, diagnosed and undiagnosed at the time the interviewees are talking about. Or whether you want them talking about a range of times.

I.e what was it like coping with a family member you didn't realise was autistic?

Then again among the former we have self diagnosed, those diagnosed by tutors / coaches / ed psych, vs those diagnosed by doctors.

Additionally you need to look at what will be the age groups of both the subjects and the interviewees; do you need ranges of these, or doesn't it matter.

Now I call us important people with ASC the "subjects" and our "satellite persons" merely interviewees , but you have to decide whether you want us the other way round!

 

[Wolfgangus Faldestolius]

Feel free to draw on this but I don't want to put anyone else off responding more privately. I don't think it's feasible to ask them to join in directly so here's what I recall or infer. I'm still single (having moved out when I was 25).

I'm not sure I would have been offered a diagnosis before middle age (it was accepted enthusiastically at my work place). Except there are vague hints in my recall, which may have meant it was about to be broached when I was 10, but unfortunately, if so nothing came of it.

1 - I don't know, though I know my mum was wary of disabilities as she had had to take major responsibilities for others all her life (not knowing if it would reduce or add to her burdens, attract opprobrium by neighbours, etc). The others would probably have been moderately pleased if I'd been "decorated" with a label.

2 - i - older sibling, who was often out - didn't have any effect
ii - younger sibling - found me intermittently difficult (this has not been flung in my face, I infer it)
iii - my late parents - must have been worried sick when I was out of their sight, at any rate after I was about 17. Eventually I muddled my way through a college piece of paper and got a job a long way from them.

I do recall a phase when I was about 12 when I would get the whole family in stitches with my comedy routines (a passing phase, alas). There were a fair few times they could pull my leg about my plane spotting books, also Dad & I had fun on local history walks when I was older.

Before my elder sibling became adventurous, we used to write stories jointly. Later we would go round galleries together. There were a couple of phases of my going around with my younger sibling later on, which was more or less harmonious in itself.

Frictions around my objective failings would occur at home; worries would be caused to my parents when out (after 17). In short, many of my attributes were similar to or overlapped theirs, but I was gormless for my age, in many important respects.

I remember I became difficult for schoolmates to cope with when I was 17 (though I didn't see it then). Prior to then, I was not vivacious but not difficult either.

What happened when I was 17? Well it was following exam stress but there were also strange cultural attitudes that I got psychologically influenced by (not drugs) - those like now were unstable times.

After 17 till middle age, I was always stressed out so that affected how family could interact.

3 - grit their teeth and hope for the best, and laugh with me a lot (if they could).

I've hurried into this but I look forward to knowing why you're doing this; I should have waited!