'Anything but the Phone!': Communication Mode Preferences in the Autism Community

Autor/inn/en	Howard, Philippa L.; Sedgewick, Felicity
Titel	'Anything but the Phone!': Communication Mode Preferences in the Autism Community
Quelle	In: Autism: The International Journal of Research and Practice, 25 (2021) 8, S.2265-2278 (14 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Howard, Philippa L.) ORCID (Sedgewick, Felicity)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1362-3613
DOI	10.1177/13623613211014995
Schlagwörter	Autism; Pervasive Developmental Disorders; Interpersonal Communication; Adults; Context Effect; Written Language; Speech Communication; Telecommunications; Behavior; Preferences; Foreign Countries; Anxiety; Behavior Problems; United Kingdom (England) + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Autismus; Interpersonale Kommunikation; Geschriebene Sprache; Telekommunikationstechnik; Ausland; Angst
Abstract	The communication skills and styles of autistic people have been the focus of much research, but little work has explored the communication preferences of autistic adults themselves. This study examined how autistic adults prefer to communicate in multiple scenarios. Two hundred and forty-five autistic adults completed a novel questionnaire that required six communication modes to be ranked in order of preference across seven different scenarios. Participants also provided qualitative responses to further explain their rankings, and completed the Autism Quotient, the Generalised Anxiety Disorder scale and the Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire. Quantitative data indicated that email ranked highly when accessing services, seeking customer support and communicating about research. When communicating with family, friends, in employment and in education, both face-to-face and written modes (email or text message) were preferred. In the qualitative data, four main themes were identified: "Not the Phone," "Written Communication," "Masking versus Autistic Communication" and "Avoiding Communication." There is a clear message that mode of communication can be either enabling or disabling for autistic people. A reliance on phone calls can create barriers to access, yet the option to adopt written forms of communication can improve accessibility. For known connections, the preference for face-to-face communication is dependent upon how close and accepting the relationship is. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01