“Neurodivergent intersubjectivity” – Dr Brett Heasman and Dr Alex Gillespie

Autistic people are neurologically divergent, yet methods for investigating autistic sociality tend to assume neurotypical definitions of being social. Comparative design often results in autistic behaviour being interpreted as a deficit, rather than a difference, from neurotypical benchmarks.

– Heasman and Gillespie (910)

This study uses the concept of intersubjectivity to investigate autistic interactions and examines the distinctive features of how autistic people build social understanding.

Undoubtedly more features of neurodivergent intersubjectivity will be identified when studies include additional communicative features and contexts. The methodological contribution of this study is to show the utility of studying interactions in terms of within-interaction variation.

– Heasman and Gillespie (919)

Dr Heasman and Dr Gillespie’s article can be downloaded here.