A Practical Guide to Social Interaction Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxi

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2. Introduction: Mental Health, Mental Illness, and a Critical Position on Autism Spectrum Disorder

   • Michelle O’Reilly, Jessica Nina Lester, Tom Muskett

   Pages 1-30

3. Practical Steps for Doing DA and CA Research in ASD

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 31-31

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   2. Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Introduction

      • Khalid Karim

      Pages 33-60

   3. Social Constructionism, Autism Spectrum Disorder, and the Discursive Approaches

      • Michelle O’Reilly, Jessica Nina Lester

      Pages 61-86

   4. Naturally Occurring Data Versus Researcher-Generated Data

      • Jessica Nina Lester, Tom Muskett, Michelle O’Reilly

      Pages 87-116

   5. Using Conversation Analysis to Assess the Language and Communication of People on the Autism Spectrum: A Case-Based Tutorial

      • Tom Muskett

      Pages 117-140

   6. Understanding the Autistic Individual: A Practical Guide to Critical Discourse Analysis

      • Charlotte Brownlow, Lindsay O’Dell, Tanya Machin

      Pages 141-165

   7. Conversation Analysis with Children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder and Limited Verbal Ability

      • Paul Dickerson, Ben Robins

      Pages 167-191

   8. Student and Supervisor Experiences of Learning and Teaching Conversation Analysis and Discursive Psychology for Autism Spectrum Disorder Focused Research: A Reflective Approach

      • Cordet Smart, Katie Denman

      Pages 193-217

4. Examples of Empirical ASD Research

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 219-219

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   2. The Interaction Is the Work: Rehabilitating Risk in a Forensic Patient with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Learning Disability

      • Sushie Dobbinson

      Pages 221-246

   3. Children’s Use of “I Don’t Know” During Clinical Evaluations for Autism Spectrum Disorder: Responses to Emotion Questions

      • Trini Stickle, Waverly Duck, Douglas W. Maynard

      Pages 247-273

   4. Discursive Methods and the Cross-linguistic Study of ASD: A Conversation Analysis Case Study of Repetitive Language in a Malay-Speaking Child

      • Nor Azrita Mohamed Zain, Tom Muskett, Hilary Gardner

      Pages 275-296

   5. Conversation Analysis: A Tool for Analysing Interactional Difficulties Faced by Children with Asperger’s Syndrome

      • Johanna Rendle-Short

      Pages 297-323

   6. Animating Characters and Experiencing Selves: A Look at Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder Constructing Fictional Storyboards with Typically Developing Peers

      • Kristen Bottema-Beutel, Laura Sterponi, Rebecca Louick

      Pages 325-349

5. Back Matter

   Pages 351-362

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This book introduces a novel approach for examining language and communication in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) - discourse and conversation analysis. The authors offer a set of very different perspectives on these complex issues than are typically presented in psychological and clinical work. Emerging from a range of social scientific fields, discourse and conversation analysis involve fine-grained qualitative analysis of naturally-occurring, rather than laboratory-based, interaction, enabling broad applications. 

Presented in two parts, this innovative volume first provides a set of pedagogical chapters to develop the reader's knowledge and skills in using these approaches, before moving to showcase the use of discursive methods through a range of original contributions from world-leading scholars, drawn from a range of disciplines including sociology, academic and clinical psychology, speech and language therapy, critical disability studies and social theory, and medicine and psychiatry.

• Social constructionism
• Naturally occurring data
• communication by people on the autism spectrum
• cross-linguistic study of ASD
• Critical Discursive Psychology
• ‘I don’t know’ utterances in Autism
• discourse and conversation analysis
• how to talk to children with ASD
• social interactions with ASD
• discourse analysis
• disability studies

“A Practical Guide to Social Interaction Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders is a simple, accessible introduction to the study of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) with discourse-oriented approaches. … This book is an invaluable resource for both new students of discourse and more experienced discursive researchers who are thinking about applying discursive methods to studying ASD. … Overall the book is a nice introduction to the discursive turn in critical mental health and autism research.” (Gates Henderson, Qualitative Methods in Psychology/QMiP Bulletin, Issue 27, 2019)

“With its rich and innovative content, this book is a comprehensive reference to the range of language-focused approaches currently being used in research on neurological disorders. Newcomers from related fields also will find much of value in this collection, which hopefully will spark an increase in the number and quality of related projects.” (Yanhua Cheng, Discourse Studies, Vol. 20 (05), October, 2018)​
“The contributors to this welcome book make a strong case, backed up by vivid examples, for the usefulness of very close analysis of the language and behaviour of people with autism spectrum disorder, and the people around them. As a lively record of the state of the art, it will be an invaluable guide to students and researchers.” (Charles Antaki, Loughborough University, UK)

• University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom

  Michelle O'Reilly

• Indiana University, Bloomington, USA

  Jessica Nina Lester

• Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, United Kingdom

  Tom Muskett

Michelle O’Reilly is a Senior Lecturer for the Greenwood Institute of Child Health at the University of Leicester, and Research Consultant for Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust.  Michelle’s research interests are broadly in child mental health, family therapy, and the sociology of health and illness. 


Jessica Nina Lester is an Assistant Professor of Inquiry Methodology in the School of Education at Indiana University, USA. She teaches research methods courses, including discourse analysis, with much research focused on the study and development of qualitative methodologies and methods. 


Tom Muskett is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Leeds Beckett University, UK.  He has worked in clinical and educational roles with children with diagnoses of autism and their families, and previously led a clinical training programme at the University of Sheffield, UK.  

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