Initial reading of the narratives produced by children identified as being on the autism spectrum.

I have started really reading my data for the first time today and I am so excited about the treasures hidden within. Today I only focused on the visual narratives created by the children on the autism spectrum. The process of how I went about creating these can be found in an earlier post. These narratives dont sit alone and are part of a wider data set. However, I have identified a number of key themes that permeated through the narratives: Sensory Space to calm down Structure, order and rules Friendships Emotions Transition space

Using the narratives, I have mapped these key themes out in my notebook and will use this data to create a narrative over the next week. For me reading this today, the most startling but not surprising thing that comes through is the childrens inability to discuss emotions. A good example of this is from Michael who took a photograph of the large emotions mat pictured above. Despite having commented on all the other slides in his narrative he said he didnt want to write anything here. I asked him why and he said that he found it too hard. From the other narratives, and the time spent

within the field of research I know that this is a common theme but best summed up by Michaels silence in this photograph.