Young autistic children are amongst the most scrutinised and assessed in their everyday lives, often leading to characterisations and descriptions that focus on their difficulties (commonly termed ‘deficits’) and challenges rather than on their abilities, strengths and positive experiences.
Digital Stories are short videos that focus on the child’s perspective. The stories show the child doing the things they like doing, and how they interact and communicate with others. Children’s voices and views are, therefore, at the centre of the research. The idea for the Stories came about because we wanted to find a way for all children to contribute their views, experiences and perspectives to educational decision-making. We drew upon our previous work funded by the ESRC that provided insights into the experiences, contexts, and culture of learning experiences for children with autism. The project is a collaboration between members of the Autism Community Research Network @ Southampton (ACoRNS), including Professor Sarah Parsons and Dr Hanna Kovshoff at the University of Southampton, and Kathryn Ivil and team from the Aviary Nursery in Eastleigh. We are supported by funding from the Froebel Trust and the University’s ESRC Impact Acceleration Account.