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Experiencing social connection: A qualitative study of mothers of nonspeaking autistic children

Autistic children do not consistently show conventional signs of social engagement, which some have interpreted to mean that they are not interested in connecting with other people. If someone does not act like they are interested in connecting with you, it may make it difficult to feel connected to...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Jaswal, Vikram K., Dinishak, Janette, Stephan, Christine, Akhtar, Nameera
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7688148/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33237946
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0242661
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author Jaswal, Vikram K.
Dinishak, Janette
Stephan, Christine
Akhtar, Nameera
author_facet Jaswal, Vikram K.
Dinishak, Janette
Stephan, Christine
Akhtar, Nameera
author_sort Jaswal, Vikram K.
collection PubMed
description Autistic children do not consistently show conventional signs of social engagement, which some have interpreted to mean that they are not interested in connecting with other people. If someone does not act like they are interested in connecting with you, it may make it difficult to feel connected to them. And yet, some parents report feeling strongly connected to their autistic children. We conducted phenomenological interviews with 13 mothers to understand how they experienced connection with their 5- to 14-year-old nonspeaking autistic children. Mothers of nonspeaking autistic children represent a unique group in which to study connection because their children both may not seem interested in connecting with them and have limited ability to communicate effectively using speech, a common way people connect with each other. The mothers in this study interpreted a range of child behaviors—some unconventional, but many conventional—as signs that their children were interested in connecting with them, (re)framed child behaviors that could undermine connection as caused by factors unrelated to the relationship, and expressed several convictions that may help build and sustain connection in the face of uncertainty about the meaning of their children’s behavior. Even though their autistic children may not consistently act in conventional socially oriented ways, these mothers reported perceiving their children’s behavior as embedded within an emotionally reciprocal relationship.
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spelling pubmed-76881482020-12-05 Experiencing social connection: A qualitative study of mothers of nonspeaking autistic children Jaswal, Vikram K. Dinishak, Janette Stephan, Christine Akhtar, Nameera PLoS One Research Article Autistic children do not consistently show conventional signs of social engagement, which some have interpreted to mean that they are not interested in connecting with other people. If someone does not act like they are interested in connecting with you, it may make it difficult to feel connected to them. And yet, some parents report feeling strongly connected to their autistic children. We conducted phenomenological interviews with 13 mothers to understand how they experienced connection with their 5- to 14-year-old nonspeaking autistic children. Mothers of nonspeaking autistic children represent a unique group in which to study connection because their children both may not seem interested in connecting with them and have limited ability to communicate effectively using speech, a common way people connect with each other. The mothers in this study interpreted a range of child behaviors—some unconventional, but many conventional—as signs that their children were interested in connecting with them, (re)framed child behaviors that could undermine connection as caused by factors unrelated to the relationship, and expressed several convictions that may help build and sustain connection in the face of uncertainty about the meaning of their children’s behavior. Even though their autistic children may not consistently act in conventional socially oriented ways, these mothers reported perceiving their children’s behavior as embedded within an emotionally reciprocal relationship. Public Library of Science 2020-11-25 /pmc/articles/PMC7688148/ /pubmed/33237946 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0242661 Text en © 2020 Jaswal et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Jaswal, Vikram K.
Dinishak, Janette
Stephan, Christine
Akhtar, Nameera
Experiencing social connection: A qualitative study of mothers of nonspeaking autistic children
title Experiencing social connection: A qualitative study of mothers of nonspeaking autistic children
title_full Experiencing social connection: A qualitative study of mothers of nonspeaking autistic children
title_fullStr Experiencing social connection: A qualitative study of mothers of nonspeaking autistic children
title_full_unstemmed Experiencing social connection: A qualitative study of mothers of nonspeaking autistic children
title_short Experiencing social connection: A qualitative study of mothers of nonspeaking autistic children
title_sort experiencing social connection: a qualitative study of mothers of nonspeaking autistic children
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7688148/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33237946
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0242661
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