Structured abstract Background & aimsHow can non-autistic adults facilitate social learning with children on the spectrum? A new theoretical understanding of autism is currently emerging that has made this question more relevant than ever. At the intersection of two growing research areas in the field of autism, the borderland that separates the experience of social interaction between neurotypes is increasingly mapped out. By integrating anthropological research on autistic sociality and the neurocognitive framework of predictive processing, this paper explores the question: If autistic people experience the world in a fundamentally different way, what is a meaningful strategy for supporting them in developing their socialities?MethodsThe paper reports an in-depth analysis of a 2-min sequence in which a non-autistic adult facilitates a collaboration game between three autistic children (8–12 years). The data comes from a participatory research project that develops a new pedagogical approach to social learning based on open-ended construction play. The analytical strategy is informed by conversation analysis.ResultsWe find that the facilitation supports the children in accomplishing social interaction and collaboration, but it also in several instances gives rise to misunderstandings between the children. Whereas the facilitator aims to support the children's direct verbal communication about the construction task, we observe that the children use a broad repertoire of non-direct communication strategies that enables them to coordinate and align their shared process. We find that the children's actions with their hands in the construction task count as turns in the communication. Regarding the play-based learning environment, we find that the children are engaged in the shared construction task and that they competently navigate social tension when it arises without the facilitator's help.ConclusionWe conclude that the misunderstandings between the children created by the facilitation from a non-autistic adult emerge from a discrepancy of attention in the situation. The facilitator focuses on the words, but the children focus on the task. Even though this discrepancy is not necessarily a result of different neurotypes, we find that it emerges from the social dynamics of facilitation by non-autistic adults that is key in many social intervention settings. Furthermore, we conclude that the play-based learning environment enables the facilitator to support the children without directly instructing them in their social behavior. This appears to give the children an opportunity to acquire complex social experiences through their collaboration.ImplicationsThe interaction dynamics in the data clip is shaped by the non-autistic adult's expectations of the children's interaction. This made us wonder whether we can establish a learning environment that begins from the learners’ perspectives instead. The analysis caused us to change the facilitation strategy that we employ in our project. It is our hope that our approach will inspire reflection and curiosity in researchers and practitioners who develop social interventions targeting autistic people.

中文翻译：

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机器人还是自卸车？促进跨神经类型的基于游戏的社交学习

结构化抽象背景和目标非自闭症成人如何促进自闭症儿童的社会学习？目前正在出现对自闭症的新理论理解，这使得这个问题比以往任何时候都更加相关。在自闭症领域两个不断发展的研究领域的交汇处，神经类型之间社交互动体验的分界线越来越清晰。通过整合自闭症社会性的人类学研究和预测处理的神经认知框架，本文探讨了这个问题：如果自闭症患者以一种根本不同的方式体验世界，什么是支持他们发展社交能力的有意义的策略？方法该论文报告了对 2 分钟序列的深入分析，在该序列中，一名非自闭症成人促进了三名自闭症儿童（8-12 岁）之间的合作游戏。数据来自一个参与式研究项目，该项目开发了一种基于开放式建构游戏的社会学习新教学方法。对话分析为分析策略提供了信息。结果我们发现，促进支持儿童完成社交互动和协作，但在一些情况下也会引起儿童之间的误解。鉴于协助者的目的是支持孩子们就搭建任务进行直接的口头交流，我们观察到，孩子们使用广泛的非直接沟通策略，使他们能够协调和调整他们共同的过程。我们发现孩子们在搭建任务中用手的动作在交流中算作轮流。关于基于游戏的学习环境，我们发现孩子们参与了共同的构建任务，并且在没有协调员帮助的情况下，他们能够胜任应对社会紧张局势。结论我们得出结论，儿童之间的误解是由非促进者造成的- 患有自闭症的成年人在注意力不集中的情况下出现。辅导员专注于词语，而孩子们专注于任务。尽管这种差异不一定是不同神经类型的结果，我们发现它产生于非自闭症成年人的促进社会动态，这是许多社会干预环境中的关键。此外，我们得出结论，基于游戏的学习环境使辅导员能够在不直接指导孩子社交行为的情况下支持他们。这似乎让孩子们有机会通过他们的合作获得复杂的社交体验。启示数据剪辑中的互动动态是由非自闭症成年人对孩子互动的期望塑造的。这让我们想知道我们是否可以建立一个从学习者的角度出发的学习环境。分析使我们改变了我们在项目中采用的促进策略。