'Anything but the phone!': Communication mode preferences in the autism community

'Anything but the phone!': Communication mode preferences in the autism community
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DOI:
10.1177/13623613211014995
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发表时间:
2021-06-25
期刊:
影响因子:
5.2
通讯作者:
Sedgewick, Felicity
Sedgewick, Felicity
中科院分区:
心理学2区
文献类型:
--
作者:
Howard, Philippa L.;Sedgewick, Felicity

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自闭症患者的沟通技巧和风格一直是许多研究的重点,但很少有研究探索自闭症成年人本身的沟通偏好。这项研究调查了自闭症成年人在多种情况下如何更喜欢交流。245名自闭症成年人完成了一份新颖的问卷,要求对七种不同情景下的六种交流方式按偏好顺序进行排序。参与者还提供了定性的回答来进一步解释他们的排名,并完成了自闭症智商、广泛性焦虑障碍量表和伪装自闭症特质问卷。定量数据显示,在访问服务、寻求客户支持和就研究进行沟通时,电子邮件排名很高。在与家人、朋友、就业和教育交流时,面对面和书面方式(电子邮件或短信)都是首选。在定性数据中,确定了四个主要主题:不是电话、书面沟通、掩饰与自闭症沟通和避免沟通。有一个明确的信息,即沟通模式对自闭症患者既可以是启用的,也可以是禁用的。对电话的依赖可能会造成访问障碍,但选择采用书面交流形式可以改善可访问性。对于已知的关系,面对面交流的偏好取决于这种关系的密切程度和接受度。关于这个话题,我们已经知道了什么?关于自闭症患者的沟通方式与非自闭症患者的沟通方式有何不同,特别是在儿童中,已经进行了大量的研究。这倾向于关注父母的报告和实验,而不是询问自闭症患者关于沟通的自己的经历和偏好。这篇文章增加了什么?这篇文章是第一次询问自闭症成年人在不同情况下他们更喜欢如何交流。我们询问他们是否更喜欢在从教育到客户服务再到朋友和家人的场景中使用一系列方法,如电子邮件、电话、信件和即时消息。在联系不知名的人或组织时,我们发现,一般人更喜欢发电子邮件,打电话也很不受欢迎。然而,对于朋友、家人和他们觉得舒服的人,他们更喜欢面对面和书面交流的形式(例如电子邮件和短信)。对实践、研究或政策的影响研究结果表明,服务应该摆脱对电话沟通的依赖。他们应该确保对支持的访问不依赖于电话,而是提供更容易访问的书面选项,如电子邮件和实时消息。未来的研究应该调查新冠肺炎对自闭症患者交流偏好的影响,因为视频通话已经变得更加常用,可能会结合本文讨论的其他模式的优势和挑战。
The communication skills and styles of autistic people have been the focus of much research, but little work has explored the communication preferences of autistic adults themselves. This study examined how autistic adults prefer to communicate in multiple scenarios. Two hundred and forty-five autistic adults completed a novel questionnaire that required six communication modes to be ranked in order of preference across seven different scenarios. Participants also provided qualitative responses to further explain their rankings, and completed the Autism Quotient, the Generalised Anxiety Disorder scale and the Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire. Quantitative data indicated that email ranked highly when accessing services, seeking customer support and communicating about research. When communicating with family, friends, in employment and in education, both face-to-face and written modes (email or text message) were preferred. In the qualitative data, four main themes were identified: Not the Phone, Written Communication, Masking versus Autistic Communication and Avoiding Communication. There is a clear message that mode of communication can be either enabling or disabling for autistic people. A reliance on phone calls can create barriers to access, yet the option to adopt written forms of communication can improve accessibility. For known connections, the preference for face-to-face communication is dependent upon how close and accepting the relationship is. Lay abstract What is already known about the topic? There has been a lot of research into things like how autistic people's communication styles are different to those of non-autistic people, especially among children. This has tended to focus on parent reports and experiments, rather than asking autistic people about their own experiences and preferences regarding communication. What does this article add? This article is the first to ask autistic adults how they prefer to communicate in different scenarios. We asked whether they preferred to use a range of methods, such email, phone calls, letters and live messaging, in scenarios from education to customer services to friends and family. When contacting unknown people or organisations, we found that generally email was preferred, and phone calls were very unpopular. However, for friends, family and people they felt comfortable with, they preferred both face-to-face and written forms of communication (e.g. email and text message). Implications for practice, research or policy The findings suggest that services should move away from a reliance on phone calls for communication. They should make sure that access to support is not dependent on the phone, and instead offer written options such as email and live messaging which are more accessible. Future research should investigate the impact of COVID-19 on autistic people's communication preferences, as video calling has become much more commonly used and potentially combines benefits and challenges of other modes discussed in this article.