Improving communication between autistic and non-autistic individuals

自闭症患者经常在社交方面遇到困难。事实上，它是如此普遍，以至于它是自闭症诊断的核心标准之一（见：DSM-5标准，APA, 2013）。社会沟通困难影响到生活的所有领域，并可能导致诸如心理健康结果不佳、实现社会互动的机会减少以及在健康和社会护理、教育和就业方面的障碍等问题。长期以来，研究人员一直认为这些困难是由于自闭症的认知和社会“缺陷”。当自闭症以这种方式被视为一种疾病时，自闭症患者被认为无法“正常”交流。然而，自闭症现在也越来越被认为是一种“神经分化”形式，即一种与大多数人“不同，而不是更少”的特定存在方式（Fletcher-Watson and happ<s:1>, 2019: 23）。由于自闭症沟通问题非常重要，在最近的独立优先设置报告中，利益相关者将其确定为自闭症研究的首要任务（James Lind Alliance priority Setting Partnership, in Cusack and Sterry, 2016: 6）。然而，尽管如此，它们仍然“相对较少被研究”（happ<s:1>和弗里思，2020:12）。这项奖学金将广泛分享并建立在我的博士研究成果的基础上，我的博士研究将一种全新的、解放的视角应用于自闭症社会交流的认知语言学研究。一种叫做双重同理心问题的理论（Milton, 2012）认为，非自闭症患者在理解自闭症患者方面同样困难，而自闭症患者和非自闭症患者之间的相互理解问题最好被认为是一种双向的事情。我的研究以双重共情问题为出发点，并试图用关联理论（Sperber and Wilson 1986/1995）从技术认知语言学的角度解释为什么相互理解有时会破裂。研究金的拟议活动围绕三个关键产出展开，每个产出的设计都考虑到可访问性和有意义的利益攸关方参与。虽然主要目的是最大限度地提高研究本身对社会政策的影响，并与更广泛的受众接触，但这些活动也将促进和支持我作为一名早期职业研究员的发展，并为我在社会政策导向研究方面的成功学术生涯做好准备。计划的活动：1)与利益攸关方咨询小组建立伙伴关系并开展合作，共同编制一套关于自闭症和非自闭症发言者之间交流最佳做法的建议或指导说明，特别是在卫生和社会保健环境中。我们将共同考虑我们的研究结果的输出策略，使它们有最大的机会被纳入英国即将出台的残疾人国家战略。2)撰写并出版一本公共科学风格的专著，为普通读者撰写，展示我博士研究的新颖理论贡献。这项研究的出版和传播将增加我的研究概况的可见度，同时最大限度地提高这项关于自闭症语言交流的重要工作对社会政策的影响。3)与当地社区组织Figment Arts合作，制作一系列简短的动画“解释器”视频，以引人入胜和易于理解的方式展示我的研究经验发现。Figment Arts将支持一小群当地的自闭症艺术家学习动画技巧，并制作视频。这些设计将通过社交媒体在网上广泛分享，也将发布在已建立的Boingboing网站上的专门项目网页上。

Autistic people often experience difficulties with social communication. It is so common, in fact, that is it one of the central criteria for an autism diagnosis (see: DSM-5 criteria, APA, 2013). Social communication difficulties impact all areas of life and can contribute to things such as poor mental health outcomes and reduced opportunities for fulfilling social interactions as well as barriers to health and social care, education and employment.For a long time, researchers have thought that these difficulties are due to autistic cognitive and social 'deficits'. When autism is seen as a disorder in this way, autistic people are thought of as not being able to communicate 'normally'. However, autism is now increasingly also thought of as a form of "neurodivergence" i.e. one particular way of being that is 'different, not less' to the majority (Fletcher-Watson and Happé, 2019: 23).Because issues around autistic communication are so important, they were identified as a top priority for autism research by stakeholders in the most recent independent priority-setting report (James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership, in Cusack and Sterry, 2016: 6). Despite this, however, they remain 'relatively little studied' (Happé and Frith, 2020: 12).This fellowship will widely share and build on the findings of my PhD research, which applied a fresh, emancipatory perspective to a cognitive linguistic study of autistic social communication. A theory called the double empathy problem (Milton, 2012) argues that non-autistic people have just as much trouble understanding autistic people, and that problems of mutual understanding between autistic and non-autistic speakers is best thought of as a two-way affair. My research takes the double empathy problem as its starting point and tries to provide an explanation, in technical cognitive linguistic terms using relevance theory (Sperber and Wilson 1986/1995), for why mutual understanding can sometimes break down.The proposed activities of the fellowship centre around three key outputs, each designed with accessibility and meaningful stakeholder engagement in mind. While the primary aim is to maximise impact of the research itself on social policy and engagement with a broader autdience, these activities will also facilitate and support my development as an Early Career Researcher and prepare me for a successful academic career in Social Policy-oriented research.Planned activities:1) To establish and work in partnership with a stakeholder Advisory Group to coproduce a set of recommendations or guidance notes around best practice for communication between autistic and non-autistic speakers, specifically in health and social care settings. We will collectively consider an output strategy for our findings, so that they have the greatest chance possible of being embedded within the UK's forthcoming National Strategy for Disabled People.2) To write and publish a public science-style monograph, written for a general readership, that presents the novel theoretical contributions from my PhD research. The publication and dissemination of this research will increase the visibility of my research profile while maximising the impact of this vital work on autistic verbal communication on social policy.3) To work coproductively with a local community organisation, Figment Arts, to create a series of short, animated 'explainer' videos, presenting the empirical findings of my research in an engaging and accessible way. Figment Arts will support a small group of local autistic artists to learn animation skills and to illustrate, plan and make the videos. These will be designed to be shared widely online, via social media, and will also be posted to the dedicated project webpage, hosted on the established Boingboing website.