Embodied Communication with Students Who Have Autism Spectrum Disorders

This chapter introduces material storytelling (Strand, 2012a) as a methodology that researches pedagogy with more complexity and consciousness than other methodologies and that is therefore well suited to use with the research and communication with students with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Material storytelling is about making material matter and giving equal agency to human and non-human agents. One of the material storytelling modes is stories of artifacts, which involve using different categories of figurines in a sandbox (storyboard). Strand (2014) named this part of the process “Object Theatre.” Object theater invites students with ASDs to investigate firsthand how material artifacts can be used to scaffold social and interactional processes and catch what happens embodied “behind the bag” and lead to new understandings. Giving time to process is an essential part of doing object theater, the artifacts and the handling of the figurines brings embodied associations to life. Strand (2012a, 2014) has described the material grammar used to depict embodied knowledge by using object theater. Object theater has (re)configured my communication with students with high-functioning ASD. Intra-active pedagogy (Taguchi, 2010) and object theater are about involving the student with ASDs as an equal partner in finding the right solutions for him or her.