Chapter 4: Analysis
4.7 Group Analysis
4.7.3 Theme three -‐ Relationships
perceive a lack of control.
Jack was able to highlight his strengths and said “I think I am quite clever” (Jack, interview one, line 180) and Amy was able to identify one of her strengths as being
“Friendly” (Amy, interview one, line 67).
Within the second interviews, Me and Jerry expressed a sense of feeling more resilient and in control of their lives. For example, during interview two, Me described feeling independent:
“I can do things by myself” (Me, interview two, line 292).
Jack spoke of feeling he had resources to cope in adverse situations,
“If someone's following me, all I’ll do now is pretend to like whatever they're saying to me. But I used to get really wound up, angry. Still sort of do, but I just try to hide it away inside me” (Jack, interview two, line 174-176).
Jerry described being enabled to cope with adverse situations with mindfulness techniques:
“So I used mindful breathing to help me calm down” (Jerry, interview two, line 108).
Amy did not express a feeling of being more in control. Although her ‘different’
perception of her experiences of autism and her worries suggests a shift in her feelings about the difficulties with these areas of her life, it is unclear whether she attributes this to internal or external factors.
4.7.3 Theme three- Relationships. The children all seemed to experience challenges in
so many people like a lot of them do like - there's one thing that nearly all people do the same that I do the complete opposite [long pause]” (Jack interview one, line 129-132).
This seemed a difficult feeling for Jack and he communicated a sense of frustration with this feeling, going on to say
“Well...mmm... a lot of people in lower school used to say I act stupid.... and also people, like when I first came into year 5 a lot of people said I’m weird.
Something that I’ll just never forget” (Jack, interview one, line 124-126).
Jerry thought he:
“Can be a bit mental to stand because I don’t really want to … I don't really like to seem pathetic in front of my friends” (Jerry, interview one, 99-103) “because they’re all into like sports and things and I’m not” (Jerry, interview one, line 105-106).
The interpretation of this example was that Jack’s different interests led him to feel that he may be viewed as pathetic – his choice of words illustrates how difficult this was for him.
When asked about her story of autism, Amy expressed her feelings that other people do not understand her, therefore communicating this sense of difference,
“People don’t know like, they don’t understand” (Amy, interview one, line 39).
Me felt that she had different interests to other girls and this caused uncomfortable sensations which she described as “flicker”. A similar term “flippery” was used to describe her feelings of anxiety, so the term was interpreted to suggest uncomfortable feelings of anxiety and worry:
“(Sighs)… Because... I’m not the most popular person in the world because I, I like different things to girls, I’m not really much of a like you know dolls and make up and stuff, it just makes me all flickery as well” (Me interview one, line 153-155).
4.7.3.2 Being alone and isolated. Jack spoke about his experience of autism and when asked if he talked about it at home or with friends, he said:
“Not really. If I did tell a friend they'd just say “what?” 'coz they wouldn't get any of it” (Jack, interview one, line 141-142). This extract illustrates how Jack felt he could not talk to others because they would not understand and was therefore alone with his experience.
Me also explored hiding feelings and not being able to speak out,
“A little bit secretive sometimes. Like some things that are bothering me I can't say because I just think, you know, they can't be sorted. But, erm, yeah. That’s it really” (Me, interview one, line 327).
Jerry stated that talking to friends was “Hard, because I don't know what to say” (Jerry, interview two, line 32). Amy shared a sense of isolation in relation to discussing her worries with others,
“It’s hard, because you don’t know who to tell” (Amy, interview one, line 57- 59).
4.7.3.3 Perceptions of friendships. General perceptions of friendships were explored. Friendships were interpreted to be meaningful to the children and Jack explained the wish to be wanted by others and to have friends:
“Well, I’d just feel really like happy, like someone actually likes me a lot. Like even one of my best friends who's in my group, he wanted to be with someone else, he didn't want to be with me [PAUSE] Just makes me feel like I shouldn't be his friend. He doesn't want me. Never ever wants me in his group. He's meant to be my friend” (Jack, interview two, line 87- 91).
Jerry seemed to be satisfied with his friendships to some extent he said that friendships were:
“Ok…I’ve got (xxx) and (xxx) as a friend. And I also have (xxx) as one of my friends as well coz he goes to the (xxx)” (Jerry, interview one, line 94-95).
Amy expressed friendships being hard during interview one:
“R: Ok thank you for telling me. Erm…what…what are friendships like for you? P:
Hard.” (Amy, interview one, line 22-24).
In interview two there was a sense that things had changed slightly in her experience of friendships:
“R: And what are friendships like for you?
P: Hard. [Pause]
R: Can you tell me a bit more?
[Long pause]
P: Sometimes they're hard and sometimes they're easy” [Pause] (Amy, interview two, line 39-42).
It was interpreted that Me had a sense of acceptance and comfort during interview two in relation to her feelings about friendships,
“I don't have that many close friends I’m not very popular but I’ve got...but it doesn't matter how many friends I have really, it matters how good they are”
(Me, interview two, line 101-103).
4.7.4 Theme four - Connecting to the environment. The children shared