Tamar Kremer-Sadlik

Inclusion as Social Practice: Views of Children with Autism

This study illuminates the social realities of inclusion of 16 high functioning children with autism (HFA) in public schools in the United States. The study suggests that the practice of inclusion rests primarily on unaffected schoolmates rather than teachers, who typically are occupied monitoring academic progress and disciplinary transgressions across a range of children. Utilizing ethnographic observations and video recordings of quotidian classroom and playground activities, the analysis elucidates how classmates employ a range of positive and negative inclusion practices that either integrate or distance autistic children. Ethnographic observations of the study population indicate that the children whose diagnosis was fully disclosed enjoyed more consistent social support in the classroom and on the school playground. The study further suggests that high functioning children with autism exhibit a range of reactions to negative inclusion practices such as rejection and scorn. Such reactions include oblivion, immediate behavioral response, and emotionally charged accounts of disturbing school incidents shared after-the-fact with family members. Significantly, these observations indicate that HFA children can be cognizant of and distressed by others’ derisive stances and acts, despite symptomatic difficulties in interpreting others’ intentions and feelings.

Autism and the Social World: An Anthropological Perspective

This article offers an anthropological perspective on autism, a condition at once neurological and social, which complements existing psychological accounts of the disorder, expanding the scope of inquiry from the interpersonal domain, in which autism has been predominantly examined, to the socio-cultural one. Persons with autism need to be viewed not only as individuals in relation to other individuals, but as members of social groups and communities who act, displaying both social competencies and difficulties, in relation to socially and culturally ordered expectations of behavior. The article articulates a socio-cultural approach to perspective-taking in autism in three social domains: (1) participating in conversational turn-taking and sequences; (2) formulating situational scenarios; and (3) interpreting socio-cultural meanings of indexical forms and behavior. Providing ethnographic data on the everyday lives of high-functioning children with autism and Asperger syndrome, the article outlines a cline of competence across the three domains, from most success in conversational turn-taking to least in inferring indexical meanings. Implications of these abilities and limitations are considered for theoretical approaches to society and culture, illuminating how members of social groups are at once shaped by, and are agents of, social life and cultural understanding.

Introduction: morality as family practice:

A universal function of the family is to raise children to think and feel that resonate with notions of morality that relate to social situations, sp to expected and preferred modes of participation in these situations. As notes, ‘[N]one of the moral virtues arises in us by nature . . . [R]athe adapted by nature to receive them, and are made perfect by habit’ (Aristo [4th century BCE]: 26). That is, children are born with a capacity for a knowledge and morality, but the flourishing of these qualities relies upon experiences with intimates. The prime intimate social unit is the famil members ideally provide secure environments that promote an openness about how one should treat other people, build social relationships, ena identities, and at the same time how one should apprehend and creative figure objects in the world. This is a tall order for families, and yet across the world’s societies, rarel ily members reflect upon and strategize about how to raise a moral, sent knowledgeable child beyond selection of and reliance upon children’s religious organizations, and other institutions outside the family. Yet, as th collected in this volume indicate, morality is embedded in and is an ou everyday family practices. The flow of social interactions involving ch imbued with implicit and explicit messages about right and wrong, be worse, rules, norms, obligations, duties, etiquette, moral reasoning, virt acter, and other dimensions of how to lead a moral life. While philosop bate the essence of morality, anthropologists and sociologists the socio configuration of morality, and psychologists the developmental progre morality, there is surprisingly little research on how morality is ena socialized through family interactions involving children. The presen provides five accounts of children’s immersion experiences in munda interactions with parents, which are imbued with moral expectations an ings and which apprentice children into moral life-worlds. 10.1177/ 0957926507069451

How Children with Autism and Asperger Syndrome Respond to Questions: a ‘Naturalistic’ Theory of Mind Task

In light of a well-documented deficit in theory of mind found in high-functioning individuals with autism (HFA) and Asperger Syndrome (AS), this article explores HFA and AS children’s social-cognitive understanding of other people as reflected in their linguistic performance when answering mundane, everyday questions posed by their family members during dinnertime interaction. Ethnographic observations and video recordings of spontaneous interaction at home reveal that, contrary to findings in cognitive psychological research, the majority of the time the children were able to detect their interlocutors’ communicative intentions and produce relevant responses that were marked by their conversational partners as acceptable. This article proposes that this success is due in part to parents who, through different strategies, facilitate their HFA and AS children’s access to socio-cultural perspective-taking and their interlocutors’ intentions, and better their children’s communicative skills.

Eating fruits and vegetables : An Ethnographic Study of American and French Family Dinners.

The French eat more fruits and vegetables than Americans and have lower rates of childhood obesity. This ethnographic study compares various aspects of meal environment in sixteen households in LA, California and Paris, France, and offers insights on the relationship between local practices and preferences and childrens consumption of fruits and vegetables. Our analysis of video-recorded naturalist data reveals that the consumption of fruits and vegetables is linked to the cultural organization of dinner--what, when and how food is served--and to local beliefs about childrens eating practices. We also found that the French model for dinnertime prioritizes the eating of fruits and vegetables more than the American model does. We propose that local eating models should be taken into account in research on childhood obesity and in prevention programs.

Investing in children’s future: Cross-cultural perspectives and ideologies on parental involvement in education

Drawing on two ethnographic studies of everyday middle-class family life in Los Angeles and Rome, this cross-cultural study examines parents’ practices of and beliefs about involvement in children’s education. It analyzes parents’ interviews and naturalistic video recordings of parent–child interactions at home to access parents’ perspectives on and ways of enacting involvement in school-related activities. Findings indicate that while the LA and Rome parents engaged in similar practices, their involvement in their children’s education was experienced differently and motivated by different assumptions. The article argues that differences in parents’ perceptions and practices reflect and reproduce marked cultural preferences and expectations within the local education systems and reveal distinct ideologies regarding childhood. Drawing on Halldén, the study proposes that LA parents tended to treat childhood as a period of ‘preparation’ for adulthood where there is more deliberate shaping of a child’s path, displaying a belief that children’s future much depends on present actions. Rome parents tended to view their child less as a project that they needed to work on, leaving room for children’s autonomy and freedom. Finally, the study argues that the examination of local sociocultural and institutional contexts offers a more comprehensive and situated interpretation of Italian and US parents’ choices and actions.