"But-He'll Fall!": Children with Autism, Interspecies Intersubjectivity, and the Problem of 'Being Social'

'Being autistic' or 'having Autism Spectrum Disorder' implies a limited range of 'being social,' but the in situ organization of interaction, what Maynard and Marlaire (Qual Soc 15(2):177-202, 1992) call the 'interactional substrate,' within which this delimitation enfolds is usually hidden from sight. Analysis of processes constituting different 'interactional substrates' provides a view of how one comes to be known by and to self and others as a certain kind of being who is available (or not) for acting and feeling in certain ways. People diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 2013) are often described as 'being' impaired in intersubjective understanding of others. But the story of ASD as an impairment of sociality and intersubjectivity becomes more complicated when animals enter into the picture. I consider two interactional substrates: a psychological interview in a mental health clinic, and an animal-assisted activity in a child's neighborhood. I aim to elucidate the practical problems of 'being social' encountered by two children with ASD, both nine-year-old girls, within these two very differently organized interactional substrates. I consider ways in which 'being with' therapy animals provides a way of 'being social' through "sensory modalities of knowing" (Haraway, When species meet, 2008:371).