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Updated: Aug 31, 2025

Testing Sensory and Multisensory Function in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Published on: April 22, 2015
It Takes a Community: How Environmental Systems Construct (In)Competence in Autistic Peer Interactions
Veronica G Vidal1,2, Daniela P Wachholtz3, Laura J Mattie4
1Department of Speech-Language Pathology, Universidad de los Andes, Santiago, Chile.
Purpose:
This study aims to illustrate how environmental systems shape the peer interactions of an autistic student within the classroom.
Method:
Drawing on the bioecological model of human development, this situated discourse analysis used thematic coding and microanalysis to examine data from semistructured interviews and 10 sessions of direct classroom observations of a 9-year-old autistic student and his classroom communication partners.
Results:
Convergent data across participants, time, and data sources revealed the following systemic influences on peer interaction: predominant medicalized view of autism (macrosystem), educational practices (exosystem), misaligned roles across adults and peers in the classroom (mesosystem), and multimodal opportunities for direct interaction that were supported by objects and physical contact and inhibited by rapid pacing (microsystem).
Conclusions:
Findings illustrate the environmental complexities associated with the development of peer interactions for autistic students. We offer explicit clinical implications for how environmental factors can be addressed in the school-based eligibility determination process and in the Individualized Education Program.
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