PEICAS: Peer Interactions involving Children with Autism Spectrum disorder in inclusive classrooms

Children on the autism spectrum are attending school more and more often in general education classes, which both enables and challenges their social participation. The PEICAS project explores how peer interaction succeeds in these natural environments and develops ways to support the social inclusion of children on the autism spectrum in inclusive classes.  PEICAS is an international and multidisciplinary research project coordinated by the University of Eastern Finland and funded by the Academy of Finland.

Goals

1) GAZE RESEARCH We conduct mobile eye tracking research to investigate how children with autism and typically developing children use their gaze in peer interactions.

2) UNDERSTANDING SUCCESS We apply multimodal interaction analysis to investigate how children with autism and typically developing children use multimodal interactional resources to successfully participate in peer interactions.

3) CHILDREN’S VIEWS We use video-stimulated account (VSA) to investigate how children with autism and typically developing children view their ‘interactional success’ and what kind of suggestions they give for enhancing peer interactions in inclusive classrooms.