Boys on the spectrum often have negative experiences with school, sports, and social activities that are easy for most neurotypical kids to navigate. These feelings can intensify during the “in between” years of adolescence as fitting in becomes more important. These kids may not make friendships readily and are vulnerable to exclusion, bullying, loneliness and depression. In school and in therapeutic environments, these kids often participate in engineered socialization/social skills groups that are perceived by kids to be therapeutic rather than recreational. Through a user-centered approach and based on the input of tween boys who have high-functioning autism and the adults who support them, this research explored the characteristics of a socialization group where these boys can make lasting connections with their peers in a truly social environment. 

The goal of this research project is to create social opportunities where boys who have High-Functioning Autism (HFA) can have fun and connect with peers in a safe environment approved by their parents and guardians. Keeping in mind that these boys do not always connect with their neurotypical peers easily and are very specific about their preferred activities, interests, environments, and foods, the aim of this project is to design regular social gatherings that promote conversations, connections, and friendships. Through research and interviews, I explored which activities promote socializing with their peers and are entertaining and comfortable for these kids. 

The goal was to interview representatives for each of the three user types; Tween Boys with HFA, their mothers, and their teachers. Most of the recruiting efforts took place on Facebook. 

Recruiting in a public space generated an enthusiastic response from the “Parents of a Tween Boy with HFA” profile. I tapped into my memberships on various Facebook forums that focus on different aspects of Autism and Asperger’s. Numerous parents volunteered to be interviewed, which allowed me to screen participants and identify four participants who matched all of the attributes in the persona. Only women responded to my online query, so the Parent persona has morphed into the “Mother of a Tween Boy with HFA” persona to be more accurate. Conducting video interviews through Facebook Messenger allowed me to connect with parents from various parts of the US and UK.

With an aggressive timeframe for completing this research, I was not able to recruit a "Tween boy with HFA" from outside of my social circle. I interviewed one boy of 11 who matches the profile. In ideal circumstances I would have spoken with multiple tweens since they are the true target audience of this research. My efforts to recruit teens for an interview online was not successful. For good reasons, online forums generally ban adults from reaching out to minors.

The "Teacher" participant was introduced to me through a connection in my extended personal network. This teacher has 22 years of experience working with middle school aged kids on the spectrum. Her insights provide an objective look at what activities these kids gravitate towards, and she also divulged initial thoughts on how she would plan and prepare for a social event with these kids and what parameters she would set. This teacher offered to have her current students participate in an online survey. Were there a bit more time in the schedule, I would have created the survey and gathered quantitative responses from several tweens. It's tempting to continue this research on my own.

Engaging in hour-long interviews with representatives of the three persona types provided rich qualitative data from all perspectives, some of which countered initial assumptions. 

- 1 Experienced teacher of 6th, 7th, and 8th grade kids with HFA

- 4 Mothers of Boys 11-14 with HFA

- 1 Boy, 11, with HFA

- 4 Interviews were conducted via Facebook Messenger video calls

- 1 By the phone

- 1 In-person

- All interviews were recorded on Voice Memos and processed through Otter.ai to generate a transcript

- Manchester, UK

- Gilbert, Arizona

- Salt Lake City, Utah

- Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

- Arlington, Virginia

The synthesizing process elegantly distills the data of 5-6 hours of interviews into tangible and meaningful findings. The sheer volume of data ingested into this process makes it a time-consuming process. My first, solo synthesizing experience started off rocky as I learned the ropes of the process and navigating Mural.

Hundreds of anonymized, yellow sticky notes, each containing a single excerpt from the interviews were placed onto a Mural board and the sorting process began. By grouping related stickies, themes begin to emerge and are then summarized at the next level of sorting, the blue stickies. It was at this level of synthesis where the key takeaways came together. 

Several patterns emerged during synthesis. The most prominent theme exposed was that preventing or avoiding meltdowns is the underlying concern that weaves through the other findings. 

In this context, meltdowns are what happens when someone on the spectrum becomes agitated to the point that they may lose control of their own behavior and lash out verbally and/or physically. Through the insights from the Teacher participant, I've learned that boys around this age are in the process of identifying and recognizing their own triggers and learning how to react in a way that will prevent a meltdown. In middle school, their peers are no longer as understanding of erratic behavior and may ostracize kids who publicly meltdown. When the dust settles, the boys are often embarrassed and full of regret and over their actions. Unfortunately, at this age the consequences are increased and can include police involvement in extreme cases. Other areas of development are also very important, but I see meltdowns as the most disruptive factor. 

Through a combination of the narratives that were collected from the interviews and secondary research, the following themes emerged from the Tween Boy's point of view:

1. I have the most fun with other kids who have the same interests as me. I am really focused on certain games and hobbies and enjoy talking about them. There are also plenty of non-digital things I like to do, like playing with plushies, ping pong, and some board or card games. But if you want me to have a good time, why not ask me what I would look forward to doing with other kids?

2. While not in my comfort zone, I can usually handle doing something different as long as the details are all clearly laid out. Tell me what will be happening, where, with whom, start and end times, the foods that will be served, and any rules and expectations. I like routines and it's easier to behave when I know what is happening when. 

3. I need help to avoid a meltdown before I do something I regret or am embarrassed about. I'm still learning my triggers and strategies. Group activities are hard for me, I can get overwhelmed in loud or chaotic environments. I'm not good at compromise, get angry when I lose, and sometimes need someone to tell me to take a break.

4. Once I'm in a meltdown, things get really bad quickly. I can't think straight, I'm not always in control of myself, and I may physically lash out. 

5. I often don't pick up on subtle expressions or body language. I may not notice if I've said the wrong thing and hurt someone's feelings. I could use some coaching on social cues and how to be a good friend. 

And a finding from mom's point of view:

6. I spend a lot of my energy helping my son, and this puts stress on me as a parent, and on my marriage. I've struggled to find resources for my kid, and I worry about his ability to make friends and be happy. 

Getting input from more young teens is the next step needed to move forward with a social group for Tweens with HFA.  I suggest distributing a survey directly to the target audience and crowd-sourcing ideas about the activities and formats that would generate the most interest. 

It may be that pairing kids with like interests is more important than having a single gender group of peers. While originally a boys club was proposed, I'm hearing that we may have more participation as a gender-neutral group for kids who share the same interests. 

The age range of the group may need to be adjusted. The Teacher who was interviewed suggested that 11-14 may be too broad a range, and that there is a vast difference in maturity between 6th and 9th graders. It could also be beneficial to include some neurotypical kids who are familiar with Autism. Some adaptive activities regularly bring in neurotypical kids as assistants, or helpers. In this situation we would want to include one or more understanding neurotypical peers.

Looking back at this project, my UX research takeaways all relate to the many ways that I could have expedited the different phases of research.

- Whenever I next plan to conduct recorded interviews online or by phone, I’ll do a technical dry run before speaking with the first participant to ensure recording quality. 

- Working with the transcript only within Otter.ai seems like a far better alternative to bringing everything into Word, as I did out of habit. 

- By learning the hard way, my aptitude in Mural has greatly increased. I made some time-consuming mistakes while bringing over data from the transcripts without understanding Mural functions that could have saved untold hours of effort. 

- From mistakes made in synthesis I’ve learned how to write more succinct, summary stickies that contain single ideas. I lost a lot of time by trying to synthesize too much text rather than pulling out single points. While I do want to retain all of the knowledge collected in the interview, that information exists within the transcript and needn't to be pulled onto stickies. 

- I should assume that steps may take two to three times longer than I expect until I have a streamlined and tested process.

One unexpected challenge I encountered during research was how compassionately I empathized with the struggles of the mothers I interviewed. Whenever I conduct interviews, it's an exciting and energy draining experience, but it's more difficult when your participants are facing really significant problems, sometimes with little or no support. I could not help but to get some expert advice for one of the moms and reach back to her. 

I went into this project with great levels of concern for the boys, and I conclude the project with great concern for their mothers as well

Tween Boy Who Has HFA

Mother of Tween Boy Who Has HFA