A Parent's Autoethnography: Examining My Experiences and Identity as Parent, Educator, and Researcher While Teaching Literacy to My Adolescent Sons Who Have Autism and Use Augmentative and Alternative Communication

Abstract

This autoethnography was completed from my unique perspective as a mother to two adolescent sons with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who have complex communication needs and use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) to communicate. Although literacy is a human right (Ontario Human Rights Commission, 2022a), it often has been overlooked in my sons’ self-contained classrooms in high school. As my sons’ parent and educator, I gathered my reflections, observations, descriptions, journals, lesson plans, and artifacts to examine the experiences I encountered in developing their literacy. Initially, I conducted a pilot project based on Erickson and Koppenhaver’s (2007) Children With Disabilities: Reading and Writing the Four Blocks® Way, the results of which guided my planning in teaching literacy with an adaptation of the more recent Comprehensive Literacy for All: Teaching Students With Significant Disabilities to Read and Write (Erickson & Koppenhaver, 2020). I coded by hand each line of the collected data to extract categories and then streamline these into the meaningful themes to respond to my two research questions: (a) What are the experiences of a parent educator who has been teaching literacy awareness and skills to her adolescent sons who both have autism and use AAC devices? (b) Does the experience shape her identity as a parent, educator, and researcher? Thematic findings pertaining to the first question revealed experiences related to planning and questioning and my own transformational learning and mindshift. Thematic findings related to the second question include: Parental concerns; Educator: advocating and imposter syndrome; Researcher: Lesson planning and questioning; and Transformational learning and mindshift. Findings are discussed in light of the literature on experiences of parents as educators of children with exceptionalities. The study also presents implications for theory, practice, and research, as well as limitations and future directions.