Purpose: The article explores how individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) talk about their experiences of interactionally troublesome exchanges, focusing on the structural features of their storytelling, especially on their use of reported speech. The study uses data from group therapy sessions involving Finnish-speaking boys aged 11–13. Method: The study uses conversation analysis as a method to examine how children with ASD communicate and share their social experiences through storytelling. The analysis focuses on the storytellers’ choices of what to quote verbatim and how to quote it and the social and moral consequences of these choices. Results: The analysis shows that various choices with respect to reported speech are key to the storytellers’ self-presentation as moral actors. At the same time, the children in our data tend to present themselves in a light that, from this perspective, appears unfavourable. Conclusions: The findings underscore the unique narrative strategies and challenges faced by individuals with ASD in sharing social experiences, emphasizing their distinct approach to storytelling compared to what is known about storytelling in neurotypical individuals. The study has implications for understanding the social communication difficulties of people with ASD, which can become critical in contexts involving bullying, conflict, and other types of interactional trouble.
Stevanovic et al. (Thu,) studied this question.