Autism spectrum disorder and shared creativity in mathematics: breaking the stigma of limitation in order to bring out potentialities

Abstract

It was analyzed how the processes involved in shared creativity in mathematics of an 11-year-old student with Autism Spectrum Disorder take place in interactions with peers at the same age. This study aimed to understand how subjects with this condition can generate mathematical ideas when doing collective work, helping peers and getting their help. Based on a qualitative approach, a math creativity test was used as a data collection instrument, and students were invited to respond to it and come up with open problems. Interviews and interactions were recorded, transcribed and, later, treated by using content analysis. Seventeen initial categories were found in which the creative production process occurred in the reality studied, and they were grouped into 4 intermediate categories: a) Personal traits, b) Favorable traits to shared creativity in mathematics, c) Production of ideas, d) Improvement of peers’ ideas. In turn, these were allocated to final categories: a) How an autistic person collaborates in the production of ideas, and b) How an autistic person receives collaboration in the production of ideas. Based on the findings, it was concluded that the performance of the autistic student, with his particular conditions, made the mathematical idea sharing process a phenomenon with many possibilities.