Seeking academic help: The case of lower secondary students with autism spectrum disorder and their teachers

Our aim was to complement results obtained using interview data (Zorn & Puustinen, 2017a) by analyzing video data on the same students' (i.e., 11 students with ASD) actual help-seeking behavior as well as their teachers' (n = 17) subsequent help-giving behavior, in everyday classroom situations in both general and resource class within a mainstream lower secondary school. Ten students sought help from their teachers at least once in both contexts, yet interpersonal differences were observed. Although student help seeking partly fell into "traditional " help-seeking categories (i.e., instrumental help seeking, confirmation-asking), new help-seeking categories also emerged (i.e., ambiguous and organizational help seeking). Students always used verbal means to solicit help; in addition, both nonverbal and verbal means to draw teachers' attention were identified. More than 70% of help giving consisted of providing direct feedback, explaining, or instructing. The importance of analyzing the help seeking process in an ecologically valid context is emphasized.