Transitions as a Series of Sequences: Implications in Testing for and Diagnosing Autism

ABSTRACT Children who receive a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are said to have characteristic difficulty with transitions. However, testing that informs ASD diagnosis overlooks children’s conduct during transitions between subtasks of the test. In this article, we describe and analyze the sequential organization of such transitions. First, we show that transitions come as an organized series of sequences, which we call the Transitional Activity Series (TAS). We then show how the TAS is a contingent accomplishment with a structure that clinician and child adapt to emergent troubles in co-orientation. Lastly, we analyze how a particular child’s “rigid and repetitive behaviors,” a criterion of ASD diagnosis linked to transitional difficulty, may work to facilitate, rather than upend, transitions between discrete testing tasks. Data in American English.