Context matters: an autoethnographic study on scaffolding approach to improving pragmatics in child with autism spectrum disorder

Pragmatic language—the social use of language in context—represents one of the most significantly impacted developmental areas in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This paper discusses how scaffolding instructional methods can be used to facilitate the acquisition of pragmatic skills in both Malay and English languages, including turn-taking, interpretation of indirect cues, and social rationale in autistic children. A qualitative autoethnographic single-case study was employed to examine structured communication activities in a twelve-month home-based intervention. Observational journals, familiar conversations, recorded photographs, and reflection notes were used as data collection tools. The data were analysed using Braun and Clarke’s six-phase thematic analysis to identify patterns in communicative development and emotional regulation. Findings from this case indicated that consistent scaffolding strategies, such as verbal modelling, role-playing, daily routines, positively supported the child’s ability to produce the contextually relevant answers and nonverbal communication signals. Additionally, emotional compensation, repetition, and provision of safe learning environment contributed to the development of pragmatic skills, as evidenced in the discussion. This paper contributes to the field of special needs education by presenting a culturally based, low-cost intervention strategy that can be implemented by parents and teachers in Malaysia. Future research is recommended to examine multilingual contexts with larger participant groups in order to improve the universal findings and to better understand the effectiveness of pragmatic language interventions across diverse linguistic and cultural settings.