Acknowledging children on the spectrum and their connection with technologies, Irina Silva’s research aims to investigate the influence of digital technologies on children on the spectrum and their everyday life. Irina’s project is a digital ethnographic study that aims to understand the purpose, benefits, and challenges of digital technology use from children’s perspective, respecting their time, ways of seeing, thinking, and routines.

Irina believes that children are the best experts in their lives. Showing children capacities to advocate for themselves, she hopes to bring new understandings to optimise children’s digital technology use in a healthy, safe, and educated way and inform policy stakeholders about children’s digital experiences.

Earliest digital memory
At 6 years old, my parents gave me my first computer and a printer. I love painting, and my father introduced me to the software, Paint! The toner didn’t rest for very long.