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Personal boundaries are a convenient descriptive metaphor reflecting the interaction of personality and environment. The purpose of our research is to study and thoroughly describe the formation of this phenomenon in a group of children aged 3-7 years with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). The study was conducted between 2016 and 2019 using qualitative methods (on-line observation, case study, simulation of situations) and involved 14 children who were diagnosed with ASD. The group composition and the study procedure remained unchanged for four years.

The children were asked to participate in the staging of various problem situations (violation of privacy, daily routine, etc.), which made it possible to describe both territorial behavior and to reflect the various manifestations of the phenomenon of personal boundaries (regulation, control, essence, ways of protecting personal boundaries). Statistical analysis showed the presence of dynamics in the development of personal boundaries in children with ASD. Personal boundaries of children in this group are perceived as a physical barrier that unambiguously separates spaces of different people. Another person (adult or child) is also a barrier that divides spaces. A close adult becomes a bearer of the personal boundaries of a child with ASD. The differences in the manifestation of personal boundaries for familiar and unfamiliar children are shown: a considerable degree of freedom and social experimentation in the first case is manifested (a wider range of ways to protect the personal boundaries, regulation and control are more vividly expressed), interaction with unfamiliar children appears threatening due to unpredictable behavior. The phenomenon of the personal boundary has qualitative uniqueness and high adaptive potential, ensuring psychological safety and integrity of children with ASD.

The subject-being approach allows us to speak about the child in the changing world, noting both how the environment impacts personality development and the effect of the child himself on the outside world. The most convenient descriptive design that meets this requirement is psychological boundaries (or the boundaries of “I”). The aim of the study is to describe the development of the phenomenon of children’s boundaries of “I” from the ages of 2 to 7 years old. The longitudinal study was conducted from 2012 to 2017 with the use of qualitative methods: participant observation, simulation (the construction of the house), and case study. The study involved a group of children (14), the composition of which has not changed throughout this period. The dynamic of psychological boundaries is discovered: from physical barriers around their bodies to the labeling of the territory, first physically (pictures, toys, things) to verbally. The research shows that relationships between close people take place at a short distance and the use of destructive methods of protection, and relationships with strangers are characterized by a stronger distancing and constructive ways to protect and control the boundaries of “I”. The psychological boundaries appear as a multifaceted phenomenon which has temporal and spatial length, for alternately finding the “inside” and “outside” of society.