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Practice, Autistic Pride Day Symposium 2023
Neurodiversity affirming practice, and research that asks autistic children what worked
In short
At the 2023 Autistic Pride Day Symposium, practitioners defined affirming practice, linked it to the trauma they see in autistic adults, and called for research that asks children whether therapies helped them.
Read it instead, 5 minutesThe transcript
The story
Raelene Dundon was asked to say what neurodiversity affirming practice means, and the definition Dundon gave at the 2023 Autistic Pride Day Symposium in Melbourne began by including everyone. The idea covers all brains, Dundon said, neurotypical ones included. The focus falls on neurodivergent people only because society is already set up for neurotypical individuals and practitioners already know how to cater for them. Neurodivergent people need the focus so that accommodations and understanding can catch up.
The core of the practice, in Dundon’s words, is “presuming competence, using strengths, really listening to neurodivergent voices, but individual voices”. Dundon took the last phrase seriously, drawing on a session earlier that day about listening to what people want to do and then working out how to support them to do it. That applies, Dundon said, whether the person has been lucky enough to go through higher education, as everyone on the panel had, or has more challenges in their day and their life. Those people still have things they want to achieve. The discussion continued that practitioners can help them if they are not putting people in boxes, and that the disability community in general, and the autistic community within it, was still a long way from that, with a lot of stigma and many opportunities not provided.
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Sources the story draws on
- National Guideline for supporting the learning, participation, and wellbeing of autistic children and their families in Australia (opens in a new tab), Autism CRC
- Do autism researchers focus on things that autistic people want them to? (opens in a new tab), British Psychological Society (Research Digest)
- PsyBA competency updates: now is the time to enhance your neurodiversity-affirming practice (opens in a new tab), Australian Psychological Society
- Thriving Kids (opens in a new tab), National Disability Insurance Agency
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