Library / Watch / Autistic Pride Day Symposium 2023
Practice, Autistic Pride Day Symposium 2023
Two autistic led programs built belonging around games and STEAM
In short
Opening the first Autistic Pride Day Symposium in June 2023, Next Level Collaboration and FutureTech described programs that teach skills through children’s interests without trying to change who they are.
Read it instead, 5 minutesThe transcript
The story
The first session of the first Autistic Pride Day Symposium, in Melbourne on 18 June 2023, opened with two programs built on a shared premise. Both start from what children already enjoy, and both are led by autistic or neurodivergent people who do not set out to change the children.
Next Level Collaboration came first. Kyriakos Gold, who hosted the session, asked what it was and how the idea had come about. A Next Level panellist described it as a social enterprise that works with neurodivergent children aged 8 to 15, and said it began with research. Matt, whom the panellist called the other half of Next Level, had a few years earlier done PhD research that, in the panellist’s words, they decided was “too good to sit in a drawer”. He had developed a program that used cooperative video games to teach collaborative skills to children in that age group, and they set out to get it into the world.
Sign in to keep reading, listening and watching.
Sign in with your email and everything in the Library is open to you: every story, every talk and every episode. It is free and it always will be. If you can, a donation helps keep it free for everyone.
Sources the story draws on
- Innovative gaming-based program for autistic and neurodiverse children attracts leading university investor (opens in a new tab), University of Melbourne, Faculty of Education
- Video game program affirming childhood neurodiversity to go global (opens in a new tab), University of Melbourne
- Social Skills Through an Autistic Lens: A Qualitative Analysis of Young Adults' Insights and Experiences (opens in a new tab), Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders (Órla Walsh, Conor Linehan and Christian Ryan)
More from Autistic Pride Day Symposium 2023
All 29- 6 minutes 47 seconds, captioned Chris Varney traced ICAN Network to a teacher who pushed him to try Chris Varney In a recorded message to the first Autistic Pride Day Symposium, Chris Varney told how a year seven coordinator’s belief in him became Australia’s largest autistic led organisation, by his account.
- 4 minutes 4 seconds, captioned Australia’s first Autistic Pride Day Symposium asked whether pride had come too early Autistic Pride Day Symposium 2023 Opening the 2023 symposium, Kyriakos Gold asked whether Australia was ready for autistic pride. One panellist said the sector lacked cohesion; others said the moment had arrived and autistic people should lead it.
- 6 minutes 1 second, captioned Parents felt relief when autistic children joined in, and relearned what socialising meant Rebecca McCash At the first Autistic Pride Day Symposium, panellists described parents crying when a child finally joined in, and Rebecca McCash explained why parallel play counts as socialising.
- 5 minutes 50 seconds, captioned Panellists predicted demand for autistic led programs and warned of burnout by 18 Rebecca McCash At the first Autistic Pride Day Symposium, panellists said autistic leadership was becoming an expectation, and Rebecca McCash argued that education itself was where change was most needed.
- 1 minute 50 seconds, captioned Accommodations made for autistic workers help everyone, the first symposium heard Autistic Pride Day Symposium 2023 At the 2023 Autistic Pride Day Symposium, a panellist described early career mistakes that a neurodivergent mentor might have prevented, and the panel heard that autistic people are the canaries in the coal mine.
-
2 minutes 38 seconds, captioned Neurotype, culture or disorder, the first symposium’s closing dialogue began with language Kyriakos Gold Asked what autism is, speakers at the close of the 2023 Autistic Pride Day Symposium in Melbourne described a brain style and a culture, and split on whether the word disorder should stay.