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Open Society
A community-sourced glossary of open scholarship terms
Nature Human Behaviour - Open scholarship has transformed research, and introduced a host of new terms in the lexicon of researchers. The ‘Framework for Open and Reproducible Research...
Discovering a Trauma-Informed Positive Autistic Identity
I comprehend my autism as something entirely different from the stereotype many people have in their minds when someone says “autism.”
Education about Autistic culture, the ND paradigm, and the ND movement – for medical professionals, by Autistic people » NeuroClastic
Join Autistic people from all over the world, committed to the de-stigmatisation of Autistic ways of being and other forms of neurodivergence, in support of the development and delivery of education about Autistic culture, the neurodiversity paradigm, and the neurodiversity movement – for medical professionals, by Autistic and otherwise neurodivergent people.
Rights and Respect (Proud and Supported Series) - Autistic Self Advocacy Network
LGBTQ+ people deserve to be treated with respect, just like everyone else! If you are LGBTQ+, you deserve to be treated with respect by everyone in your life -- including the people who support you. That’s why we made a new guide for LGBTQ+ autistic people called Rights and Respect!…
Autistic People Against Neuroleptic Abuse
In 1998, Dinah Murray founded APANA (Autistic People Against Neuroleptic Abuse), an autistic-led campaign in the UK to stop the overuse of drugs being given to people with intellectual disabilitiesintellectual disabilities. The campaign subverted the medicalization...
Steps to Accessibility - ATXgo!
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Back to Accessibility Resources
Develop New Audiences
Once you have invested in making your programs, facility and services accessible, you will want to create a friendly, warm and welcoming environment. This can be accomplished by remembering to use People First Language and appropriate accessibilit ...
NADC Library | Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior
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How Low-Gain Hearing Aids Can Help With Autistic Auditory Processing
The hearing aids have been helpful for auditory processing. I no longer feel like someone's spraying me with a hose full of painful sounds.
Human Rights Watch: Governments Violated Children’s Rights During Remote Instruction
The respected organization Human Rights Watch issued a damning report about the widespread violation of children’s rights when they were required to use online instruction. Without their knowledge …
ADA Toolkit - ATXgo!
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Learn nationwide accessibility standards established by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and explore resources for making your venue inclusive and accessible to everyone.
Access Resources in Central Texas (PDF Download)
Regulations and Guidelin ...
What we're working on: Human-Centered Interdisciplinary Subject
Our goal is to answer the question: how can we prepare learners for a world that needs them to enact change?
(PDF) Monotropism – An Interest Based Account of Autism
PDF | On Apr 6, 2018, Dinah Murray published Monotropism – An Interest Based Account of Autism | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate
Understanding the Lived Experiences of Autistic Adults
Although there is a plethora of autism-related research, research related to transition and support needs for autistic adults remains limited. The purpose of this study was to understand the hopes, dreams, aspirations, challenges, and lived experiences of autistic adults. Academic literature has largely emphasized autism as a medical deficit, and use of first-person narratives to understand needs of people on the autism spectrum is rare. To fill this gap, I conducted a narrative study through a social model of disability lens and centered voices of autistic individuals. The narrative component of this research allowed readers to understand the subjective experiences of individuals directly from the source. This study included both academic literature and autobiographies written by autistic authors. The coauthor in this study is also an autistic adult who presented his life experiences for a central narrative. In contrast to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which conceptualizes autism as a list of deficits, a number of powerful themes emerged from analysis of autistic authors’ lives: Isolation, Influence of Parents, Differences in Needs: Education and Employment, Empowerment, and Relationships. By using grounded theory analysis, these themes were contextualized via theories of neurodiversity paradigm and monotropism theory to better understand autistic experiences and needs. Furthermore, Milton’s (2012) double empathy problem reconceptualizes autistic experiences as a mutual lack of understanding of other’s behaviors by neurodiverse and neurotypical people, and the appropriate form of treatment would be to work toward understanding these dichotomous behaviors. This research recognized that only someone who is autistic can be considered a true expert on autism; thus, it is imperative researchers consult with and collaborate with autistic individuals to develop the most useful support services possible. By including autistic people in research design, implementation, and support services, academics and therapists can learn from the neurodiverse about problems that the social and cultural worlds present them with, thereby moving toward a more socially just society.
Revisiting monotropism - Autistic Scholar
Based on my experiences, accounts from other autistic people, and experimental findings, I do think that autistic hyper-focus can be either endogenous or exogenous. Expanding the monotropism account to recognize the role of exogenous attention capture in autism helps us explain important aspects of autistic experiences, such as sensory overload.
Review: Neurodiversity, Autism, and Recovery from Sexual Violence: A practical resource for all those working to support victim-survivors — THINKING PERSON'S GUIDE TO AUTISM
Sonny Hallett twitter.com/scrappapertiger [Image: Book Cover. Black text at the top reads, Neurodiversity, Autism & Recovery from Sexual Violence Under is an illustration a seated purple figure holding an armful of pink and purple blossoms. More blossoms surround them on the ground and in the air. smaller black text underneath reads, by Dr Susy Ridout, Illustrated by Catherine Haywood Even smaller black text at the bottom reads,”A practical resource for all those working to support victim-survivors”] CN: discussion of sexual violence and abuse Considering how many autistic people struggle with mental health difficulties related to trauma, there is really very little in the way of resources, let alone good practical guides, for those supporting autistic people dealing with traumatic experiences. What little there is is also so often about us rather than by us, and written from rather clinical and pathologising perspectives. Susy Ridout’s book Neurodiversity, Autism, and Recovery from…
Building Super-Highways – Why Monotropism Works for Autistics
Explaining how autistics naturally build connections in the brain, and why our style of play and special interests are a good thing.
From our very early years, our style of learning has been misunderstood by NT (neurotypical) researchers. Indeed, they even pathologise it in the diagnostic manual, DSM 5, as ‘difficulties in sharing imaginative play’ and ‘lining up toys or flipping objects’. Our exploratory style of play is seen as a negative thing that needs to be addressed. They completely fail to take into account our different processing and learning styles that lies behind our choice to play a different way.
Our ability to specialise from an early age is described as ‘highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus (e.g., strong attachment to or preoccupation with unusual objects, excessively circumscribed or perseverative interests)’ – DSM 5. Our natural way of being is seen as deficient and needing to be fixed.
This failure to understand our neurology and recognise our way of being as equally natural and normal leads to damaging ‘therapies’ being promoted. These therapies look to correct our style of play, and our specialist-style focus on interests, ‘encouraging’ us to leave our natural style and instead mimic the more familiar NT style. Both therapists and parents believe they are doing something helpful and supportive, unaware that they are stealing a very valuable learning tool and leaving nothing but an empty box in its place.
We play differently, because we learn differently, because our brains are wired differently. And this difference has a value and reason behind it. Teaching us to play like NTs is like teaching a cat to behave like a dog ‘because everyone prefers dogs to cats’. There is this false belief that we get bullied because we are different – this isn’t true. We get bullied because children are taught to bully and attack difference. We get bullied because adults choose to support and promote a culture of conformity. Our difference is not the issue, people’s negative attitudes to difference is.
So how do you help support this style of connection building and enable us to develop to our cognitive best?
Support our natural style of play and our more intense focus on interests.Teach to our interests, so we can use the strong connections we have already built.Always give the ‘why’ behind new information. We need it for sense-making and creating the right connections.Give us time to adjust if we are given new knowledge that contradicts our current understanding. We can change our minds, just not quickly.Recognise that our interests are precious to us. See our sharing of knowledge as the love tokens they are intended to be. Don’t destroy our joy.
Final ph dw keay bright
A Critical Realist Approach on Autism: Ontological and Epistemological Implications for Knowledge Production in Autism Research
The ontological status of autism has been a subject of considerable debate and philosophical approaches of it have been recent and sparse. On the one hand, from its conception, autism has been historically heavily located in the fields of psychiatry, psychology and neuroscience, which often assume access to an “objective,” neutral and infallible reality that is external to the research process and is based on the autistic person’s biology and behavioural characteristics, which can be scientifically observed and studied. On the other, proponents of the neurodiversity movement argue against medicalised and pathologising approaches to autism and toward approaches that consider social constructions of autism and relations of power. The Critical Realist philosophy can help reconcile the two positions. Critical Realism conceptualises objectivity as a statement about an object, rather than a neutral and infallible reality. Consequently, Critical Realism suggests that access to reality can only occur through fallible theories. It also suggests that effective theorising goes beyond appearances and phenomena and may even contradict them, which can help challenge dominant behaviourist approaches on autism. I then explore how the tenets of Critical Realism can help strengthen autistic-led theories of autism, the arguments they make, as well as how they support the importance of community autism knowledge. Finally, I present how Critical Realism’s approach to knowledge itself as well a...
Regarding the use of dehumanising rhetoric - The Autistic Advocate
I work with a few researchers, but I’m really picky who i associate with and who I’m happy publically being named alongside. It’s not because I’m a snob, but it’s because if I’m going to engage in research either as a co-creator or as a participant, i need to know who is doing it, can […]
What it’s like to be autistic at an autism research conference
An autistic journalist is cautiously optimistic that the annual INSAR conference is becoming more inclusive of the autism community.
MetaArXiv Preprints | A Community-Sourced Glossary of Open Scholarship Terms
Open scholarship has transformed research, introducing a host of new terms in the lexicon of researchers. The Framework of Open and Reproducible Research Teaching (FORRT) community presents a crowd-sourced glossary of open scholarship terms to facilitate education and effective communication between experts and newcomers.
A community-sourced glossary of open scholarship terms
Nature Human Behaviour - Open scholarship has transformed research, and introduced a host of new terms in the lexicon of researchers. The ‘Framework for Open and Reproducible Research...
From neurodiversity to neurodivergence: the role of epistemic and cognitive marginalization
Synthese - Diversity is an undeniable fact of nature (Gaston and Spicer in Biodiversity: an introduction. Wiley, Hoboken, 2004), and there is now evidence that nature did not stop generating...
Guns & Suicide
Special report by Madeline Drexler, Editor, Harvard Public Health In the national debate over gun violence—a debate stoked by mass murders such as last December’s tragedy in a Newtown, Connecticut,…
Navigating Open scholarship for neurodivergent researchers | FORRT - Framework for Open and Reproducible Research Training
Navigating Open scholarship for neurodivergent researchers Who we are and why is this important? In academia, there has been much discussion about how open scholarship can benefit marginalised voices (e.g. Robertson, 2020; Pownall et al., 2020). However, neurodivergent individuals (e.g. dyslexic, autistic, ADHD) have received little attention. According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, only 2.
‘I can actually do it without any help or someone watching over me all the time and giving me constant instruction’: Autistic adolescent boys' perspectives on engagement in online video gaming
Research into autistic adolescents' engagement in online gaming has so far focused on time spent gaming, or characterizing problematic gaming behaviour and has relied mostly on caregiver report. In t...
Our findings show the need to include the viewpoints of autistic young people in research about their interests and well-being, and provide insights that can help caregivers and professionals to support autistic young people in flourishing.
We asked autistic adolescents about gaming, and they gave insightful commentary on how it increases their well-being.
Gaming provides opportunities for emotion regulation and agency for autistic adolescents.
Our study emphasizes the importance of considering the first-hand perspectives of autistic young people.
Online gaming engagement is one potential area of exploration for understanding factors that contribute towards positive well-being in autistic CYP, who spend significantly more time engaging in online gaming than NT peers (Mazurek & Engelhardt, 2013).
However, a self-report study from Pavlopoulou (2020) examining sleep and well-being in autistic CYP found that engaging in video games prior to bedtime could help young people to unwind as part of their regular nightly routine.
Several studies have suggested that autistic CYP engage in gaming more frequently than non-autistic CYP (Mazurek & Engelhardt, 2013; Mazurek & Wenstrup, 2012; Shane & Albert, 2008). Kuo et al. (2014) found that autistic CYP mostly played video games alone; however, around one-quarter of their sample played with peers, using messaging and chats to communicate during gaming. The authors also found that CYP who used computers for social purposes reported more positive friendships.
The disagreement between what parents saw as ‘valuable’ activities, and what CYP preferred to do caused stress and conflict. These findings suggest that previous research into gaming behaviour in autistic CYP might reflect parental bias in perceptions of their child's gaming behaviour. It is unclear whether gaming is actually ‘problematic’, or simply reflects the parents’ desire for the child to engage in alternative activities.
A meta-analysis from Grynszpan et al. (2014) suggested that technology-based interventions focused on improving ‘social skills’ had limited efficacy.
There is a lack of evidence as to how beneficial the CYP themselves rate these ‘social skills’ to be, and how they relate to their own personal well-being.
In regard to personal well-being outcomes, Zayeni et al. (2020) conducted a systematic review to examine the use of video games as a therapeutic support with autistic CYP. They found that commercially available video games can support young people in developing their emotion regulation skills, and to reduce anxiety. However, there is a lack of longitudinal research to help us understand the long-term outcomes of such gaming.
Mazurek et al. (2015) found that video game play offered relief from stress and anxiety experienced in daily life and provided an opportunity for autistic people to momentarily escape from these emotions. This positive impact of gaming on mood is consistent with research from Villani et al. (2018) who identified emotional regulation (ER) as a positive outcome during gaming. They also found that fun and entertainment were highlighted as a major motivator for video game play, which linked to specific game features contributing to the level of enjoyment, for example, achievement and challenge. Similarly, Finke et al. (2018) found that forming and maintaining friendships, emotional regulation, skill development and escapism were key motivators in the gaming engagement of autistic young (mostly male) adults. The participants described gaming as positively impacting their well-being in multiple ways, and providing a therapeutic way to disengage from the stressors of everyday life.
Gallup et al. (2016) found that online games provide a space for autistic young men to socialize with people who share interests, and work together with others to complete quests. These studies highlight the benefits of gaming in autistic young adults from their own perspective.
Their testimony demonstrated that gaming has a positive impact on the subjective well-being of autistic people, and may provide valuable insights into the ways in which autistic people manage their own mental health needs (Lam et al., 2021).
Overall, the findings of this research were consistent with previous studies showing that gaming provides a positive outlet for autistic people. However, unlike previous studies, we did not focus on how this testimony could be used to encourage normative social skills. Instead, our findings highlight the need to acknowledge and validate the viewpoints and experiences of autistic young people in research about their interests and well-being. The young people in this study demonstrated a complex understanding of their own interests, emotional needs, outsider perceptions (i.e. parental disagreements) and challenges in balancing responsibilities with leisure time. We recommend that instead of focusing on the use of autistic CYP interests as a way to develop skills that we think they may find challenging, we should recognize that autistic CYP may already be developing these skills (e.g. autonomy) in ways that adults may not expect. Helping caregivers and educators to recognize the insights that young people have into their own needs, and supporting young people to ‘invite them in’ can lead to further self-development opportunities for young people to find their own methods for self-regulation and skill development.
The young people in this study did acknowledge that it could be difficult to disengage from gaming when they were immersed in completing a particular task, and that this might cause difficulty in other aspects of their daily routine (i.e. remembering to go to sleep, or eat dinner). This increase in immersion can be explained by the monotropic attentional style theorized to be a core feature of autistic cognition (Murray et al., 2005). Monotropism is characterized by a more singular attentional allocation (as opposed to spreading attention across stimuli, in a polytropic manner) and can lead to increased flow states (McDonnell & Milton, 2014), where complete absorption in an enjoyable task can make it more challenging to track the passing of time (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990) and disengage from one task to move on to another. Finding ways to balance engagement in leisure activities with other responsibilities is something many people (autistic or not) have to learn to develop as they transition into adulthood and as responsibilities increase. Placing strict restrictions on gaming time is unlikely to help young people to develop this balance effectively. Instead, caregivers may want to work with their young person to figure out ways to help them transition more smoothly from one activity to another, and learn about the potential impact of neglecting self-care (i.e. being too tired the next day from staying up too late online gaming). Future research should examine how we can support autistic young people to balance their leisure time with other daily responsibilities, with a focus on personal autonomy that will aid in the development of independence.
Some of the young people in this study identified the social opportunities provided by online video gaming as a positive benefit. Interacting with friends online instead of face to face facilitated communication and helped to make the young people feel more at ease by providing a platform to communicate on their own terms. The young people also reflected on how online gaming could foster a sense of belonging, through talking to friends with shared interests. These findings are consistent with research into the benefits of online gaming in autistic adults (Gallup et al., 2016), who have highlighted the importance of gaming spaces to share interests with like-minded others. They are also consistent with research which suggests that the communication styles of autistic people may differ from those of non-autistic people (Crompton et al., 2020; Milton, 2012), and that alternative methods of communication may be beneficial for some (Howard & Sedgewick, 2021). Future research should focus on how engagement in hobbies that include a social aspect can (a) foster a sense of belonging and well-being for autistic young people and (b) might encourage them to recognize and advocate for their own communication needs in adolescence.
Participants highlighted a desire for autonomy and opportunities for agency as a strong motivator for engaging in online video gaming. The pervasive nature of these comments indicated that the young people felt like they had little control over most of their daily lives. This was reinforced by their reflections on the use of gaming to de-stress, where many of the young people spoke of feeling pressured by the demands of others. The young people in this study were also engaging with gaming in a way that promoted their agency and decision-making skills which are instrumental in self-advocacy across the lifespan (Pavlopoulou, 2020). Gaming may be one way that young people are able to ‘try out’ more adult or responsible roles in a safe environment and help them to develop their decision-making skills.
This desire to try out different aspects of identity was also explicitly highlighted by the young people as something they found enjoyable about game-play, particularly the chance to make their own decisions, and to be ‘powerful’. Many autistic young people experience social stigma (Crane et al., 2019), peer victimization (Fisher & Taylor, 2016), social exclusion (Kloosterman et al., 2013) and an increase in personal restrictions in comparisons to non-autistic peers (MacMullin et al., 2016). The opportunity to experience life as a powerful person may provide the opportunity to roleplay a more idealized version of themselves.
Power and autonomy, however, were not the only aspects of identity-switching that participants enjoyed. The young people talked about the creative and fantastical aspects of gaming (such as flying, and character customization) as well as the opportunity to see the world through someone else's eyes. These statements highlight the creativity and perspective-taking skills of autistic young people, which can often be overlooked.
Video games provided the young people in this study with an outlet for daily stress, and worked as both a way to distract from, and deal with negative emotions as well as increasing feelings of positive well-being and happiness. This is consistent with previous research showing that gaming can provide opportunities for emotion regulation (Reinecke et al., 2012; Villani et al., 2018) and stress release, a key motivation for gaming highlighted by autistic adults (Finke et al., 2018). The participants in the current study demonstrated insights into their own emotional needs and the strategies they use for managing their emotional well-being. These insights can provide caregivers with an understanding of how to support their young people in managing their own well-being. Additionally, they can help caregivers to see why a young person might appear to be prioritizing gaming over other responsibilities (i.e. doing their homework). This information may provide caregivers with the opportunity to find ways to promote agency, for example, encouraging their young person to manage their own emotions in positive ways but also to seek help when struggling instead of avoiding the problem altogether.
One of the key motivations for engagement with online gaming was the sense of autonomy and belonging that it fostered in the young people. It provided them with the opportunity to make decisions and have control over an aspect of their life, as well as providing the opportunity to ‘try out’ different roles that might be ordinarily inaccessible.
The level of agency the participant felt they had within a game was often associated with positive feelings of enjoyment, ‘when I get to tell everyone what to do, it's great,’ and ‘I feel good. No one tells you what to do. I do’ (Toby).
The ability to take on different identities and become immersed in a fantasy world where you could be and do anything you liked was something the young people in this study found particularly appealing. Specifically, the opportunity to test multiple new identities and attribute their desired characteristics such as strength, power and social status provided a level of fulfilment and satisfaction as they engage with that character:
The challenge of building up a powerful character, and developing skill during gameplay was something that the young people also found intrinsically motivating, giving them the opportunity to acquire skill and knowledge and be recognized as an expert.
Whilst not all participants reported social interaction as a motivator, several mentioned how gaming facilitated communication and the development of friendships, ‘Easier to talk to friends online,’ (Alex) and ‘I don't really like talking face to face but online is ok’ (Aaron). Others indicated how it gave them a shared area of interest to enjoy with friends and a sense of belonging to a larger group:
The young people cited escape from the stressors of everyday life, and the impact it had on their emotional well-being as a strong motivator to engage in online gaming, ‘It isn't real life so I can transport my brain there and forget about things’ (Tommy). Gaming provided a safe place, and a distraction from their fears and struggles, ‘I can forget about the things that scare me and buzz around my brain’ (Toby). The need for time away from outside pressures was also a common experience, ‘People around me make me frustrated. If I don't want to do something they keep going on and on,’ (Luke). Henry specifically mentioned the pressures they faced within the school and how gaming provided the opportunity to switch off from it all while still developing new skills:
In addition to providing somewhere to relax and unwind, some young people reported how gaming also provided a way to deal with negative emotions. Online gaming was sometimes used as a distraction from less appealing activities which participants found frustrating or boring
It was also clear that gaming helped the young people to unwind and provided the space they needed to engage with family life, though this wasn't always clear to caregivers. Freddie described how gaming allowed him to ‘switch off’ in order to make that transition between the demands of school and home: My mum usually knows when I come home from school, I play it straight away. If she asks me about my day, I'll just get annoyed. I need to switch off first.
Whilst enjoyment is as good a reason as any to engage in hobbies and leisure activities, the insights provided by the young people here suggest that gaming provides a function that goes beyond sheer enjoyment, providing opportunities for skill development (i.e. decision making) and improving emotional well-being. The data painted a rich picture of the benefits and satisfaction that online gaming can bring to the lives of autistic CYP, and are consistent with previous research exploring the perspectives of autistic young adults in relation to gaming
Heightened sensory perceptions | Embrace Autism
Research shows that many autistic people show heightened sensory perceptions: visual hypersensitivity, extraordinary vision, pattern recognition, and more!
Honor and political violence: Micro-level findings from a survey in Thailand - Elin Bjarnegård, Karen Brounéus, Erik Melander, 2017
Who participates in political violence? In this study, we investigate the issue at the micro-level, comparing individuals who have used violence in political up...