Skip to main content

Featured

Posted by

My Fuel Bubble

  After years of traumatic experiences for my Autistic teen at physical schools, mainstream and specialist, and for us as a family, we have all greatly benefited from access to education from home. Recently, he tried to put into words why this was important for him and shared the idea of his ‘fuel bubble’. He explained that his fuel bubble has several components. It is the physical space, around his desk, as well as the desk itself, set up just the way he likes it. People coming into his space, especially without warning or preparation, use up his available fuel. Even familiar people coming within a certain distance can have this effect. The closer to the desk, the more fuel is used up. Meanwhile the items he chooses to have close, and the way his desk is organised, his way, gives him energy. When inside his fuel bubble he often connects to others’ fuel bubbles. This can be through virtual connections online, even YouTube videos, but also through real life interaction. Chatting and...
Post a Comment
Read more
Labels
Posted by

Experience Sensitive AAC is for everyone

 


Uniqueness, Agency & Insiderness

(2) Allow a person to talk in their own way, in their own time: Press what they want, when they want, how they want. Respect silence as communication. Following another’s path, allows us to see, hear and come inside their world.


Togetherness & Sense making

Come alongside, bringing worlds together, reduces the (3) Double Empathy Gap and gives space for both listener and talker to explore. Model what’s in your mind. Be curious, be humourful; play and have fun. AAC as connection; a shared space, where communication is co-produced & co-created.

 

Embodiment & personal journey

AAC as embodied communication. Pressing the same buttons many times? Could this be joy, stimming, emphasis, monotropic focus; deeply feeling the rhythm or sound of a word, sharing a memory, not just a focus on its meaning. Journeying beyond requesting, a personal journey shared for both talker and listener.


References

1. McGreevy, E., Quinn, A., Law, R., Botha, M., Evans, M., Rose, K., Moyse, R., Boyens, T., Matejko, M., & Pavlopoulou, G. (2024). An Experience Sensitive Approach to Care With and for Autistic Children and Young People in Clinical Services. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00221678241232442


2. Hackett, A., Badwan, K., Dower, R. C., Ehiyazaryan-White, E., Farah, W., Flewitt, R., Karen, G., Holmes, R., Macrae, C., Nair, V. K. K & Shannon, D. B. (2025). The Rights of the Talker. In: Badwan, K., Dower, R. C., Farah, W., Flewitt, R., Hackett, A., Holmes, R., Macrae, C., Nair, V. K. K. & Shannon, D. B. (eds.). Language, Place, and the Body in Childhood Literacies. Expanding Literacies in Education Series. Routledge, 237-249. [Book Section]


3. Milton, D., Gurbuz, E., & López, B. (2022). The ‘double empathy problem’: Ten years on. Autism, 26(8), 1901-1903. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613221129123 

Download the PDF. 

Follow A Labour of Moles

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Feedback