Posts tagged autismpractice

How do we build an evidence base? Outcomes from small group discussions

One way to facilitate the implementation of research into practice is to encourage the co-creation of knowledge between researchers and practitioners. Rather than being transferred from researcher to practitioner, knowledge should emerge from collaboration. Thus the second day’s discussion was about how to build such collaborations and produce co-created evidence for autism practice.

Groups identified the following ways to build links and also discussed challenges to this process.

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What’s the problem? Outcomes from small group discussions

During the first Shaping Autism Research seminar in Edinburgh, two sets of small group discussions were convened. Groups were compiled from seminar delegates from a range of backgrounds - community representatives of various kinds (e.g. autistic people, parents, third sector professionals) and practitioners and researchers from different disciplinary backgrounds.

Here we attempt to summarise and illustrate the main issues raised in the discussions on day one, where the overall topic was What’s The Problem? Within this topic, we asked groups to consider three specific questions:

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Reflections on the first #shapeARUK seminar

by Kabie Brook, co-host in Edinburgh, Autistic activist, and co-founder of Autism Rights Group Highland 

As co-host for seminar one: Autism Practice, I had the chance to help shape the series - in a small yet significant way, by assisting with the environment, Autistic access and representation. As this was the first seminar it was easier to make suggestions and steer things in a way that didn’t challenge any perceived norms of the series. As it turned out though, that wasn’t as significant as I expected. The organising team and Sue in particular seemed up for anything and (for me) it was the easiest non Autistic led (collaborative) event that I’ve ever been involved in.  Usually, in my experience trying to ensure that organisers make autism related conferences and other events accessible is a harder struggle than it should be and often even from people who purport to be ‘autism experts’ there’s a lot of resistance to actually including us or even considering access for us.

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Autism Practice slides

You can download slides from most speakers at the Edinburgh seminar here:

• Sue Fletcher-Watson: welcome
  
• Kabie Brook: introduction
  
• Tony Charman: A Future Made Together
  
• David Coghill: ADHD research and practice
  
• Jonathan Seckl: REF, funder and institution priorities
  
• Kate Silver: existing knowledge for social situations
  
• Neil Halstead: school experience & teacher knowledge
  
• Jenny Gibson: autism & bilingualism
  
• Jill Smith: autism & play
  
• Catriona Stewart: autism in women and girls
  
• Joe Long: practice focused research
  
• Lorcan Kenny: engaging with stakeholders
  
• Michael Dawson: an autistic perspective on research
  

Glossary of terms used in autism practice research

This glossary of specific language often used in autism research and practice was put together for the Edinburgh seminar. We will add to it during subsequent seminars in the series. We hope to produce a helpful document for stakeholders outside the research community, which can aid in breaking down some of the language barriers between academics and the community.

Autism Practice seminar outcomes

Last week we held the first in this series of six seminars, which aims collectively to set-out a vision for UK autism research.  This is is a vision which we hope will be created equally by autistic people, their families, practitioners (from multiple backgrounds) and researchers themselves. We also hope that the seminar series will produce practical, accessible, meaningful outcomes which can be used as tools during this shaping process.  Examples could include: 

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Join the conversation via twitter!

If you can’t be at the Edinburgh seminar on Autism Practice, you can still have your say by joining a twitter-based discussion group.  In parallel with the small group discussions sessions planned within the seminar, we will be holding identical discussions through this Twubs site. You can login to the chat via your own twitter account. 

Discussions will take place as follows:

Thursday 13.45 BST: what do different stakeholder groups expect of “evidence-based autism practice”?

Friday 11.30 BST: what positive steps can we take to integrate researcher and stakeholder perspectives? 

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