A successful play-based programme that teaches social skills to neurodiverse young people and adolescents has secured the University of Melbourne to drive its expansion.
Next Level Collaboration, co-founded by Dr Matthew Harrison, a senior lecturer at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, and speech-language pathologist and researcher Jess Rowlings, has piloted its leading social capacity building workshops in 2021, but will now grow from one to five sites in the coming months. adding a new program at the University for higher education students.
The program’s workshops use evidence-based training strategies, such as specific training, modeling, and feedback, as well as purposeful cooperative video games to teach a specific social skill set to teams of seniors ages 8 to 15.
Dr. Harrison said parental feedback includes young people who are better able to manage their emotions, who feel more confident in their talented social interactions, and that some make friends for the first time, which likely explains the program’s higher retention rate.
“Next Level Collaboration is the first social network to be created and supported through the University of Melbourne and we see this as a strong endorsement of the potential of the programme,” Dr Harrison told The Educator.
“Despite the growing popularity of virtual game-based learning, this remains a new frontier and there are rarely many studies talking about its impact, especially for academics with more desires and in a classroom. “
Dr. Harrison said that in addition to expanding to new sites, the company will conduct more studies and evaluations of the intervention and contribute more to the study literature in this exciting space.
“We have had a large number of schools across Australia, both specialist and conventional, ask us if and when we will start setting up instructor training programmes. Our goal is to start this in early 2023,” said Dr. Harrison.
“We know that some participants have come to us following the recommendations of their teachers and fitness professionals, such as pediatric psychologists, who are aware of the workshops.
Next Level Collaboration CEO Jess Rowlings, who is autistic, said the price of a program for autistic and neurodiverse people that is designed and run by other people with lived experience is exaggerated.
“For many years, autism has been misunderstood and misrepresented, through the medical career and the community at large,” Rowlings told The Educator.
“As a result, systems designed to authenticate other people with social skills, for example, have been put in position with the goal of ‘fixing’ them. “
Rowlings said this type of technique is not only demoralizing but also counterproductive, as it can increase chronic anxiety.
“We intentionally chose to bring a strengths-based technique to our workshops because we know that the other young people who walk through our door have their own unique strengths, as well as spaces where they need more support,” Rowlings told The Educator.
“We can triumph over all challenges, but we are not here to replace anyone. “
The dean of the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne, Professor Jim Watterston, said next level collaboration is a “unique example of cutting-edge studies merging with entrepreneurial thinking for social impact”.
“There are more than 205,000 Australians with a diagnosis of autism, and we know that many struggle to acquire the social skills to lead productive lives,” Professor Watterston said.
“The growing popularity of video games in recent years has naturally sparked an interest in gaming as a tool.
However, Professor Watterston noted that, so far, few studies have been conducted on the use of video games to extend the social life of schoolchildren with neurological differences, especially in a classroom-like environment.
“This company is at the forefront of vital state-of-the-art paints and we look forward to its continued contribution to the evidence base while transforming lives in the process. “
The cutting-edge programme has managed to make a contribution from the University of Melbourne to its expansion
Exceptional managers now have the opportunity to make their dreams of progression come true
The way to replace and influence the habit is to design it, writes Danny Mayson-Kinder.