RAINBOW COLLABORATION
KIDS with autism – or “rainbow brains” – are making friends and building social skills by playing video games together in groups.
The innovative Next Level Collaboration program – the only one of its kind in the nation – is being rolled out across Melbourne.
The program, which also includes other neurodiverse children, was cofounded by University of Melbourne researcher Dr Matthew Harrison and speech pathologist Jess Rowlings, who has autism.
The groups serve to teach children 15 targeted social skills, such as taking turns, giving instructions, asking for help, using a quiet voice and encouraging others.
“The workshops leverage young people’s interest in gaming and gaming culture, but are effectively a tool to help us explicitly teach and model the identified skills,” Dr Harrison said. “We’ve seen many participants thrive. More importantly, they love attending because they are developing new meaningful skills and they’re making friends in the process,” he said.
Sabrina Doyle, said her daughter Ariya, 7, who was diagnosed with autism in early 2020, looks forward to every term.
“She thinks of her brain in terms of being a rainbow and the group enables her to connect with other rainbow brain kids,” Ms Doyle said. “It’s made a big difference to her – she’s now teaching other kids.”