Talking Children Podcast

Neurodiversity, mental health and abuse

Talking Children Podcast

Show Notes

In this episode we look at the statistics around the experience of mental health issues among people who are neurodiverse.

We also discuss why neurodiverse people are more vulnerable to abuse and what strategies we can put in place to reduce this vulnerability in children from an early age.

**Trigger warning, we discuss sexual abuse, suicide and domestic violence.

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In this episode we chat with fellow speech pathologists Carla and Jamima from The Happy Space Allied Health about evidence-based early intervention, language intervention, their intervention tool the Game of Language Abilities (GOLA), Intensive Interaction for minimally verbal children and much more.

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Lucia and Sarah explore the phenomena of "maxxing" and how it can be applied to improving quality of life for neurodivergent people. Key references LaPoint SC, Kiernan B, Heinly J, Hector BL, Benevides TW, Maddox B. Quality of Life Defined by Autistic People: A Thematic Analysis. Autism in Adulthood. 2026;8(4):664-676. https://doi.org/10.1089/aut.2024.0180Mason, D., McConachie, H., Garland, D., Petrou, A., Rodgers, J. and Parr, J.R. (2018), Predictors of quality of life for autistic adults. Autism Research, 11: 1138-1147. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.1965

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