Webinars – Supporting young Autistic people with healthy online video gaming

Online friendships can be more prevalent with autistic children, however an increased amount of time spent online in gaming communities may make children more vulnerable to being exposed to unsafe behaviour.

Amaze’s free online safety webinars educate parents and carers about the increased risk of harm for Autistic children participating in online gaming communities. Our expert guest speakers will provide practical strategies about being safe online and building healthy online habits. Parents and carers will have an opportunity to ask the experts questions as part of each session.

Webinar information, dates and registration details below.

Upcoming webinars

Using gaming to support collaborative skills and positive Autistic identity, featuring Jess Rowlings and Dr Matthew Harrison from Next Level Collaboration

Book an upcoming session:

• 25 March 2023 at 12pm – 1.30pm (AEDT). Register for this webinar. 

About this webinar:

Hosted by Jess Rowlings and Dr Matthew Harrison from Next Level Collaboration, this webinar focuses on the benefits of online gaming in developing skills and knowledge in social capacity, collaboration and positive autistic identity. 

• Structure and design of games that support collaboration during play. What makes a game good for supporting cooperation and teamwork?
• Collaborative skills that can be used during cooperative play. What are these skills, what do they look like, and how can we use games to support the use of these skills?
• Social connection, friendship, and belonging through gaming and online communities
• Safety using online platforms and in online relationships

Jess Rowlings from Next Level Collaboration – Where every gamer belongs

Jess Rowlings is a qualified speech and language pathologist and researcher at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education. She is also the co-founder of Next  Level Collaboration, a social enterprise that runs programs to support neurodiverse children in developing collaborative skills and social connection through cooperative video games. Jess was diagnosed with both autism and ADHD as an adult, and is passionate about the use of digital games-based learning to promote social capacity and inclusion. Jess is also an avid gamer herself, and her favourite game is The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past on the Super Nintendo (SNES).

 

Dr Matthew Harrison from Next Level Collaboration – Where every gamer belongs

Dr. Matthew Harrison is an experienced educator, researcher and digital creator with a keen passion for utilising technology to enhance social capacity building, connectedness and inclusion. He has taught in Australia, South Korea and the United Kingdom at primary, secondary and tertiary levels. Matthew is currently coordinating Autism Intervention within the Master of Learning Intervention, and is the Co-Director of Student Experience at the University of Melbourne Graduate School of Education. His research primarily focuses on inclusive education and the effective use of digital technologies as teaching and learning tools. As a gamer, he has a particular interest in digital games-based learning and intervention. Matthew’s PhD thesis examined how cooperative video games can be used as spaces for developing social capabilities for students with disabilities and neurological differences. Building from this innovative research he co-founded Next Level Collaboration, an inclusive community for neurodiverse children that uses cooperative video games to build confidence and social capabilities.

Lived experience of healthy gaming panel, hosted by Andrew Kinch from GameAware

Book an upcoming session:

• 16 February 2023 at 7.30pm – 9pm (AEDT). Register for this webinar.

About this webinar:

Hosted by Andrew Kinch from GameAware, this interactive webinar features an autistic gamer panel discussion and Q&A session. The four-person panel will answer questions about how gaming can impact autistic people from their own experiences, as well as strategies for safely participating in online gaming.

• How can gaming be beneficial to autistic people?
• What can be done to stay safe online?
• Does gender influence gaming experience?
• How parents impact gaming influence? 

Panel host

Andrew Kinch – GameAware founder

Andrew is a competitive and casual gamer of 30 years, a teacher of health and wellbeing for 15 and a parent of 2. He love video games, but has experienced stepping over the line where video games took up way too much of his time and affected him in ways he didn’t expect. This has given Andrew perspective into exactly what our gamer is feeling, and how to get buy-in for a healthier and more sustainable way to enjoy their passion.

This project is funded by the eSafety Commissioner.