Drumbeat Autism Outreach Podcast
By Charlie Rix-Pinel & Pete Black
Drumbeat Autism Outreach Podcast Jan 26, 2024
Episode 14: Masking (featuring Autistic Young Experts)
In this episode of the podcast we invited two Autistic Young Experts from the "Drumbeat Autistic Young Experts Panel" to talk about masking. This was a very special episode because it was the first episode to have been recorded in a professional podcast recording studio. Our guests, Joseph and Olive, spoke personally and eloquently and we hope you will agree that their reponses during the interview give an incredible insight to the subject of autstic masking.
We would like to thank Jason and his company creative kin for allowing us to record in the excellent podcast studio and for looking after us so well on the day of the recording. To find out more about creative kin go to; https://www.creativekin.co.uk/
If you wish to find out more about Drumbeat Autism Outreach please go to; https://linktr.ee/drumbeatoutreach
Episode 13: Friendship (featuring students from Athelney Primary School)
In this episode you will hear from 8 autstic young people from years 4 to 6 who access Athelney Primary School Resouce Base talking about their "Friendship Group". The interviews go off on wonderful tangents, but mostly focus on the subject of Frienships; what it means to be a good friend and how might we go about making friends. There is also a lot of wonderful chat around Special Interests as the young people delight in telling us all about their interests, hobbies and talents. Released during Autism Acceptance Week 2023, this podcast is the our first recording in a Primary School setting, and serves as a wonderful insight into the sometimes complex matter of making friends at Primary School through the eyes of autstic young people.
If you want to find out more about Athelney Primary Schooland the resource base please go to; https://www.athelneyprimary.org.uk/
If you wish to find out more about Drumbeat Autism Outreach please go to; https://linktr.ee/drumbeatoutreach
Episode 12: Anti-Bullying Week 2022
Welcome to this special episode of the Drumbeat Autism Outreach podcast which has been released during Anti-Bullying Week 2022 and focuses on the prevalence of bullying in relation to autstic young people’s school experiences. We know that a very high number of autstic young people experience bullying in school and as part of Anti-Bullying week, which runs from 14th to the 18th Novmber 2022, we wanted to explore this unfortunate link between autism and bullying. In this episode you will hear a recoded conversation between Sonia Gannon (Drumbeat Lead Teacher) and Madelaine Hardy. Madeline Hardy joined Drumbeat Outreach last year as a paid intern. Madelaine took an interest in Anti-Bullying Week because of her own personal school experiences, and from seeing and hearing similar experiences from the young people she has been working with. In this episode, Madelaine talks to Sonia about her own primary and secondary school time as an autistic young person who experienced bullying, and they also discuss results from a Bullying survey.
For more information on Anti-Bullying week go to: https://anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/anti-bullying-week
For more information on Drumbeat Autism Outreach go to: https://linktr.ee/drumbeatoutreach
Episode 11: Anxiety (featuring students from Bonus Pastor Secondary School)
In this episode of the Drumbeat Autism Outreach Podcast you will hear from 4 young people who attend Bonus Pastor Secondary School in Lewisham speaking about Anxiety. To start with you will hear from regular hosts, Charlie and Pete and also from another Drumbeat Autism Outreach team member Wendy, who organised and ran the group at Bonus Pastor. The young people offer an incredible insight into the feeling of anxiety, what might trigger them and how they manifest. They also talk about things that might help them when they are feeling anxious.
If you want to find out more about Bonus Pastor Secondary School go to https://www.bonuspastor.co.uk/
Throughout the episode you young people refer to their “5 point scale”. You can find out more about “the incredible 5 point scale” by going to https://www.autismempowerment.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Incredible-5-Point-Scale-Fact-Sheet-rev.pdf
This episode is the second episode looking at autism and mental health, if you want to hear more from the Drumbeat Autism Outreach team about Mental Health have a listen to Episode 6 https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/0V9yyMHZwtb
If you want to learn more about Drumbeat Autism Outreach and access their online resources go to https://linktr.ee/drumbeatoutreach
Episode 10: How do we improve secondary transition experiences?
In this episode of the Drumbeat Autism Outreach Podcast we continue our discussion around autstic young people;s experiences when transitioning from Primary School to Secondary School. Our excellent guest this episode is Ellena Valizadehtalks. Ellena talks us through some really interesting and important research where she interviewed autstic young people about their experiences around transitioning from primary into mainstream secondary school. Ellena introduces us to the idea of the "three houses" (which we used in Episode 9) and talks us through the findings of her research and implications for practice.
Throughout Episode 9 and 10 of the podcast the "three houeses method" is referred to. A version of this template can he found here: https://www.mefirst.org.uk/resource/me-first-three-houses-tool/
If you want to learn more about Drumbeat Autism Outreach go to https://linktr.ee/drumbeatoutreach
Episode 9: Transition to Secondary School (featuring students from Deptford Green)
In this episode of the Drumbeat Autism Outreach Podcast you wil hear from 14 autstic young people who go to Deptford Green Secondary School. They speak about their own experiences transitioning from Primary School to Secondary School. We are very excited to bring you this episode as it is the first full episode of the podcast focusing on the voices of young people, and it has pathed the way for future episodes!
If you want to find out more about Deptford Green Secondary School and their resources base go to https://www.deptfordgreen.lewisham.sch.uk/ and if you want to learn more about Drumbeat Autism Outreach go to https://linktr.ee/drumbeatoutreach
Episode 8: Empathy & Acceptance (Autism Acceptance Week 2022 Special)
The following links are mentioned in this podcast;
Pete Black's original youtube performance of "empathy": www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRl6xarnjbs
"Live" podcast recording version of "empathy": youtu.be/eKtwk9euex8
More infomation about Autism Acceptance Week: www.autism.org.uk/get-involved/raise-money/world-autism-acceptance-week-2022
Drumbeat Autism Outreach online resources: linktr.ee/drumbeatoutreach
Episode 7: "The Autistic Alice" (with guest Joanne Limburg)
Joanne's website: joannelimburg.net/
"The Autistic Alice" on Amazon
Drumbeat Autism Outreach online resources: linktr.ee/drumbeatoutreach
Episode 6: Mental Health
Episode 5: Language and Terminology
The Drumbeat Autism Outreach Podcast is put together by a team of autism specialists working in the Lewisham area in London, and this podcast is aimed at parents and professionals living and working with autistic young people. In this episode you will hear from team members Sonia, Corinne, Pete and Charlie as they explore some of the language and terminologies which are used to describe autistic people. They touch on words and phrases such a low and high functioning autism, identity first vs person first langauage and the idea of difference vs deficit.
Some usefull links from this episode:
- If you want to find out more about the Drumbeat Autism Outreach Team, you kind find their website and socials here: https://linktr.ee/drumbeatoutreach
- The video by Erin Davidson called "Walk in my shoes" which is mentioned, can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSKvazfTLv8&t=17s
- A comic explaining a non-liner way of viewing the autism spectrum can be found here: https://the-art-of-autism.com/understanding-the-spectrum-a-comic-strip-explanation/
- This episode's recommendation, "The Reason I Jump": https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-reason-i-jump-one-boys-voice-from-the-silence-of-autism/naoki-higashida/david-mitchell/9781444776775
Episode 4: Tabletop Roleplaying Games
Welcome to Episode 4 of the Drumbeat Autism Outreach Podcast. In this episode we explore tabletop role playing games, and why they might be both appealing and potentially also beneficial to some autistic people. In this episode we welcome our special guest, Emme Watkins, who joins us all the way from LA!
We want to assure you that no prior knowledge of tabletop role-playing games is required in order for you to gain something from this episode - in fact to the contrary we hope that this episode will be an introduction to listeners who know nothing of this particular subject. We feel that whilst the subject itself is quite niche, our discussion covers some very universal ideas around autism which include ideas around roleplaying, structured social time, the comfort of rules, storytelling and of course special interests and the communities around them.
This episode kicks of with a conversation where I explain to podcast regular Pete my reasons for wanting to do a whole episode about TTRPGs. We assume that most listeners, like Pete, know absolutely nothing at all about this subject, so fear not, the first section will hopefully give you a little bit of a sense of what it is all about! Following that, you will hear our interview with Emme Watkins. Emme is an autistic tabletop role playing gamer who is part of a group called the “Adventures Pack” who produce a bunch of online content relating to both Dungeons and Dragons and TTRPGs in general. Emme agreed to talk Pete and I about her own experiences and explore some of the connections between tabletop roleplaying games and autism.
Episode 3: Special Interests
Welcome to Episode 3 of the Drumbeat Autism Outreach Podcast. This episode is all about “special interests”. This episode contains our first podcast specific conversation which wasn’t recorded for any other purpose, and we decided to start with a topic that comes up a great deal; “special interests”. In order to explore this area in more depth we are joined once again by Sonia and Pete (who listeners to episode 1 and 2 will know between them have vast experience as professionals working in the world of autism, and between them having first hand personal experience).
During the conversation we explore the difference between a "special interest" and a hobby, we look at the language we use to describe special interests and how it may change the way in which young people view themselves and we give some practical tips on how to use a young person's special interests to help them reach their potential.
You can find all the links to Drumbeat Outreach's website & social media here: linktr.ee/drumbeatoutreach