I had the privilege of presenting on the topic of video games & autism at the American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting this year, during one of the ELA (Experiential Learning Area) talks! As a serious gamer, the topic of video games is near and dear to my heart and it’s exciting to see how games can and do benefit both neurotypical and neurodivergent individuals. Thank you so much to Dr. Jose Posas and the conference organizers for inviting me to share about this topic! ✨
A note on the titling of the talk: person-first language (person with autism) tends to be preferred in the medical community and by parents/caregivers. Person-first language in this case is meant to recognize that a person is a person first and their disease or disorder does not define them. Identity-first language (autistic person) is preferred by many autistic people for various reasons, including empowerment and recognizing that autism is not something to be ashamed of. We should always default to the opinions of those in the community over what’s most comfortable for us. Since this was a presentation at a medical conference, I chose to title the talk with person-first language but used identity-first language whenever talking about autistic people.
If you’d like to read more about this topic, these two articles were very helpful: