April 30, 2024
Own time and space for autistic
Victoria University of Wellington’s autism clinic has come up with a new community programme to help whānau and family members better understand and support children under the age of five who are autistic.
Clinic head Hannah Waddington says Raupī te Raupō will offer 10 weeks of one on one support sessions for up to 60 families.
It was informed by the holistic Maori approach to caring for mental illness.
“We’ve co-designed this alongside an advisory roopu of autistic people, and another advisory roopu of Maori – which was just so exciting, because we think we’ve really developed something that’s really well suited to our communities here in Aotearoa,” Dr Waddington says.
Linguist and educator Keri Opai has coined a new term for autism – takiwātanga or in their own time and space, which allows people with autism to be regarded as gifted or taonga.