Dr. Olive Healy:

We are still developing the technology, and there are many aspects to it. Right now, we are focusing on building video modelling and psychological supports within an app that will allow people to look at environments that might be very stressful for them, know what is going to happen next and have prediction and control. For instance, we are working in air travel to ensure that autistic people are able to take a flight and go somewhere, but we know that is a very stressful environment for many autistic people. We have all these solutions, embedded within our app, that will support people to prepare in the comfort of their home and to use in situwhen they are going through the process. This spans across preparation for air travel, a dental or GP visit or school, where there are often many stressors. Putting these supports within technology and providing them in a way that is more accessible and understandable is meeting the goals of science implementation.

Turning to the question about applied behaviour analysis, it is a science within which there are numerous strategies. Often, people confuse applied behaviour analysis with an approach to the treatment of autism, which it is not. Within ABA, many evidence-based practices have been shown to be highly effective. I could list many of them, but I will use as an example functional communication, one of the most well known. The goals of functional communication are to examine distressed behaviour, behaviours of concern or emerging difficulties a child or adolescent is showing, and then to figure out what purpose that serves that person, what the missing behavioural repertoires are or what the behavioural repertoires that are not being utilised by that person are, and how we can upskill them and give them abilities to communicate in a compensatory and more effective way. That can span sign language, gestures, vocal prompts, pointing to a communication board or a picture exchange. There are many ways of communicating, as we know, but the point is that when we upskill an individual and expand communication in whatever mode or system works for him or her, these emerging behaviours of concern will be displaced. The individual will no longer need to do those things when there are robust communication repertoires that are effective. We really need to disseminate these practices or strategies and put them into the hands of people who are not psychologists or subject matter experts in behaviour therapy but who will be able to use them in everyday settings. Parents, educators and healthcare professionals would be greatly empowered if we could work on that.