Helping Individuals With Autism Participate Fully In Life

The Davis Autism Approach

Autism spans a wide range of abilities and challenges. Broadly speaking, autism is seen to encompass a range of difficulties around social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication.

At a deeper level, autism is rooted in a form of perception that does not categorise objects and events in the surrounding world in the way that most people do. The autistic way of thinking and perceiving can produce exceptional gifts, but autistic individuals can also be confused and scared by a world that can seem unpredictable, threatening and jarring.

While autistic individuals can sometimes have unique insight into the world around them, incomplete mastery of real-world concepts such as change, cause-effect, time, sequence, order and disorder can create barriers to learning in many areas of life.

Unlike other approaches to autism, Davis Autism Approach focuses on gentle, non-invasive ways of enhancing the core identity of the autistic individual without detracting from the unique value that autistic thought brings to humanity. Our a unique three-step approach offers to naturally inquisitive autistic individuals a carefully sequenced set of rich new experiences. When these add themselves to the individual's existing identity, they unlock latent learning ability and enable full participation in life.

Without the need for rote-learning "wooden" patterns of communication, new learning, communicating and socialising skills grow naturally out of an enhanced understanding of what it is to be a human being living among other human beings in a physical world.

Davis Autism Approach Facilitators provide a wide and flexible range of programmes that cater for the needs of children and adults ranging from non-verbal to high-functioning autism. Davis Concepts for Life Programmes provide help for individuals who do not identify as autistic but feel inexplicably thwarted in key aspects of their lives.

"This program has enabled me to become who I’m meant to be, rather than pushing me out in a predetermined shape. It helps the good parts of my autism to shine through, so I can be my best self. And that’s so important, because those of us with autism really do have something to contribute to this world.”

Samantha, 16, Melbourne, Australia