Advancing outcomes for autistic children

Difficulty in getting a diagnosis for their son led the Dyer family to link with a world-leading autism research centre,

Griffith University’s Autism Centre of Excellence (ACE) and create a scholarship committed to training the next generation of autism researchers.

“The purpose of this scholarship is that hopefully research will advance so that parents don’t have to feel as helpless and frustrated as David and I did,” Elga explains.

Louise White is the inaugural scholarship recipient. She says she knew her life was about to change when she discovered her application had been successful.

“I could not believe that, through the generosity of a family I had never met, I was being given the opportunity to complete research that will improve how schools and families support autistic young adults to make one of the biggest changes in their lives,” she says.

“As both a teacher and a mother of an autistic son, I knew that the move from school into work or further study represents a key time that we need to be supporting autistic young people, but I also knew that researchers weren’t able to tell parents or teachers how best to do it.

“All this was in my mind as I realised I had won the scholarship—I knew then that I now had the opportunity to make real and impactful change.”

Louise says she first realised she needed to learn more about autism when her son Edward was diagnosed. “I knew that I wanted knowledge to be able to support him, advocate for him and to help to secure the best possible outcomes for him,” she says.

“This led me to completing the Graduate Certificate in Autism Studies through the Autism Centre of Excellence at Griffith University. Through this program, I met Professor Dawn Adams, Dr Kate Simpson, and Dr Stephanie Malone—all phenomenal teachers who encouraged us to become reflective, curious, critical thinkers.

“The more I learnt, the more I realised we need to learn. Each time I had the chance to focus an assignment on a specific topic, I chose to focus on transitions, especially big life-stage transitions. I chose this because it is an area that my son has found to be particularly challenging, and I want to know how to best support him.

“However, I was constantly frustrated when I had to finish every assignment saying that we needed more research to tell us more in this area. I kept thinking about how, maybe, just maybe, one day, people wouldn’t have to write that sentence any more, because there will have been advances in the body of knowledge needed in this area.

“This scholarship means that, not only is research advancing in this much-needed area but, unbelievably, I am part of making that happen. I am able to spend three years creating research that is completely designed to find out how we can best support autistic young adults as they transition out from school and into adulthood. Finally, I can do something that means that the post-school outcomes for my child, and for thousands of other parents’ children, could be improved. I consider this to be such an important undertaking that, without the scholarship, would just not be possible.”

Through her hard work and dedication, Louise and her research team have been able to meet with the Dyers to share their experiences of being parents to autistic children—even though their experiences have been decades apart.

“I have been able to thank them for their generosity, and for trusting me to realise their vision for this scholarship and the research that it will enable,” Louise explains.

“Every time the research gets hard, and sometimes it really does, I think of how important it is, and how it will benefit our children, and the children in so many other families. It is their generosity that is making this all possible—because of them, we can truly work to make powerful and positive change.”