#018 Looking at Giftedness & Autism with Kate Donohue

Today I’m speaking with Kate Donohue from Dynamic Parenting about the intersection of giftedness and autism. In the episode, we talk about highly and profoundly gifted children, what autism looks like in gifted children, the intersection of giftedness and autism, and what we need to look out for. Kate has been working in the disability sector for more than 20 years. She has been a DIR Floortime therapist, kindergarten and schoolteacher, service leader mentor, support worker, and workshop presenter. Kate's learning journey really began when she became a parent to 2 neurodivergent girls. Hit play and let’s get started! Memorable Quotes “They need to be able to comprehend our children. Some people just cannot comprehend how diverse our kids are because the giftedness skews all of the disability. So, the disabilities don't present the way they're doing the textbooks.  .. the clinician needs to have an understanding of the interplay between the disability and the giftedness and sometimes multiple disabilities and giftedness. So, it's this really unique profile.” - Kate “It's not about the behaviours on the outside. It's not about somebody who looks autistic or doesn't look autistic. It's about what the gaps in development are, or what their sensory system is doing, what they need to know to understand other people, and then supporting them to get the supports that they need.” – Kate “While they're concentrating so hard on fitting in and understanding others and not making mistakes and not being found out and not being ridiculed. There's so much anxiety going on. It's really hard for them to learn. And it's really hard to have joy and freedom and expression and to become that authentic version of themselves. So masking does have a high cost to people who do mask.” - Kate Resources Dynamic Parenting Subscribe & Review If you enjoyed this episode and it inspired you in some way, I’d love to hear about your biggest takeaway in the comments. For more episodes, you can subscribe and to help others find our podcast please leave a review. You can find show notes and more resources at www.ourgiftedkids.com See you in the same place next week. Connect Connect with me on LinkedIn Instagram & Facebook!