Welcome to Disability Awesome. Each week, this post will feature a person or persons with mental and / or physical disabilities who are doing awesome things! As someone with an disability, I love it when others when disabilities do great things!
We live in a world that often asks children to change before we ask ourselves whether their environment needs to change. When a child struggles to communicate, regulate, learn or participate, our first response is often to correct the behaviour. But what if behaviour is telling us something? What if the goal of intervention is not to make children appear more “typical”, but to help them communicate, connect, participate and become more independent while respecting who they are?
Drawing from years of working with children and families, this talk explores how changing the way we see children can change the way we support them. Madhavi is an Autism Specialist and Early Interventionist with extensive experience supporting children with developmental differences and their families. Her work focuses on understanding children beyond labels and behaviours, and creating meaningful opportunities for communication, participation, learning and independence.
She has worked closely with children, parents and multidisciplinary teams, advocating for respectful approaches, evidence-informed and centred around the individual child. Madhavi is particularly passionate about helping families and professionals move from trying to change children to understanding what children are communicating and what they need to thrive. Her work is grounded in compassion, inclusion and the belief that every child deserves to be understood.
