Independent Audiologists Australia will host an online conference on autism and listening with experts from across disciplines sharing groundbreaking research and clinical insights.
The International Autism and Listening Conference on 24 May 2025 offers online real time or replay viewing options.
Ms Julie Watts, IAA executive officer, said the conference would create a unique space for collaboration among audiologists, teachers, speech pathologists, psychologists, occupational therapists, support coordinators, paediatricians, people with autism, their parents and families, and autism organisations and community groups.
“Our transformative conference brings together international experts from multiple disciplines to enhance understanding and support for autistic listeners of all ages,” she said.
“This research-focused and multidisciplinary event will benefit all professionals with an interest in evidence-based, neuro-affirming practice, to better understand and support autistic individuals in their listening at home, school, work and in the community.”
Speakers are:
- University of Manchester speech and language therapist Dr Alexandra Sturrock who will present on insights into autistic listening differences and strategies to manage them. Her clinical and research specialism in autism focuses on communication assessment and interventions with older children and adults where intellectual disability is not a feature. As a member of Autism@Manchester, she met autism, autistic and auditory science researchers and collaboratively founded the Speech Perception by Autistic Adults in Complex Environments (SPAACE) program.
- Audiologist Dr Philippa James who will present on integrated auditory supports for autistic children – in therapy, at home and in the community. Dr James is based at The University of Melbourne’s Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology where she runs The University of Melbourne Autism and Listening Clinic. Her research focuses on auditory supports for autistic children, specifically those with decreased sound tolerance disorders. She previously worked with Phonak and Sonova to develop a best practice clinical model to identify and support auditory difficulties in autistic children.
- Dr Patrick Dwyer, a Canadian research fellow at the Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre at La Trobe University, who will present on sound tolerance in autism: Conceptualisation and relationship to attention. Dr Dwyer is autistic and his research focuses on how autistic people experience and attend to the world around them, especially autistic experiences of sensory distress and discomfort including sound intolerance. A member of the Australasian Autism Research Council, the International Society for Autism Research membership committee, and the Australasian Society for Autism Research executive committee, he serves on editorial boards of Autism in Adulthood and Neurodiversity.
- US-born audiologist Dr Angela Alexander from New Zealand who will present on treating auditory processing disorder in autistic children and adults. She’s spent 15 years diagnosing and treating APD and as founder and director of education at the Auditory Processing Institute, she teaches audiologists and speech-language pathologists how to provide auditory processing services from testing to treatment through online courses. A TEDx speaker, she’s co-authored the therapy and management of APD chapter in the most recent Handbook of Clinical Audiology.
- Professor Yang Zhang who will present on whether perception of pitch is different for autistic listeners. A professor in the Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences and the Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, US, he specialises in the neural basis of speech perception and production, exploring how individuals process and produce spoken language across different stages of development and conditions. He is associate editor for Developmental Science and section editor-in-chief for Brain Sciences.
- Event convenor, audiologist Dr Tegan Keogh from IAA who will present on how a middle ear infection impacts listening for a child with autism. Her research interests include the impact of middle ear pathology on children’s speech understanding in the classroom. She has worked across the profession, in tertiary hospitals, Hearing Australia and the University of Queensland, and established the only state public health audiology service on the Sunshine Coast. She runs her own practice, Hear Check, on the Sunshine Coast with offerings including school advisory services and an auditory processing clinic.
- Dr Makio Kashino from NTT Communication Science Laboratories in Japan, who will present on, Same sound, different brain: Neural mechanisms behind listening differences in autism. He has a BA, MA, and PhD in psychophysics. Dr Kashino has engaged in elucidating the functional and neural mechanisms that enable flexible and sophisticated information processing without awareness, especially in auditory perception, multisensory interactions, sensorimotor interactions, and communication. HIs research also includes people with developmental disorders, studying cognitive diversity and plasticity.
- Dr Bonnie Lau who is the director of the Laboratory for Auditory Neuroscience and Development at the University of Washington in Seattle. Her research combines brain and behavioural measures to investigate the relationship between how hearing develops and how language is acquired. One goal of her research is to develop objective measures that can be used in clinical practice to help better identify children who are at risk for language and learning difficulties and to guide personalisation of treatment for each child.
The 40-minute talks will allow delegates to digest each researcher’s key findings without interruption. A short transition period after each presentation will facilitate listening breaks between sessions.
For the first 50 registrants, there is optional bonus attendance at small group interactive panel discussions with select speakers.
The conference on 24 May is from 9:am-5pm AEST.
