In this episode
Professor Andrew Whitehouse
Professor Whitehouse explains 'Inklings', a life-changing program for babies aged 6-18 months who are showing early differences in social interaction and communication development. He explains that if we change the way we connect with babies, we can change their whole lives.
About Professor Andrew Whitehouse
Professor Andrew Whitehouse is a world-leading autism researcher and is the Director of CliniKids at the Telethon Kids Institute. CliniKids provides autism therapies, services and supports for young children, as well as implementing ground-breaking research.
Professor Whitehouse’s career includes Research Strategy Director of the Cooperative Research Centre for Living with Autism (Autism CRC) and Adjunct Professor at Curtin University and Edith Cowan University. He has also published 2 books and received the Eureka Prize, Australia’s most prestigious scientific award.
Professor Whitehouse spearheaded a revolutionary study which revealed that changing how parents connect and communicate with their babies can change their children’s life.
This research has now been implemented into the Inklings Therapy program.
He is passionate about ensuring young children and babies can have the best start in life.
MAK
A warm welcome. You're listening to Ed Talks WA. I'm Marie-Anne Keefe, but please call me MAK.
It's been long understood in the medical world that the first 2 years of life is when our children's brains are most responsive to therapy.
However, my next guest has taken this theory to a whole new level, with revolutionary research revealing that by simply changing the way we, as parents, connect and communicate with our babies, we can change their whole lives.
He spearheaded a study that found that therapy conducted by a child's own parents can reduce problems for babies showing early signs of autism.
Professor Andrew Whitehouse is a world-leading autism researcher and director of CliniKids at the extraordinary Telethon Kids Institute, a place that's very close to my heart because we have in fact worked together before at Telethon, haven't we, Andrew?
Professor Andrew Whitehouse
We sure have.
MAK
And that is where this work originates from.
Your study and the results of it are literally life-changing, and not just for kids with autism, but I think for all kids.
These findings for you must have been a real eureka moment.
You have described it as being jaw-dropping. Talk to me about that.
Professor Andrew Whitehouse
Oh, MAK, it's so fantastic to be here and it's great to see you and thank you so much for having me.
You know, science is just such a joy. It's 90% despair and 10% exhilaration and that was one of those exhilarating moments.
I sort of went through my own early, hurly-burly years of early parenting and was starting to understand so much more about little babies.
When they're yours, you totally understand it a little bit more. And through the science that we conducted with a huge amount of partners, including the WA government, we were able to find that providing a particular type of support very early in life for babies who are developing a bit differently, by changing the way that we interact with them, rather than trying to change the way that they interact with us, it actually supports the development to the point that actually their development just shoots off into the stratosphere.
We were so lucky and that eureka moment, you know, you sort of have 5 years of hard work and then you're analysing the data.
It's one of those things where you sort of push your chair away from the desk and drop everything and you think, ‘oh my goodness’, and it's amazing.
MAK
Did you shock yourself because you've managed to reveal just how responsive a child's development can be?
We talk really broadly about the idea of brain neuroplasticity, but this is almost like reformulating little minds.
Professor Andrew Whitehouse
Yeah, it is. That's one way of putting it. Another way is also that we're leaning into who they are.
So often in the history of autism, we have sought to change, sort of say that babies ‘hey you're different we need to change who you are’.
The sort of revolution of this Inklings Therapy is that actually you are just beautiful how you are but you are born with barriers. How can we remove those barriers so you can be who you are and that's what we've done, we sort of changed the way that we interact with the baby so they learn in the way that's best for them, things that teachers do every single day. We've just essentially just tried to photocopy what teachers do every single day and take it into the early years, how can we change what we do to lean into how they learn? And it turns out it's enormously effective.
MAK
I want to talk more about the educational side of it in a minute, but it is quite confronting as a parent, when I was reading all about your study, to know that actually the onus as parents is kind of on us.
It's not about, ‘well, my baby isn't communicating’ or ‘my baby isn't doing that’.
It's actually, ‘as a parent, what should and could I be doing differently to make a better connection, have better engagement and interaction with my child?’.
Professor Andrew Whitehouse
Yeah, it can be daunting to think about it like that. I think from my point of view, I found it quite liberating.
I sort of grew up scientifically in the era of the human genome project and that genes were programming us to do anything, and as parents, we're just passengers in that seat.
What we've actually found is that genes are essentially, this is the analogy I use, genes are essentially the rush of the water coming. What parenting is, is how we direct that rush, which stream is it going to go down? And that's what we found with this is that the genetics are the genetics and it is going to influence in a dramatic way how the baby develops.
Our role as parents is to channel it into how it actually expresses in these babies so they can be whoever they want to be, and I find that really liberating that, ‘hey, we actually do play a major role’.
MAK
And it gives parents some control in a situation where they may not feel they have a lot of control. I mean, the results were quite incredible.
The parent led therapy for kids aged 9 to 14 months, displaying very early signs of autism, reduced the likelihood of a diagnosis of autism by 66%.
Professor Andrew Whitehouse
Yeah, it's kind of science fiction.
If you had taught me 20 years ago when I started clinically that we could do this, it would have been seen as science fiction.
We were taught that actually children are born autistic, that they were just waiting for it to express.
What we've actually found, and this is the reframing, is that children are born neurodivergent. That's what the genes produce. The genes produce babies who have brains that have developed differently.
But in the context of that leading to lifetime disability, we can play a major role in reducing that and that's essentially what the findings found.
These babies remain neurodivergent. They remain requiring support but the level of disability they experience is so much less that actually they're not meeting clinical criteria for autism.
MAK
So Inklings is the name of the program. I love that name. Did you come up with that?
Professor Andrew Whitehouse
I wish I did. I was a very smart person, but not me. It was Gemma Upson.
MAK
Well done, Gemma.
And the beauty of it lies in its simplicity.
Ten sessions, it relies on cues and communications. It seems too good to be true, too simple to be true.
Professor Andrew Whitehouse
Yeah.
Look, all it is doing is codifying and putting into a manual something that we've known for generations and perhaps the whole of humanity is that if we understand who our babies are, and lean into their skills, their characteristics, and get those back-and-forth, turn-taking interactions, which are the building block of brain development, truly we can make remarkable differences.
And all we have done is done the hard work of the science, but truly the inspiration comes from the whole history of humanity.
MAK
That's all you've done, the hard work of the science.
Very clever, though. Video-based so that parents get to see and talk about and explore all these cues and communication aspects of their child's interactions.
Can you explain to me exactly how the program operates?
Professor Andrew Whitehouse
Yeah, absolutely.
So we use something called video feedback, which is again, a very, very simple but truly powerful technique of videoing parents interacting with their child and playing it back through.
It's quite a very structured and quite detailed 10-session program over 5 months.
But the key messages that we're getting out across this program or a number of things is that, firstly, how much parents' babies adore them.
Because of course, parents who come to us when their baby's developing differently often think that their babies are not particularly fond of them because their babies are interacting in a way they're not typically expecting.
And that can lead parents to think, ‘oh, my baby's not too fond of me’.
First thing that we can do is just show how much their baby adores them, how they are the centre of their baby's world.
Second thing is to show that actually your baby is communicating with you just in ways that you didn't expect, but they are still doing that.
And then thirdly, what they can do as parents to change the way they interact, to get those back-and-forth communications that are, as I say, the building block of all development.
MAK
So you're bringing the love, which we adore.
And what sort of magic is this, that when the therapy is actually led by the child's parents, like that is really an outstanding part of this program?
Professor Andrew Whitehouse
Oh, completely.
Look, we're talking about 6 to 18-month-old babies, and parents are everything at that age. They're the ones wiping the butts. They're the ones getting their food spat on back at them.
MAK
Always.
Professor Andrew Whitehouse
Yes, indeed.
Always. We all remember that. Yeah, I needed windscreen wipers on my glasses actually, yeah.
But parents are everything and that connection, that baby's connection with someone who is absolutely nuts about them is everything, and if we can have parents also feel that connection and feel empowered and skilled in how they're doing it, interacting with their baby, that's everything.
Parents know so much more than they think they do. And this program helps bring that out of them.
MAK
So life changing for the babies, but life changing for the parents.
What sort of feedback have you had from those that have gone through the program?
Professor Andrew Whitehouse
It's amazing. You know, I first got into the area of autism during my clinical training when autism was quite rare and obviously autism is diagnosed quite commonly now.
And I went to this family, this beautiful family, and I loved the child. I loved the parents but what I absolutely fell in love with was that bond between the child and the parent.
There was this, you know, this much wanted child who was developing differently and the family needed support. And I remember that family saying to me at that time with his quite a severely disabled child, their parents said that I did not know I had this amount of love inside of me until my baby came along.
And I've heard that in various iterations, thousands of times since then.
And this is what this program does, is it uses the greatest advantage that we have as educators, as clinicians, and that's the love between people and that child to essentially bring out who that child is.
MAK
Well, you've spoken about the diagnosis rate of autism.
This seems to be ballooning the question everybody's asking, you must get asked it almost every day, is autism more prevalent than ever before or is it just that we know what to look for, we've got the right testing regimes, what is it?
Professor Andrew Whitehouse
It's both, I think the science is becoming pretty clear it's both and without a doubt the greatest amount of increase has been driven by greater awareness. Twenty five years ago all people knew about autism was Rain Man, the movie with Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise.
But we changed the way that we diagnosed and there was big awareness campaigns. So both families and clinicians are far more aware of autism. That has definitely driven the major increase in the majority of the increase in autism diagnosis.
But look, kids are struggling and more kids are struggling than ever.
We're becoming wealthier and wealthier as a country, but our indices of child development are not increasing at the same rate.
And so something needs to change and I think that's a conversation that we need to have as a country.
How do we make the greatest investment in the future of our country and that is obviously our kids.
It is so cliched to say that, but it is so true.
The greatest investment we can make is in the child development, the emotional development, the social development of our children so they can be the next leaders and community leaders of our country.
MAK
Well you're going to be right in the middle of this conversation.
Congratulations on your appointment to the National School Resourcing Board.
That puts you right smack bang in the middle of all of these discussions, which I know you'll be lapping up.
The number of students with a disability has been rising every year and the latest figures show that there are almost 1 million students who received an educational adjustment for disability in the last year.
This is almost one quarter of enrolments of all students in all schools in Australia.
Is this a crisis? What's going on here?
Professor Andrew Whitehouse
Firstly, thank you. It's going to be great. I'm absolutely passionate about how we can better support kids with disability in schools and obviously that starts with funding.
It is a crisis, 25%, I think you just said. That is breathtaking.
MAK
I was really quite shocked by that.
Professor Andrew Whitehouse
Yeah, yeah.
It's been going steadily up over the last 20 years to the point where now we're almost blasé about that figure, but 25%.
So there are so many things that we can do. So clearly, teachers need to be empowered with the knowledge and the skills that is already inside of them, but we need to ensure that they're brought up with that through their training.
Teachers are thirsty for this knowledge. They are encountering kids with behavioural challenges, developmental challenges, and other disabilities every day.
To enter that classroom with greater skill and confidence is something that teachers tell me they want.
So how do we do that? Pre-service training, professional development within classes.
But we also need generational shift. You know, I often think in the context of disability, we have 21st century view of disability, neurodivergence, but we're still working with 19th century infrastructure and 20th century levels of funding.
How can we make this fit? And that's the greatest challenge that we have as systems.
Schools are the greatest weapon we have in turning happy and healthy kids into happy and healthy adults.
Any bit of investment we can provide to help schools teach the majority of children, or all of children in the class, rather than the average child, the better.
MAK
This is a really challenging road for our teachers and educators, and you've touched on so much of it just then.
But if you could offer some advice to many of the teachers that will be listening and the educators and our school staff, what would that advice be?
Professor Andrew Whitehouse
I mean, firstly, it's going to sound awful to sort of say this out loud, but I mean, they're heroes.
I spend so much time in schools, and every time I walk away, I just think what heroes who are there battling day in, day out, often under really trying circumstances.
And truly making kids' days not just enriched but just happy.
I love it. I just think the teachers are amazing.
What can teachers do? Teachers can seek out the resources that are there.
I know that in Western Australia there's lots of resources through the School of Special Education Needs Disability, but also there are national resources.
Out there in terms of inclusion ed through the Autism CRC, those free resources will start immediately to build your knowledge and your confidence so you can walk into that class knowing that you have the skill inside of you.
MAK
Talking about schools, and I know this through our work with Telethon because they've very generously been funding the prospective new school of FACES, Perth's first autism school.
I know you've had a really seminal role in this.
Can you give me an update on where that is at?
Professor Andrew Whitehouse
Yeah, absolutely.
Look, I was previously on the board of FACES and it's an extraordinary group of parents who got together and where their children required different ways of schooling and has got together and to build a school that caters specifically to kids on the autism spectrum.
And that initiative has really gone a long way and is starting to actually educate kids within their premises.
So it's a fantastic initiative where we can start to provide a range of schooling options for families.
MAK
Emily Pearce is one of the people pivotal in this. Hi, Em, if you're listening.
She's been really the inspiration behind it. It seemed almost when she first started talking about it like the impossible dream.
But again, she's someone making the impossible possible.
Professor Andrew Whitehouse
Yeah, and this is what I see in our field all the time, right, from the kids who turn into adults, but also the parents, as well as clinicians and educators.
If you want to be inspired about the very best of humanity, spend a day in the life of people who are either autistic themselves or working with autistic kids.
Spend a day in the life of our wonderful Ed Support Centres. I'm lucky enough to be on the board of the Mount Hawthorne Ed Support Centre.
Extraordinary humans, extraordinary, doing extraordinary things, and time and time again, they shift the bar on what is possible in terms of the love and care of the most vulnerable kids in our society.
MAK
And talking about shifting the bar, a few months ago, Minister Buti announced a review of the School Education Act to strengthen disability support for students.
Now, you are coming on board to provide input and strategic guidance, a bit of a consultant to this review.
Tell me a bit about the work there.
Professor Andrew Whitehouse
Look, it's super important.
Minister Buti vision on this is, I'm really commending him on the vision of this.
The way that our society has moved over the last 20 or 30 years in the context of how we view disability, particularly we view disability in education, and the absolute human right imperative around inclusion within every school setting.
It's shifted dramatically over the last 30 to 40 years, but our laws, the Education Act, which governs how we do education within this state, hasn't necessarily moved at the same pace.
And it's time to absolutely look how we can make our laws align better with community expectations around disability.
And I was really pleased to be involved in this review of the Act.
That takes time, reviews of acts do take time, but it is really important and it could signal a fundamental shift in how we provide education to kids with disability in our state.
And we have the opportunity to be the national, if not the world leader.
That's the true promise within the WA education system.
MAK
And that's exactly what we want to be.
So fun fact before we finished, a little known piece of information about you, and I can see you're scared now, is that you're an author as well, Will Mozart make my Baby Smart? And other myth-busting tales of pregnancy and childhood’.
So the burning question for me is so mobile phones and bicycles kill sperm?
Professor Andrew Whitehouse
This was a chapter in that book. I'll tell you what. So I wrote this book. This was a fun book.
I was just so lucky to work with kids and families every day, and I was asked all of these sorts of questions, and I had no idea the answer.
So I thought, you know what, I'm writing a bloody book on this.
MAK
Every man wants to know the answer to that.
Professor Andrew Whitehouse
Let me just say that if you're wanting to conceive, perhaps find a different exercise than the bike.
MAK
Really?
Professor Andrew Whitehouse
Yeah, wear looser underwear and the chances might increase.
MAK
And what about your phone? Don't use your phone?
Professor Andrew Whitehouse
I would be putting the phone in the back pocket for that time as well.
But some of the interesting, and this was done before I had kids, and the one that I get the most hate mail about is I did a chapter on sugar and does sugar make kids go crazy?
And the science, I have to say, says no.
MAK
Oh, dear.
Professor Andrew Whitehouse
I know. No, and the amount of hate mail I got about that one was just that ‘you've got to be kidding me’.
MAK
So those E numbers are actually okay?
Professor Andrew Whitehouse
Well, that's what the science says.
But now I've had kids, I'm doing my own study and because I tell you what, they go bananas. So, yeah.
MAK
Give me an E number any day. I was just actually saying that in the office yesterday.
Now to end, Andrew, if you had one wish, just one. What would that be?
Professor Andrew Whitehouse
Oh, in the context of education or everywhere?
MAK
Anything.
Professor Andrew Whitehouse
You know, if I had one wish, what I would do is find ways. My greatest wish, in the context of my work, is that we can find a way that kids can be embraced by our systems early on rather than a necessarily adversarial relationship, embraced and then chaperoned into their adulthood.
We have the most powerful health system and education system in the state, if not the world.
These are the greatest weapons we have to carry kids into adulthood.
How can we ensure that we actually make that work in a synergistic way, so combined and they're more than the sum of the parts, than necessarily a bit of an ad hoc way? What can we do?
And if in 10 years we are having children embraced and their families embraced and then carried through to adulthood and they're happier and healthier when they leave school than when they entered it, that's my wish.
That's really what I wish. Also for the Eagles to win this year's premiership.
MAK
Well, hopefully one of those come true for you. I hope it's the former.
You talk about teachers being our heroes. You're a hero as well.
I look forward to your Nobel Peace Prize because I can say that I interviewed you in your earlier days.
Professor Andrew Whitehouse
Oh, MAK.
MAK
Thanks so much for your time.
Professor Andrew Whitehouse
Oh, it's such a pleasure. Thank you. you.
MAK
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Remember, if you can choose to be anything, choose to be kind.
This podcast was recorded on Wadjak Noongar land.
We acknowledge the traditional custodians and pay respects to their elders past, present and future.
Notes
Find out more about the Telethon Kinds Institute Inklings program on the Inklings website.
Learn about services available through CliniKids on its website.