Nicola Shaughnessy, Professor of Performance in the School of Arts, featured on the BBC South East news last night, 6 December 2018, as part of her Arts and Humanities Research Council project ‘Playing A/Part’. Dr Melissa Trimingham, also from the School of Arts, was featured as a co-investigator, working a puppet with the autistic girls participating in the research.

The project investigates the relationship between autism and gender through the use of interactive media and participatory arts.

The news item discussed how autism has often been undetected in girls because it may present differently. It reports from Limpsfield Grange School in Surrey, a specialist school for girls ages 11-16 with a range of autistic spectrum conditions, and where the Playing A/Part project is being undertaken.

‘Autism in girls is under-diagnosed and under-represented because really we don’t know what it looks like,’ explains Nicola in the news item. The team are hoping that through these creative approaches they will get a much better sense of the experience of autistic girls.’ The team also includes Dr Hannah Newman who completed her interdisciplinary PhD in the School of Arts and is now the Post Doc for the project, working with psychologists at the University of Surrey. Local author Katherine May is also featured as a member of the project steering group.

The item is currently available on iPlayer, although expires 7pm tonight (Friday 7 December 2018), occurring at 18 minutes into the programme.

A shorter (none expiring) version of the item appears on the BBC South East twitter feed.