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Welcome back to another recording with Shadia from Autism Actually
and I'm Jemima from Dyslexia Demystified.
Today we are again discussing a little Q&A question that we have about this time of online learning
and how we're struggling, but also coping with that new challenge.
So, today our question is about how we keep ourselves motivated to learn
and also how we keep ourselves socially connected.
Because obviously now that we have got these new isolation rules in place,
we can't see our friends in person and a lot of us are having to use new technologies like Zoom and things like that
to keep in touch online.
So, I'm going to throw over to Shadia and she's going to talk a bit about how she stays socially connected
and also motivated to do her study.
Thank you Jemima.
Yeah, I think it's important to keep in touch with people socially.
It's a good excuse to have a break from studying when you want to.
Some of the main ways I've been keeping in touch with people...
I usually don't like phone calls, so I've been texting people via SMS or Messenger.
I use Messenger quite a lot, because it's easy to use and it also has some nice functions,
so if I'm speaking to Jemima, for example,
I can send her a voice recording or look up something in our conversation
and it also has this really handy tool where you can reply to messages
and I found that really helpful, because it helps me keep track of what we're talking about
and I can flip back and say "Okay, what was that? I've completely forgotten about what you were saying".
So, that has been really good.
Some of the face-to-face virtual chat systems have mainly been Zoom.
So, my friends and I like to play Dungeons and Dragons and that has of course been impacted,
because we can't meet up in person.
Well, we've actually found the online format much easier for our scheduling, because meeting face-to-face means choosing a venue to go to,
blocking out a few hours of your day to play Dungeons and Dragons,
because it takes ages.
Whereas online, we can just meet up in the evening, not have to travel anywhere,
and go to bed at a reasonable hour,
so it has actually been really good.
So, we've been using Zoom Pro.
For people that might not have Zoom Pro as an option, there's actually an app that is free called Google Hangouts
and you can invite friends and it's a free platform.
It's very similar to Zoom.
Something else that I've done with some of my friends is go on gaming when I felt like I've achieved a lot in a day.
Maybe in the evening,
not too close to my bed time though,
because otherwise it keeps me up [Jemima laughs].
And I'll go on Minecraft or something and we'll play an hour of Minecraft
or something else.
There's a good game called Table Top Simulator,
so you can actually play board games and card games with your friends
and you use Discord to talk to them if you want to, via voice chat.
So, that has been a lot of fun and has actually given me a chance to
connect to my friends more than I have even when I've had the face-to-face option.
So, I'm finding I'm socialising more now, which is really odd.
That's awesome, no, good for you!
I think you raised some really good points.
And I think technology is being forced to become more disability-friendly
and they're getting a lot better at setting up things like voice messaging
and that reply function, which we both love,
because we both really struggle to find where the conversation started and stopped and...
you're often having sort of five different conversations in one with someone.
Same sort of story for me.
I've been really trying to find those new ways to connect with people and I really encourage you to get online and find those substitutes
for board games, or whatever it might be.
Obviously, if you are over the age of 18, you might be having a GNT over drinks.
I know that in my parents' businesses they have Friday night drinks over Zoom
and so everyone is drinking and you're definitely not drinking alone.
But it's nice to have that sort of social connection that you would normally have in your day.
And seeing people's faces actually holds a lot of meaning.
I feel quite differently when I'm speaking to Shadia over Zoom for instance,
compared to over Messenger
and I think for anyone who has a Dyslexic friend in particular,
please be mindful of how taxing it now is to use those written-based apps,
because for Dyslexics, we love to communicate through conversation
and so, now that we're not doing that and everyone is relying on these heavily written Messenger systems,
it means we've got a lot more cognitive load, in terms of having to reply to messages,
whether that's on Facebook, Instagram, whatever.
But yeah, like Shadia said, a lot of really good apps out there.
For playing board games online,
I know my family we're all sort of spread out across Australia and we play Catan online
that's our favourite board game.
Not sure if you play Catan, Shadia.
Maybe we can have a battle
Oh I love Catan, yeah [Both laugh].
I've seen Catan Online, I'm trying to encourage my friends to do it.
So good!
Little plug for Catan, totally unsponsored, but it's great.
Sponsor us though, Catan!
Yes, please sponsor us Catan, Mister Catan [both laugh].
Anyway, we digress,
but I think the main thing is we have to now take the initiative, as young people,
to actually organise times with people and hang out with people.
We can't just wander off after school and have our social time with people at the cafe down the road.
You actually have to make an effort in reaching out to people
and I guarantee that if you do make that effort,
people really appreciate it.
You know, if Shadia reaches out to me and says "Hey, do you wanna catch up?"
I'm actually like "Oh yeah, I've been really missing that time".
But maybe, I didn't feel confident enough to reach out to her or something like that.
As we've said in previous webcasts,
you need to break up your time and you need to set boundaries for yourself
and figure out what you need to recharge your own battery.
Is it social time? Are you a bit more extroverted and you need social time to recharge your batteries?
Or are you someone who needs to take isolation quite literally and isolate a bit for a while and sort of do your own thing to recharge?
I think if your friends are neuro-divergent or Autistic as well,
given that we're already socially isolated,
it would be a good idea to check up on us.
Because I know that for me, my routine's been thrown out the window and things
are not operating as they usually are.
It's been really tough on me, but having my friends just check up on me,
you're having Jemima sending me a message saying "Hey, how's it going?"
That means a lot to me and I know it would mean a lot to other neuro-divergent people,
who might be struggling a bit to keep up with things.
Shadia and I have talked about how we communicate, you know,
as very different individuals who... I've struggled with text, she loves text.
She struggles with auditory, I love auditory,
but we find a way to make it work.
So, it's just having that awareness of what your friends need
to be able to have that social connection, but
in a non-exhausting kind of way.
Something that is fun, but doesn't take a lot of energy for them to be able to process.
So, that's just something to keep in mind for us socially neuro-divergent individuals.
But we're going to leave it there at that stage guys.
Thank you so much for tuning into our five little webcasts we've had so far.
This is all we've planned for, but it doesn't mean the conversation has to stop here.
If you have a burning question, please do get in contact with us
or write a comment below.
And then Shadia and I can set up another Zoom and we can answer those questions for you guys.
But, for now, thank you for tuning in and I'll let Shadia say goodbye as well.
Thanks everyone for tuning in, it has been great to chat.
Send us any questions you might have,
subscribe so you can get more updates and yeah,
if you want to see more videos like these, let us know.
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