A relationship-centred approach to autism: Islands of Brilliance

Publishing Journal: Good Autism Practice (GAP), Volume 26, Number 1, May 2025, pp. 5-12(8)

Authors

Jeana M Holt, Katelyn Siekman, Margaret Fairbanks

Abstract

The authors are an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (JH), and the Chief Education Officer (MF) and Director of Learning and Outcomes (KS) at the Islands of Brilliance organisation. They argue that there is a move away from deficit based approaches based on the medical model of disability to strengths based approaches derived from the social model of disability and driven by the neurodiversity movement. They developed their own strengths based approach called Islands of Brilliance (IOB), which is designed for autistic children and young adults aged from eight years old through adulthood. In this paper, they provide details on the principles of the approach, the nature of the programmes offered and those who take part, then give two case studies of young autistic people who have participated in IOB. The very flexible nature of IOB programmes and their drive to truly work together with autistic students to ensure their success is very well illustrated by these two examples.