In the evolving field of neurodiverse communication, a recent study has caught my attention — a beautifully aligned companion to the work we do through The Autism Dialogue Approach. Published this year in Science Direct, the research explores how technology might support interaction between autistic and non-autistic children by enabling ‘participatory sense-making’ — a philosophy that colleague Dr.Hanne De Jaegher pioneers and has always felt deeply resonant with our practice.
Rather than positioning communication as a one-way transmission or a task to be completed, participatory sense-making invites us to see meaning as something that emerges in the space between people. It’s not what we say alone, but how we stay in rhythm, how we gesture, how we pause, and how we allow shared experience to unfold — together.
The researchers — Van Dijk and Oral — introduce a striking example of this through a prototype technology they call DiaDance. It’s a wearable device that translates movements into responsive vibrations and lights, inviting children to tune into one another’s presence without relying solely on verbal language. Autistic children are so often pressured to conform to neurotypical styles of interaction, and DiaDance offers a radically different invitation: to connect through movement, co-regulation, and shared bodily experience. It’s an aesthetic and embodied form of dialogue.
Crucially, DiaDance was not imposed on autistic participants but co-developed with them. The approach underscores the importance of inclusivity in design. By involving neurodiverse individuals in the creation process, the resulting technologies are more attuned to real-world needs, fostering interactions that are both meaningful and empowering. It respects difference while inviting relationship, much like Autism Dialogue itself.
The work builds on Van Dijk’s earlier 2023 contribution with Van Huizen et al: Autistic Lifeworld Design (ALD), an integrative framework developed with autistic young adults through the lenses of enactivism and design. ALD identifies four key dimensions of autistic experience — sensory, habitual, social, and affective — each offering nuanced ways to understand how autistic people encounter the world. Rather than seeing autistic experience as something to be normalised or corrected, ALD helps reframe technology as a means to support various levels of homeostasis and embodied coherence.
In essence, the study champions a future where technology serves as a bridge, connecting diverse minds and fostering richer human connection.
Rather than viewing technology as a tool for normalising behaviour, ALD reframes it as a means of sustaining homeostasis — helping individuals stay regulated and connected on their own terms. This echoes the Autism Dialogue Approach’s emphasis on presence, co-regulation, and respect for different communication styles. Both frameworks — ALD and ADA — offer practical, inclusive models that prioritise the experience of autistic individuals.
ALD, like ADA, invites us to centre the lived experiences of autistic people — beginning not with diagnosis or deficit, but with presence, body, and the conditions that sustain meaningful connection. Both frameworks show us that communication can be reimagined not as performance, but as relationship. They honour bodily perception and emotional rhythm as essential to communication, suggesting that when we listen to the autistic lifeworld with care, we find not only difference, but deep resource.
Autism Dialogue is, in essence, a human technology — a carefully crafted container where people of all neurotypes can come into relationship, gently and authentically. It’s a form of participatory sense-making in its rawest form: low-tech, high-touch. With stillness and sensitivity, we create the conditions for shared meaning to arise naturally, without force or agenda.
I’ve just published a book on ADA without any formal research, and wondered about this with a friend who is wading through years of PhD. She said to me “I guess you’ve engaged in research through praxis rather than theory” and followed “A lot of dialogue is the values, philosophy and process…” It’s true. And a growing body of research affirms what many of us know intuitively — that communication is not just about speaking, but about being together. With care, presence and dialogue, in the truest meaning of the word, we unlock not just understanding, but belonging. And in that space, something deeper can emerge — a new way of seeing each other, and ourselves. A new way of being, together.
Thanks for reading. You can look at my book here and even buy it anywhere in the world, you know, on an interweb delivery thingy.
J Drury
Papers referenced:
Bringing the autistic lifeworld to supportive technology design: an enactive approach (2023)
In support of neurodiverse participatory sensemaking (2025)
Oh, have a look at Jelle Van Dijk’s creative writing.
No responses yet