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8259 SPEAKING GEEK: USING POP CULTURE TO BUILD OUR EMOTIONAL VOCABULARY

Friday, July 10, 2015: 10:45 AM-12:00 PM

Room Number: 205 (Colorado Convention Center)

Maybe, for you, loss evokes thoughts of Batman. Maybe loneliness is Elsa in an ice castle. Popular culture, more than entertainment, is an amazing resource. Everything from DC to Disney offers an emotional vocabulary that will improve relationships, develop self-awareness and boldly go where no communication tool has gone before. For many folks on the spectrum, understanding others' emotions and experiences is a daily struggle that leaves a lot of us feeling, well, downright alone. Not only does theory of mind trouble make it hard to connect with friends, family, and coworkers, we often can't even find a way to identify our own motivations, anxieties, or wishes.

Well, actually, we can. We just do it differently. With a little help.

The most beloved movies, books, TV shows, characters, and collections in "geek" culture (commonly loved by LOTS of neurotypicals, too) can be SO much more than fun. From Star Wars to Little House, the situations, expressions, and motivations in pop culture can serve as powerful vessels. By teaching us how to decode the stories and characters we already love, we develop a new language, of sorts. A culturally-infused code that builds self-awareness, strengthens relationships, and breaks down the barriers that so often hinder our social and professional aspirations.

In other words, there's power in speaking geek.

Superman, Disney Princesses, Minecraft, and even Harry Potter provide a richly nuanced, already-high-interest, culturally relevant language -- an emotional vocabulary we already understand viscerally, and can learn to substitute for the "standard" words we find so hard to articulate.

So let's learn about Luna Lovegood and all she can teach us about acceptance. About Spock's hidden-but-very-real overabundance of compassion, and how the way he hides it affects those he loves. This audience will walk away with turn-key tools for increasing emotional awareness in real-time. They'll know how to turn popular books, films, collections, and characters into a fluid language, capable of bringing deeper meaning and connection to any life.

And best of all, they're going to discover how very much fun we can have doing it. (After all, for many of us, space isn't the final frontier: FEELINGS are!)

Learning Objectives:

Discover an understanding of the powerful place (and potential) of special interests in the minds and hearts of those of us on the spectrum
Explain how to enable children, teens and adults to clearly identify the emotions they experience in real time
Identify how to provide access to expressive emotional vocabulary through the language of popular culture and some of our most common special interests

Content Area: Communication

Presenter:

Jennifer O'Toole
Author and CEO, Asperkids LLC
Asperkids

Jennifer O'Toole is the author of ASA's 2014 Outstanding Literary Work and bestselling Asperkids series. One of Tony Attwood's "Top Aspie Mentors" and winner of the Temple Grandin Award, Jennifer has advised the President's Council on Disabilities and keynotes internationally. She is an Aspie and proud mom of three Asperkids.

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