Dr Trevor Clark has recently started a consultancy after stepping down as Director of the Aspect Research Centre for Autism Practice (ARCAP) focusing on 2e students (HPG with disability in the HPGE Policy).  

 

Trevor has a longstanding interest in autism education and has been a principal of two autism schools and was also the former Director of Aspect Education & Research. He completed his PhD on 2e under the supervision of the late E/Professor Miraca Gross which was awarded the international Hollingworth Award for excellence in research in the psychology and education of gifted and talented children.

Trevor continues to actively research 2e with UNSW, GERRIC. Most recently Trevor has been researching 2e Autistic adults, and findings indicate that double social masking is occurring – masking of autism as well as masking of intellectual giftedness. Is this another example of the forced choice dilemma or is this slightly different?

 

Trevor advocates for greater recognition of Autistic students who are also gifted (intellectually and in other performance domains e.g., music, art), and believes we are still not identifying all of these 2e students. By better recognising these students in their early years of schooling, he believes we can provide greater and enriched opportunities for them. He similarly advocates for a strengths-based approach rather than a deficit approach, to the education and support of all 2e students to achieve the best possible quality of life (QoL) post-school outcomes.