SCAEP

SCAEP evolved into a novel approach to social competence based on the proposition that neurodivergence confers fundamentally different, but nevertheless valid, experiences of being-in-the-world which give rise to anticipations of how the world works. SCAEP takes the position that the behaviours we associate with ‘poor social skills’ are inherently constructive and meaningful forms of communication, despite not necessarily reflecting meanings anticipated by a social partner. Assuming diverse world-views and beliefs to be “normal” transforms social interaction into a process of comparing and translating between anticipated meanings, rather than presupposing that one participant’s reality is more accurate than another’s. Consequently, SCAEP is a programme of intervention aimed not at acquiring “neurotypical” normativity and social skills, but rather at providing a systematised framework for neurodivergent young people to examine why and how they communicate as they do- fostering sustained social interaction, empathy and adaptivity to changing social contexts in the process.
SCAEP’s transdisciplinary approach to social competence is firmly situated within a Difference model of Neurodiversity (Walker, 2014).  SCAEP integrates De Jaegher, Di Paolo and Cuffari’s (2007; 2015) enactivist theories of Participatory Sense-making and Languaging with Personal and Relational Construct Psychology (Procter and Winter, 2020) and current neuroscience research to create a framework enabling neurodivergent young people to embark on a journey of self- discovery into “how I tick'' during social interaction and how you and I might “tick in concert” (R, 2007). The structure is designed to sustain social connectedness at multiple levels of intersubjective development, recognising that ‘social skills’ are, in fact, one small part of a far more complex system of relating and adapting to one another’s understanding of being-in-the-world.
SCAEP does not make demands to achieve neurotypical normativity, but rather accepts the neurodevelopment and social cognition of neurodivergence as a given, while providing a context for exploring and developing flexible and adaptive interactions between neurodivergent peers. Consequently, play in SCAEP is based around exploring and comparing participants’ intended meaning. To this end, it is expected that games and activities will take on a life of their own, rather than being filtered through the expectations of a therapist. The principle of developing social engagement within evolving interactions between young people with a range of neurodivergent needs fulfils a specific purpose; that of re-engaging with meaning at multiple developmental levels of social engagement underpinning social competence in older children and teens and which inform social cognition during interaction. In other words, “we ‘therap’ each other as we go so we can keep playing” (K., 2008)