Maison Collawn joins us to share how media can play a pivotal role in helping children, especially those with autism, explore their identities and foster communication skills. With a background in mass communications and personal experiences with autism, Mason emphasizes the importance of structured media consumption and interactive learning.

He explains how his childhood interests in TV and anime evolved into a podcasting passion, illustrating the transformative power of media. Parents are encouraged to engage with their children’s interests, using these connections to facilitate deeper conversations and learning opportunities. Mason also provides practical tips for balancing screen time with hands-on activities, ensuring that children can thrive both online and offline.

Bonus 10-Maison Collawn-Fostering Connection: Using Media to Engage Children with Autism

Guest Bio: Maison Collawn

Maison is a passionate speaker with a background in mass communications, diagnosed with autism at an early age. Growing up, he felt different and found solace in TV, which deepened his understanding of himself. This inspired Maison to create the MC Anime Podcast, where he discovered his love for speaking. He believes that media appreciation can help anyone find their identity, and he embraces this as a lifestyle. Maison's goal is to empower others to explore their own journeys through media.

Where to find Maison:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/maison-collawn

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/BlogMCAnime

Sponsored by Vibrant Family Education - creating Happy, Healthy and Successful kids

VibrantFamilyEducation@gmail.com or Kristina Heagh-Avritt on Facebook

Support Bringing Education Home

Copyright 2024 Kristina & Herb Heagh-Avritt

Today I have the pleasure of introducing Maison Collawn. Mason is a passionate speaker with a background in mass communications. Diagnosed with autism at an early age.

Growing up, he felt different and found solace in tv, which deepened his understanding of himself. This inspired him to create the MC Anime podcast, where he discovered his love for speaking.

He believes that the media appreciation can help anyone find their identity, embrace it as a lifestyle. His goal is to empower others to explore their own journeys through media. Welcome, Mason. It is a pleasure to have you here today.

Thank you for having me. I like being here and hope to give you some more insight.

Well, this is actually a particularly interesting topic to us because we have a child who has autism as well. And he really got into anime and watching a lot of the Japanese cartoons, even in foreign languages.

He would go online and have them running and watch, read the subtitles. So he actually kind of learned lots of Japanese words as well.

But one of the things he started doing is he actually started doing fan art and getting involved in communities and being able to talk to other people where he wasn't able to do that before. So what you do in your blog and how you got started is really intriguing to us. So can you tell us a little bit about. About how you got started?

You know, it says that you. You were interested in an early age. So how did that turn into this, into this podcast and business?

That's interesting because my solace was tv. All right, so that's pretty much my. I didn't have phones, I didn't have technology. That was the one thing I consumed.

I got so focused into it, I would spend hours, I even sleep in my locking chair that I had at the time when I was a kid, sleeping in the chair, watching tv. So that transformation through my early childhood was pretty much what it was. Middle school, I got more involved.

I had some gaming, like ds, Pokemon games. That's, you know, I didn't have much, so. And also I found that reading was a good thing too.

So I didn't have much tv, reading and gaming, but like a console game was all I had. However, those three mediums made me like reading, even though I was behind in my reading journey. I was in Special Ed until 6th grade.

I actually came in collab because I was able to caught up. That was because of my mom. So my reading journey and trying to find different mediums to like was really inspiring.

And then the podcast became my new fixation in anime in high school. So I had to start scumming more anime. I watched Pokemon as a Kid and Yu Gi. Oh, at the time, that wasn't anime to me.

It was just, you know, shows I watch. So into my transition in college, I made a blog, NC Anime. It became a podcast.

So love it. Absolutely love it.

And one of the things that you were kind of talking about before we jumped on here live for the recording was that you love to share a little bit about, you know, what families can do or what other people can do to help kind of foster their interests in this for their children as they're getting ready to do. Experimenting on different things.

Oh, absolutely. Media has such an impact and how your child can learn.

With the advent of the Internet, we truly have resources to give them an avenue to do something, but not just do something, but gain knowledge in a creative way.

Let's say crash course, for example, it does all these different videos in a format that it's less than 15 minutes long, but it's all these nuggets of information all about that one topic. So it's a crash course into that topic that really teaches you how to learn that topic.

Or virtual classroom is another way that people can really greatly impact.

In the advent of the Internet and that virtual setting, you're able to have someone in live time teaching you on software through those things, the applications that actually help you to learn more.

Perfect.

And then so what, what was one of the things that you got started with the most that was easy to use that, you know, because we try to give tips and hips and tips and tricks to our families. What's something that a younger person might be able to use successfully kind of at the beginning to help them get interested and learn more?

Definitely YouTube is a big platform to find interesting videos and, you know, social media helps. But at a young age, I think you want to limit social media because there's a lot of other impacts in that that it's not. It's hidden.

And parents need to slowly monitor their process and learning because there's a lot of potential harm in social media. That's why YouTube will probably better and maybe have a YouTube Kids account.

So that way they'd be able to track data that's appropriate for them and educational if they. By clicking video.

So there's a. There's a lot of parents who, who actually like, get frustrated that their kids are always on YouTube and always watching videos.

And that's, you know, there's a lot of medically fragile or autistic children out there who do get like zoned in. So how can a parent take this focus on these on these shows and turn it into a learning opportunity and a growth opportunity for their children.

Like, like you did. So like you, you said you were hyper focused on these shows and then you grew it into something that helped you learn.

How can other parents take that approach? How can they help their children take these. These focuses and use it as a learning opportunity?

You can actually present an opportunity for them to engage in it. But maybe instead of a long video, make it a 3 minute video, incorporate a lesson into that from that video. So you take them away from the.

This narrow tunnel vision engagement and you change the task to be interactive. Because a lot of kids can very benefit from interactive learning.

Interactive loading through the rise of technology has given different resources to give to teachers, to give to family members to be able to give them more momentum. And I feel like for them, they should find something they can. They really like. They should focus on those strength.

So let's say my dad does flea markets, right? Well, he can teach me how to count money, like actual bills, actual change.

My mom's a teacher, so she can take her strengths that she already has, apply it to, you know, make a program that make me look. So it really depends on if you have a strength. Maybe you can use that way to communicate with kids.

You know, what is the strongest way you have to communicate with them, but interact with them. That's what I say.

Love that.

And I love how you were talking about using the video kind of as a springboard, as the first bit of information, and then taking it offline or taking it to a different activity to integrate that information. And then I loved when you said you share that with other family members and stuff.

So then that child or that person, whatever they've learned, now they're sharing it. And we know that when you get to share information that you understand, then you actually get a deeper knowledge of it as well.

And then maybe you want to go find out more so you can share more about it as well. So I love those ideas. Yeah, that's really great.

Hands on learning through print media will never go away. So print media, through worksheet journals, coloring, you know, different aspects of physical media that can teach them different things.

Yeah, exactly. So then, you know, we were so lucky now that there are so many different ways of learning, right? So there's even like videos on learning how to draw.

There's videos on learning how to do different kinds of art. There's videos on podcasting. There's all these different things that you can learn and then go out and do things With Absolutely.

So one of the things that you also said though is that your dad had a skill and he taught you that skill by taking you with him and teaching you how to do that money skill. Right. So talk about some of those experiences that when you get got to do that hands on learning.

So my hands on learning is interesting. So I learned self advocacy and agency through talking to others.

So when I was with my dad at the flea market, you know, when I was second grade, I went to the flea market every weekend. That was his child care. He would take me with him so he didn't have to pay so much to watch me.

And I would, you know, help set up bikes, you know, answer questions about prices. You know, he would give me a responsibility. I would sell the DVDs 1 for $3 or 2 for 5. I will handle the money. I'll do calendars.

I did hands on with card tricks at one point. So I would be interactive with people. And that's what, what I was teaching. Not just handle money, but you know, relating to people, talking to them.

Yeah.

But also doing something hands on.

Love it.

That is so important because one of the things we do when we work with parents who want to homeschool their children, we say take them on experiences. Your child's complete educator now. So you don't just leave them at home or keep them at home.

You teach them through those experiences like going to the flea market, like going to co op groups, like going to community cleanup and service things so that they can learn to talk about all those different talk with all those different ages and stages of people and learning. Absolutely.

I was very lucky to have my parents take me to church, get out in the community. I actually love volunteering, so I would volunteer as a means when I got older to find community engagement. So it just really depends.

And the community is so powerful and you know, maybe there's a video about the trends and you can use those trends to navigate that particular life for that activity.

One of the things that we do at bringing education home as well is we talk about finding your children's strengths. And now not only just necessarily strengths, but also their interests.

So your interest in anime, it sounds like that started pulling you into your higher education and what you learned to do.

So if your kids are into anime, then the parents can get into that anime, learn about it as well, and then use their children's interest to help them draw their own education out. And does that make sense?

Yes, they. If it's an anime or a show, the parent can Watch it with their child.

You can create a lasting memory of a prolonged event that's been over time and also detailing the interest.

If you say you have a child who likes drawing or you have a really into electronics, well, giving them access to expand that knowledge on that interest when they're already showing it could be very beneficial in connecting, teaching them stuff, because if they don't learn some of the stuff themselves, that is the best teaching mechanism that they can have. They get involved in an activity and you just be there to support them. You don't even have to get super involved if you don't want to.

Sometimes the kid can just know exactly what they're doing and start playing with it and figuring out.

Yeah. And that is so important.

Like you said, the support, the encouragement, the showing interest in what the child is doing and wanting to learn and then being there as a sounding board, being there to add support, add help as needed. But yeah, let your child learn and grow and keep moving forward with their interests. Absolutely.

Yeah. Very great tool to have.

Yeah.

So one thing that I wanted to ask you, you said that you're autistic and sometimes the people who are kind of like on that spectrum, on that scale, they have a hard time being out in the community. But you said you enjoyed being out in the community.

Is there anything that you can remember that your parents did or how you kind of approached it that made it so it was easier for you to be out in the community?

I. I was exposed to very early life.

Yeah.

So being outside that house was normal for me. They didn't cook me inside, they made me go outside. Even if it's just sitting around doing nothing at the market, literally watching people come in.

I was doing something, you know. But one thing for me, I think they really did connect well is they did give me some pushes. Like they gave me. I had access to tv.

You know, we slowly, over time, got Internet and got the upgrade from dial up. Well, you know, before we had the dial up, I would play pinball on the machine, on the computer right before going to school or play hearts.

So I had access to free games that I just, I. I didn't have much. I found anything to keep me busy.

Yeah, awesome.

Yeah. See, our kids did that too. And sometimes it was hard to break him out of that focus because he would, he would disappear into that. And it was.

It wasn't always easy for us to understand what was going on with him and to communicate with him because he would disappear into his cartoons and not come out and necessarily Talk to us. So what are. How. How do you.

So you talk about using the media to help children get their identity, but how do you keep them from disappearing into that and actually bringing that back out into the world, into family, into communicating with their parents?

Limitating screen time is important. I found that I would spend hours on tv. Okay. The reason why I would do that is I had no limit on my screen time.

I would say TV is screen, because I'm looking at a screen. If you limit the access to the amount of time they're spending on it and say you get two hours, you give them a goal.

You got to do your homework before you can do this or say, okay, we're having dinner. So from this time, when I'm getting everything ready, do your entertainment. But once dinner hits, we're eating and you're doing some homework.

So you giving them incentive, like you give them time in the day for free time. And once that time is up, don't have it guide them to something else and keep them on routine.

Because autistic or autism as a spectrum, people like routine. They like it to be in a scheduled format that they can be ordinated with and really guide them to it. I'm not just saying that.

Just how I was raised, I had a schedule because I did the same thing every day. Got ready for school, got up, had some free time before I got to school, attended classes, then came home.

I was at an environment that was able for me to do my homework, so I didn't have any distractions. I would go to people's houses, they will watch me. They will be there to help me with homework if I need to.

But I had a solitude space dedicated to the assignments that I did. And once I got that done, I had free time, was at home or at the place I was staying, that the person was watching me.

Perfect.

Yeah.

And we talk about that too, whenever we're helping families set up their homeschool or work with their child. That a schedule and routine is important for lots of different people and for lots of different reasons, but exactly have that screen time limit.

You have this much time, or you can earn this much time, and then make sure those other activities that bring them out of their shell, interacting with family is super, super important. Awesome.

Yeah. Interestingly, when we would take our.

Our devices of the screens away from our kids, they would pick up books and read, and then they basically ignore us into the books. So the. Again, the distraction of the story. But. And sometimes it was. It was actually kind of difficult because they were.

There were so many different animes that they would start talking to us about different ones and we didn't have the basis for it. So there was.

Our lack of knowledge.

There was our lack of knowledge in what they were most interested in that made it a little more difficult for us to talk to them.

Yeah, I feel like. Well, actually it might have been a little difficult to understand it, answer questions. They love the opportunity to talk about it.

So if you gave them the opportunity, they can explain what they were talking about or maybe they show you what it looked like and you can comment on what they look like. Or how does this person, how did they play their role as a character? You know, just simple stuff like that.

Yeah, it could be something that can take them out of screen time. But now you having a conversation that's outside of media, which is. That's the moment you really need great.

Ideas and great questions. Awesome. Mason, this has been a wonderful conversation.

I really appreciate you coming on our show, bringing education home and giving us some insight into your world and what you think is really important to help our children grow with using media as well as being off of media, making sure that they're having that balance in there and following their interests and things like that. Would you please stay out loud?

And it'll also be down in the show notes how people can get a hold of you and get up and get into your podcast and watch it as well.

Yes, you can do my landing page which is facebook.com blogmc anime. It's B L O G M C A N I M E. And you can also find me@blog mcanimer.com if you want to have email me questions if you want to appeal.

I'm also launching Voice for Voiceless. So that's another focus on agency advocacy and self awareness for different issues. So that's also another thing you can do as well.

Excellent. Thank you, Mason, so very, very much. All right, audience, it has been a great show.

We are on a short time frame because we're at this cool event called Pot of Looza where we get to meet awesome people like Mason, people we don't usually get to meet.

So make sure that you're listening to all of our shows that will be coming out from this special and make sure you follow us along, give us a like and review for bringing education home. And again, Mason, thank you so much for joining us today.

Yep, thank you for joining us. I really appreciated it. It gives us a little more tools to to think about when we're talking with our son, so it's been very helpful.

So thank you for being here today.

You're welcome. Thank you for having me. It was fun.

Awesome. All right, audience, we will talk to you later. Bye for now.

For now.