-
How a Small Blue Envelope is Changing Lives Across the Country
Every year in America, an estimated 20 million traffic stops take place – over 50,000 a day. For all drivers, the prospect of being pulled over by the police is a stress-inducing event. What did I do wrong? Am I in trouble? In our car-dependent societies, such interactions have become a regular...
-
Neurodiverse Couples: Making Meaningful Moments of Every Day – Having A Good Evening
Every night there are countless opportunities to create small connecting moments to enhance intimacy in a relationship. Especially after a long day, when partners are tired and out of gas, evenings can be a time when it’s easy to forget to acknowledge each other. Be intentional about having a...
-
Navigating Autistic Shutdown and Burnout Through a Neurodiversity-Affirming Approach
(Note: This article is written in neurodiversity-affirming language, including identity-first language) Autistic shutdown is a widely recognized but poorly understood neurological response to overwhelming stress. Despite its significance, research on shutdown remains scarce, with most scholarly...
-
The Power of Accountability in Autism and Wellness
The right course of action in life is usually a mean between two extremes. For example, if I am a student who wants to do well in school, my path runs between the opposing extremes of not studying on the one hand and consistently pulling all-nighters with the books on the other. And if this...
-
Neurodiversity in Higher Education: The Link Between Autistic Traits and Student Well-Being and Physical Health
Understanding the relationship between autistic traits and collegiate well-being presents significant challenges due to the diverse range of experiences among neurodivergent students. While some autistic traits, such as memorization and fixation, may facilitate academic success, others,...
-
Finding Independence and Advocacy: A Journey Through Autism and Self-Direction (2021-2025)
As a young, happy baby about to become a toddler, my family noticed I was not progressing as a normal toddler would, so they took me for a psychological evaluation at 20 months. At that evaluation, I was officially diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Ever since then, life has been an...
-
The Neurodiverse Connections of the Harry Potter World
J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books and the film saga have received widespread acclaim from millions of fans around the world, as the magical world of Hogwarts not only captured the imagination of a generation of young readers but has also inspired many activists who found parallels between the...
-
Painful Conversations: Unconscious Neurodiversity Bias in Higher Education
NOTE: This article is an adaptation of a lecture given at Northeastern University on August 9, 2024. For the full, hour-long video of the presentation, please click here. A shorter version was co-hosted by Vanderbilt University and UCONN on December 13. When I was researching my last book (The...
-
A Key Brain Difference Linked to Autism Is Found for the First Time in Living People
For decades, researchers have relied on animal models and post-mortem subjects to help unlock the key to certain social and communication differences that are hallmarks of autism. Now, a new study has uncovered a molecular difference in the brains of autistic people that is linked to the central...
-
Voices from China: Psychology Students Reflect on Autism Awareness and Advocacy
Wenzhou-Kean University is one of three Sino-US universities, with Kean University being the only public university that has a campus in China (Stern, 2024). The mission of this alliance is to foster cooperation and encourage people, especially youth, to get to know each other better (Zhang, 2024)....
