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Supporting Financial Literacy in Autistic Adults Through Neurodiversity-Affirming Life Coaching
Why Is Financial Literacy Important? Financial literacy, or the ability to understand and use personal finance skills effectively, can be a key factor in improving quality of life for many autistic adults. The ability to earn, save, manage spending, and avoid debt can significantly improve...
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From High School to Life After School: Supporting Communication, Problem Solving, and Self-Advocacy in Autistic Students
The transition from high school to the "real world" is often challenging and stressful for many young adults. This period involves a dramatic shift in expectations and experiences related to college and postsecondary education, employment, friendships and romantic relationships, independent living,...
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Beyond Money Math: Using THINK to Teach Financial Literacy to Autistic Teens
Managing money well is an essential skill that influences independence and quality of life. As financial expert Dave Ramsey said, "You must gain control over your money or the lack of it will forever control you." Money management is essentially mathematical skills combined with self-control and...
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Adulthood Isn’t a Birthday: The Systems That Make Financial Autonomy Possible for Autistic Adults
I became a legal adult on a birthday. Financial autonomy took longer. Those two things are constantly treated as though they happen at the same moment. At eighteen, the law can recognize a person as capable of signing contracts, opening accounts, consenting to services, travelling, working,...
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Rethinking Driver Readiness: Expanding Access to Employment Through Mobility
When we talk about employment outcomes for neurodivergent adults, the conversation usually centers around job training, workplace inclusion, or employer education. Those are all important. But there is a more basic issue that often gets overlooked. Getting there. Transportation remains one of...
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Navigating Lifespan Transitions for Autistic Older Adults: Aging, Independence, and Dignity
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a lifelong neurodevelopmental condition characterized by persistent challenges in social communication and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Many autistic adults, like Michael, a 61-year-old man diagnosed later in...
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The Day I Learned That Stepping Away Isn’t Giving Up – It’s How Autistic Brains Navigate Change
Whenever I have had a big change coming, I tell myself "I can handle this." I have always been good at problem-solving, at figuring things out methodically. Moving away from home for the first time to live at a program for young adults with autism? No problem – I was prepared to learn everything...
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Embracing Disability as Key to Autistic Well-Being
Accepting ourselves as disabled people is key to autistic well-being. Far from defeatist, identifying as disabled is empowering. When we understand ourselves as disabled, anxiety goes down, and self-esteem goes up. For a long time, I compared myself to non-autistic people, and they seemed to...
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Coping During COVID-19: Strategies to Reinforce Executive Functioning Skills During Times of Change
As the world enters a perpetual state of “new normal” due to the COVID-19 pandemic, previously developed routines and coping skills may not be readily accessible - or may not work at all. Along with the closing of many schools and workplaces, drastically changing societal norms,...
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The Importance of a Visual Schedule
It’s half past eight in the morning. Jan, a 10-year-old boy with ADHD, wakes up. His phone plays a nice, calm melody to wake him from his slumber. When the music stops, he looks at the screen of his phone to see a picture in black and white with a little man sitting on his bed and is preparing to...
