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Navigating Change on the Autism Spectrum: My Journey to Grad School
When you live life on the autism spectrum, it’s easy to become so used to your own patterns that you miss the problems those patterns cause. You fail to see the obstacles that keep tripping you up, and why. I want to share a story of my own pitfalls when it comes to the autistic aversion to...
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Let Them Be: Supporting Neurodivergent Young Adults Through Independence
The transition into adulthood is a major shift for any family, but parents of autistic and neurodivergent young adults often face additional layers of complexity. You’ve spent years helping them navigate systems, environments, and expectations that weren’t always designed with them in mind. As...
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A Special Education Adventure to Autonomy
I was that kid who couldn’t always focus well in class, and not mildly so, but in a way that interfered with my ability to blend in with society in a school setting. I would frequently miss instructions, not pick up on various learning cues and have difficulty processing many parts of concepts...
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Becoming an Autistic Mother: Navigating Pregnancy, Parenthood, and Support
Becoming a parent is an experience that reshapes people’s lives. For autistic mothers, it can bring joy but also create a unique set of challenges. Understanding of autistic women's experiences is increasing, but autistic women remain under-diagnosed and under-researched. Parenting information...
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A Therapist’s Guide to Teaching Autistic Adults Self-Directed Living Skills
Supporting autistic adults in creating self-directed lives, guided by their own preferences, goals, and values—is one of the most meaningful roles a therapist can play. Whether you are a behavior specialist, psychotherapist, social worker, counselor, or life skills coach, fostering autonomy...
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“Just Let Me Try”: Autistic Self-Advocates Redefine Independence
For decades, conversations about autism and adulthood have been centered on building independence through goals, interventions, and structured curricula (Bouck & Joshi, 2015). Yet when autistic self-advocates describe independence, they do not speak in terms of compliance, readiness checklists,...
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Living at Home as an Autistic Adult: When Society Confuses Support with Failure
While many neurotypical adults move away from home at some point in their 20s, many autistic adults like me may live at home well into their later adult years (Marsack-Topolewski et al., 2021). This isn’t because we’re failing but rather because we need more time to reach our various milestones...
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Helping Autistic Teens Thrive: Shifting the Focus from Stigma to Strength
In recent years, our understanding of autism has grown. Yet, despite this progress, many autistic individuals—especially teens—continue to face negative stigmas and outdated assumptions (Turnock & Langley, 2023). Adolescence is already a time of major change and self-discovery, and for...
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It Is Time to Remove Stigma from Autism Interventions
Historically, autism has been blamed for the challenges autistic people face. Struggling to stay in school? Get a job? Make friends? “It's because of the autism.” The belief is this: If autistic people are trained to behave like someone without autism, they will face fewer challenges. Under...
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Studying Us to Death: The Lethal Cost of Autism Research Without Autistic Investigators
I was formally diagnosed with autism and ADHD at the age of 44. I finally had an explanation for why so many things in my life seemed so much harder for me than for others. There was a reason I often felt like the people around me were having two conversations – one with words that I had full...
