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How to Advocate for Your Nonspeaking or Minimally Verbal Child or Adult
Over the last decade, there has been an increase in autistic self-advocates coming into the public eye through their incredible means to advocate for themselves - and others like them. These individuals have become a powerful voice for boards, committees, research and quality improvement...
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Honoring My Limitations as an Autistic Entrepreneur
I am an autistic entrepreneur. That is a sentence I couldn’t have uttered that long ago. As far as the entrepreneurship part goes, I’ve run a business that I founded in 2013 called Autism Personal Coach. With the help of so many others, my company has turned into a business that is stable and...
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Supporting Teens and Adults in Becoming the Best Self-Advocate They Can
The creation of self-advocacy is a story that is one of pioneering and revolution dating back as far as 1968 (Glumbić et al., 2022). Today, many self-advocacy organizations target elevating neurodiverse voices and providing space for neurodiverse individuals to advocate for themselves. The current...
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Research-Based Recommendations for Building Self-Advocacy Competence
Self-advocacy, an essential ingredient in our quest for satisfaction and fulfillment in life, is a learned skill that involves self-awareness, social and communication strategies, and behavioral competencies. Self-advocating involves communicating a person’s needs so that another person is able...
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Using Explicit Instruction to Teach Self-Advocacy
Those diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can benefit from alternative pedagogy, and the utilization of different approaches for more abstract skills should be a primary focus. Self-Advocacy is a set of skills that involve executive functions, social communication, and adaptive functions....
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Using Storytelling as a Self-Advocacy Tool
[su_spacer size="30"] I have always tried to advocate for myself, but I noticed from a very young age that I had difficulties doing so verbally. It takes a while for me to organize my thoughts to be able to speak, and I often say that even though my speaking and writing comes from the same...
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“Putting Me in My IEP”: Encouraging Self-Advocacy in Younger Students
Parents and guardians may not know that students can participate in their Individualized Education Program (IEP) team meetings at any age and not just during post-secondary transition planning in high school. In describing the IEP team, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act states “the...
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Putting My Lived Experience to Good Use
As an autism self-advocate, I wear many hats: writer, public speaker, advisor, educator. One of my roles is LEND Program Faculty at Boston Children’s Hospital and UMass Boston’s Institute for Community Inclusion. The LEND Program (an acronym for Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and...
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Rethinking Non-Compliance as a Skill and Promoting Self-Advocacy
Nearly all behavior analysts have come across “non-compliance” within the behavior repertoire of our consumers. Many of us have operationally defined it and targeted it for deceleration. However, how often do we stop to consider the significance of non-compliance? Can non-compliance be...
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Advice for Parents with Children Entering Post-Secondary Education
The transition from high school to post-secondary education can be overwhelming. There are several different pathways to success for your loved one, including a specialized post-secondary experience for non-degree seeking students to provide them with a college campus experience, programs that...
