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Managing Anxiety: Tools and Strategies for Emotional Balance
Key Points: With autism comes a high level of comorbid anxiety due to characteristics of ASD that contribute to anxiety such as sensory sensitivities and difficulty with unpredictability. The most successful way to help support anxiety in individuals with autism includes a multifaceted...
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Through Distorted Lenses: The Unacknowledged Impact of Visual Perception Differences in Autism
“In daily life, seeing is intricately linked to understanding, with (visual objects)…functioning as preferred carriers of meaning and understanding. However, a closer look at visual practices demonstrates that the connection between sight, visual imagery, and understanding and interpreting them...
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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...
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The Impact of Autism and Co-Occurring Gastrointestinal Issues on Child Flourishing
Author’s note: Recent trends in language use within the autism community show a divide between professionals who often prefer person-first language (e.g., “person with autism”) and autistic advocates who often favor identity-first language (e.g., “autistic person”), for reasons of...
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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...
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Building Effective Autism Treatment Plans: A Collaborative and Compassionate Approach
“Treatment plan,” it’s a word one hears over and over again in the field of ABA. Treatment plans are fantastic in helping us guide programming for the clients and families we serve. Although treatment plans can often be received defensively by a client, parents, and other caregivers....
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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...
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Trauma-Informed Care in the Criminal Justice System: Supporting the Emotional and Physical Wellness of Autistic Individuals
Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) face unique and complex challenges within the criminal justice system, largely due to environments and interactions that are often not suited to their sensory, communication, and emotional needs. A critical yet underexplored issue is the intersection...
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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,...
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Breaking the Cycle of Food Selectivity: How MEAL PlanR Supports Autistic Children and Their Families
Limited and picking eating is a common occurrence for children with autism. Feeding challenges include food selectivity, food refusal, behavioral rigidity during meals, and limited dietary variety (Sharp et al., 2013). Upwards of 89% of autistic individuals have feeding difficulties (Cermak et al.,...
