Most parents know their kid plays video games. Far fewer could name the game. Andrew Fishman, LCSW, says that gap is where the nightly fights start.

Andrew is a licensed clinical social worker who works with teens and emerging adults, writes about video games and mental health for Psychology Today, and is the author of Parenting A Gamer: Help Your Child Build Healthy Habits, Make Positive Choices, and Find Balance in Virtual Worlds. He has led social groups for autistic teens and adults, and he is a lifelong gamer himself.

In this conversation with host Jeff Skibitsky, Andrew explains why gaming works as social scaffolding for autistic players. No eye contact to manage, no body language to decode, and everyone in the lobby already shares the interest. Autistic people play roughly twice as many hours per week as neurotypical people, and Andrew makes the case that there is a good reason for that.

What we cover:

Resources

Andrew Fishman, LCSW

Mentioned in the episode

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Autism weekly is now found on all of the major listening apps including apple podcasts, stitcher, Spotify, amazon music, and more. Subscribe to be notified when we post a new podcast. Autism weekly is produced by ABS Kids. ABS Kids is proud to provide diagnostic assessments and ABA therapy to children with developmental delays like Autism Spectrum Disorder. You can learn more about ABS Kids and the Autism Weekly podcast by visiting abskids.com.

Most kids in the U.S. aren't diagnosed with autism until after age 4, long past the window when early intervention makes the biggest difference. The problem isn't that clinicians don't care. It's that a traditional evaluation can take six to eight hours end to end, and there aren't enough specialists to go around.

This week, Jeff sits down with Dr. Cheryl Tierney, a board-certified, fellowship-trained developmental pediatrician, professor of pediatrics at Penn State, and Chief Medical Officer at EarliPoint Health. For more than 25 years she has evaluated and diagnosed children with autism, learning, speech-language, attention, and sleep disorders.

Dr. Tierney explains how EarliPoint's FDA-cleared eye-tracking system works: 12 minutes of natural video scenes, 120 data points captured per second, more than 86,000 data points if a child watches the full session. The result is an objective read on how a child uses eye gaze to learn from the world around them, plus proxy measures for social engagement, language, and cognition. She is clear about what it is not. It is not a standalone diagnosis, and it is not about forced eye contact.

The conversation also covers what happens after diagnosis. Repeat assessments let clinicians see whether a child is closing the developmental gap in months instead of years, which means treatment can change course while it still matters.

In this episode:

Resources

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Autism weekly is now found on all of the major listening apps including apple podcasts, stitcher, Spotify, amazon music, and more. Subscribe to be notified when we post a new podcast. Autism weekly is produced by ABS Kids. ABS Kids is proud to provide diagnostic assessments and ABA therapy to children with developmental delays like Autism Spectrum Disorder. You can learn more about ABS Kids and the Autism Weekly podcast by visiting abskids.com.

The UNC researcher behind the Black Empowerment and Autism Network on bias, access, and building care systems that actually fit families.

Autism research has historically been built on a narrow slice of the population. Dr. Brian Boyd argues that gap is not just an academic problem. It shows up as later diagnoses, thinner services, and worse outcomes for the families who were never in the data.

In this episode, Dr. Boyd joins host Jeff Skibitsky to talk about founding the Black Empowerment and Autism Network (BEAM), now close to 70 members across research, medicine, and clinical practice, and what it takes to build systems of care that respond to the families in front of them.

What we cover

About Dr. Brian Boyd

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Autism weekly is now found on all of the major listening apps including apple podcasts, stitcher, Spotify, amazon music, and more. Subscribe to be notified when we post a new podcast. Autism weekly is produced by ABS Kids. ABS Kids is proud to provide diagnostic assessments and ABA therapy to children with developmental delays like Autism Spectrum Disorder. You can learn more about ABS Kids and the Autism Weekly podcast by visiting abskids.com.

This week on Autism Weekly, host Jeff Skibitsky sits down with Amy Kelly, National Director of Family Engagement at Devereux and mother of three, including her daughter Annie, who was diagnosed with autism just before her second birthday. With nearly 20 years working directly with families and a career built out of her own experience navigating the system, Amy brings both professional expertise and lived experience to a conversation about what real inclusion looks like.

Resources

Amy and Jeff explore what family engagement actually means in practice, not just as a program feature but as a standard organizations should hold themselves to. They discuss the difference between token inclusion and full participation, how to prepare for and navigate an IEP meeting with confidence, and specific questions families should be asking depending on where their child falls on the spectrum, from communication device access on school buses to Extended School Year services and social skills programming.

Amy also shares practical strategies for advocating effectively without being labeled the "difficult parent," why evidence-based practices matter, and how documenting a child's progress can shift conversations with school districts. She closes with a reminder that autism is a family diagnosis, and that supporting the whole family, not just the individual, is central to long-term success.

Whether you're just starting the IEP process or years into advocating for your child, this episode offers grounded, practical guidance from someone who has lived both sides of it.

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Autism weekly is now found on all of the major listening apps including apple podcasts, stitcher, Spotify, amazon music, and more. Subscribe to be notified when we post a new podcast. Autism weekly is produced by ABS Kids. ABS Kids is proud to provide diagnostic assessments and ABA therapy to children with developmental delays like Autism Spectrum Disorder. You can learn more about ABS Kids and the Autism Weekly podcast by visiting abskids.com.

This week we're joined by Dr. Mary Jane Weiss, a psychologist and board certified behavior analyst who has spent her career advancing the science of applied behavior analysis and its application to autism. Dr. Weiss serves as executive director of programs in ABA and autism and directs a Ph.D. program in the field. Her work focuses on the philosophical and scientific foundations of ABA, ethical decision-making in professional practice, and collaboration across disciplines. Today we'll talk about what compassionate, humane, and effective ABA actually looks like in practice. Download latest episode to learn more!

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

BACB Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts

BACB Ethics Code landing page: https://www.bacb.com/ethics-information/ethics-codes/

Learn More About Dr. Mary Jane Weiss

Further Reading

Rohrer, J. L., & Weiss, M. J. (2022). Teaching Compassion Skills to Students of Behavior Analysis: A Preliminary Investigation.

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Autism weekly is now found on all of the major listening apps including apple podcasts, stitcher, Spotify, amazon music, and more. Subscribe to be notified when we post a new podcast. Autism weekly is produced by ABS Kids. ABS Kids is proud to provide diagnostic assessments and ABA therapy to children with developmental delays like Autism Spectrum Disorder. You can learn more about ABS Kids and the Autism Weekly podcast by visiting abskids.com.

This week we're joined by Dr. Marilena Griguoli, a neuroscientist whose research is helping us understand something that sits at the very heart of autism: how the brain processes social experiences and builds social memory. Dr. Griguoli's work, funded by the Autism Research Institute, is looking at the specific brain circuits involved in social behavior and how they can be supported. Social connection is one of the most meaningful and complex areas for autistic individuals and their families. Today, we are exploring what the science reveals about why. Download latest episode to learn more!

Resources

Resources Mentioned & Further Reading

Learn more about Dr. Marilena Griguoli’s research:

Featured research:

Related autism research funding:

Institutional research profile:

Researcher bio:

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Autism weekly is now found on all of the major listening apps including apple podcasts, stitcher, Spotify, amazon music, and more. Subscribe to be notified when we post a new podcast. Autism weekly is produced by ABS Kids. ABS Kids is proud to provide diagnostic assessments and ABA therapy to children with developmental delays like Autism Spectrum Disorder. You can learn more about ABS Kids and the Autism Weekly podcast by visiting abskids.com.

This week we're joined by Dr. Tana Carson, Assistant Professor of Occupational Therapy at Florida International University, and Dr. Tania Santiago Perez, Associate Teaching Professor in Recreational Therapy, also at FIU. Together, they're doing something that has never been done at this scale: building an evidence-based swim instruction program specifically designed for children with autism, and training the next generation of therapists to deliver it. Download latest episode to learn more!

Resources

https://ymcasouthflorida.org/special-needs/

https://discovery.fiu.edu/display/person-carson-tana

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Autism weekly is now found on all of the major listening apps including apple podcasts, stitcher, Spotify, amazon music, and more. Subscribe to be notified when we post a new podcast. Autism weekly is produced by ABS Kids. ABS Kids is proud to provide diagnostic assessments and ABA therapy to children with developmental delays like Autism Spectrum Disorder. You can learn more about ABS Kids and the Autism Weekly podcast by visiting abskids.com.

This week we're joined by Dr. Lauren Moskowitz, a clinical psychologist and researcher at St. John's University who studies something so many families know firsthand: the intersection of autism and anxiety. For many autistic children and teens, anxiety isn’t just a side challenge. It can be one of the biggest barriers to daily life, school, friendships, and feeling like they belong. Dr. Moskowitz and her team have developed a therapy program specifically designed to treat anxiety and other mental health challenges in autistic individuals. Today we're getting into what that looks like and what families can do right now. Download latest episode to learn more! 

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

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Autism weekly is now found on all of the major listening apps including apple podcasts, stitcher, Spotify, amazon music, and more. Subscribe to be notified when we post a new podcast. Autism weekly is produced by ABS Kids. ABS Kids is proud to provide diagnostic assessments and ABA therapy to children with developmental delays like Autism Spectrum Disorder. You can learn more about ABS Kids and the Autism Weekly podcast by visiting abskids.com.

This week, we’re joined by Dr. Brandon Ito, a psychiatrist, educator, and advocate specializing in LGBTQ+ mental health and reducing healthcare disparities. As a UCLA Health LGBTQ Champion and leader in medical education, Dr. Ito is dedicated to fostering inclusive and equitable care. Today, we’ll explore the intersection of diverse identities within the autism community, focusing on sexual and gender diversity and the mental health disparities many face. Download the latest episode to learn more!

Resources

Social Media Handle: UCLA Tarjan Center: @uclatarjancenter

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Autism weekly is now found on all of the major listening apps including apple podcasts, stitcher, Spotify, amazon music, and more. Subscribe to be notified when we post a new podcast. Autism weekly is produced by ABS Kids. ABS Kids is proud to provide diagnostic assessments and ABA therapy to children with developmental delays like Autism Spectrum Disorder. You can learn more about ABS Kids and the Autism Weekly podcast by visiting abskids.com.

This week, we’re joined by Dr. Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown, a pioneering researcher at Arizona State University whose work is changing how we understand the connection between gut health and autism. Dr. Krajmalnik-Brown and her team were the first to show that changing the gut microbiome can actually change behavior and improve autism-related symptoms in people with autism. This is a conversation for every family, every caregiver, and anyone who has ever wondered if what's happening in the gut might be connected to what's happening in the brain. Download latest episode to learn more! 

Resources

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Autism weekly is now found on all of the major listening apps including apple podcasts, stitcher, Spotify, amazon music, and more. Subscribe to be notified when we post a new podcast. Autism weekly is produced by ABS Kids. ABS Kids is proud to provide diagnostic assessments and ABA therapy to children with developmental delays like Autism Spectrum Disorder. You can learn more about ABS Kids and the Autism Weekly podcast by visiting abskids.com.