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Autism Weekly Podcast
Autism Weekly Podcast episodes
- An Informed Parent Is an Empowered Parent | with Camille Proctor #241
This week, Jeff sits down with Camille Proctor, Founder and Executive Director of The Color of Autism Foundation. Camille started the foundation in 2009 after a long fight to get her son diagnosed and after support groups where no one looked like her. Today it's a national resource for Black families navigating diagnosis and services.
Camille talks about why Black children are often diagnosed later or misdiagnosed, and what it's like to wait months to get from diagnosis to services in underserved communities. She shares what providers get wrong when they make assumptions instead of asking families who they are. She also explains why the parent should be treated as the navigator, with the provider as co-captain.
Camille walks through the foundation's free five-week parent training. It teaches families to collect data in plain language, advocate in IEP meetings, create social stories, and support a loved one in crisis without calling the police. She also shares how autistic trainers shape the work and what gives her hope for the future.
Resources:
- The Color of Autism Foundation: thecolorofautism.org
- Programs page (general support group, dad support group, five-week parent trainings): visit thecolorofautism.org/programs
- Newsletter sign-up: thecolorofautism.org
- Natasha Nelson, autistic trainer and Army veteran: @SupernovaMama on social media
- Kevin and Avonte's Law (wandering and elopement prevention)
- SPARK autism research study: sparkforautism.org
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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.
42 min - Social Relationships and Connection in Adulthood with Rachel Loftin, Ph.D. #241
For most autistic people, the supports end at 21 or 22. The friendships, the structure, the built-in reasons to be around other people, all of it was attached to a school system that stops.
Dr. Rachel Loftin has spent her career with the people on the other side of that line. She is chief clinical officer at Prosper Health, which she helped found and which is now the largest provider of mental health services for autistic adults in the country. She is also on faculty in the psychiatry departments at Northwestern and Yale.
In this episode, she joins host Jeff Skibitsky to talk about what connection really looks like in adulthood, why so much social skills instruction teaches autistic people to disappear into a crowd, and what parents of young kids can start doing now.
In this episode:
- Why "social skills" usually means eye contact and small talk, and what it should mean instead
- Where teaching autistic people to blend in helps, and where it causes harm
- Telling real loneliness apart from a genuine preference for time alone
- What actually happens when a young adult ages out of school-based services
- What families should have in place at 16 or 17
- Realistic first steps for an adult who is already isolated
- What sexuality education usually misses for autistic adults
- What parents of a 7-year-old can do now that pays off at 27
RESOURCESDr. Rachel Loftin
- Bio and publications: https://prosperhealth.io/medical-reviewer/rachel-loftin
- Co-editor, Handbook of Autism Spectrum Disorder and the Law (Springer)
- Editorial board, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
Prosper Health
- Website: https://prosperhealth.io
- Self-reflection quiz for adults wondering about autism: https://prosperhealth.io/autismquiz
- Telehealth diagnosis and therapy for autistic adults, covered by most major insurance
For adults and families navigating the transition
- Autistic Self Advocacy Network: https://autisticadvocacy.org
- The Arc, state and local chapters: https://thearc.org
- Autism Society affiliate finder: https://autismsociety.org
- Your state vocational rehabilitation agency, searchable at https://rsa.ed.gov
For healthcare access
- AASPIRE Healthcare Toolkit, free tools for autistic adults and their doctors: https://autismandhealth.org
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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.
41 min - Press Start: Video Games, Healthy Habits, and Finding Balance with Andrew Fishman, LCSW #240
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:
- Why gaming rarely becomes a clinical problem, and the specific signs that say otherwise
- Transitions and the "five more minutes" fight, plus why changing when a kid stops beats fighting over that they stop
- Turning off public chat, and the parental controls most families never find
- Skills that come out of play: social practice, reading, math, and real world interests
- Why playing badly alongside your kid is a gift, not an embarrassment
- What Andrew wants gamers, parents, and providers each to take away
Resources
Andrew Fishman, LCSW
- Book: Parenting a Gamer: Help Your Child Build Healthy Habits, Make Positive Choices, and Find Balance in Virtual Worlds, available wherever books are sold
- Website: videogamehealth.com
- Psychology Today column, Video Game Health: psychologytoday.com/us/blog/video-game-health
- Practice: The Juniper Center, Park Ridge, Illinois The Juniper Center
- Social: Video Game Health on Facebook and Bluesky
Mentioned in the episode
- Parental controls and chat settings: look for communication or privacy settings inside each game and switch public chat off. Console-level guides are at the PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo family settings pages.
- ESRB Family Gaming Guide for ratings and platform control walkthroughs: esrb.org/tools-for-parents
- Roblox parental controls: corp.roblox.com/parents
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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.
30 min - Autism Diagnosis, Eye Tracking, and What It Means for Families with Dr. Cheryl Tierney #239
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:
- Why "wait and see" became the default, and what it costs families
- How roughly 60 percent of referred children may not need a lengthy assessment
- Why clinicians using the tool report seeing 33 to 50 percent more patients
- What families say after going through it, especially those who have done both pathways
- Where payers and Medicaid are heading on coverage
- Why a language-agnostic tool matters for rural and non-English-speaking families
Resources
- EarliPoint Health: https://earlipointhealth.com
- Find a provider near you (EarliPoint Network directory): https://earlipointhealth.com/earlipoint-network/
- For parents: https://earlipointhealth.com/parents/
- Research and publications: https://earlipointhealth.com/research/
- Eye-Tracking-Based Measurement of Social Visual Engagement Compared With Expert Clinical Diagnosis of Autism (JAMA, 2023): https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2808996
- Development and Replication of Objective Measurements of Social Visual Engagement (JAMA Network Open, 2023): https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2808909
- Providers: request a demo or start a conversation: https://earlipointhealth.com/contact-us/
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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.
42 min - Dr. Brian Boyd: Who Autism Research Leaves Out, and How We Fix It #238
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
- Why a two-year-old whose first word was "pentagon" shaped two decades of research on focused interests
- How BEAM started as career advice and became an international support network, including Black autistic researchers
- The three places disparities show up: access, quality of experience, and outcomes
- Why Black autistic children are twice as likely to carry a co-occurring intellectual disability diagnosis
- What culturally responsive support actually looks like in practice, starting with cultural humility
- Practical advocacy for families who feel dismissed in an IEP meeting or a doctor's office
- How underfunded, understaffed systems push providers toward cookie-cutter care
- What researchers owe communities before they ever collect a data point
- Why Dr. Boyd is still hopeful right now
About Dr. Brian Boyd
Dr. Brian Boyd is the William C. Friday Distinguished Professor in the UNC School of Education and Director of the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at UNC Chapel Hill. His work focuses on evidence-based practices, racial disparities, implicit bias, and how schools and service systems can better support autistic people and their families. He founded the Black Empowerment and Autism Network (BEAM)................................................................
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.
36 min - Family Engagement and Advocacy: Building Real Inclusion for Autistic Individuals #237
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
XHandle: @Devereux_NatlLink: https://x.com/Devereux_NatlInstagramHandle: @devereuxnationalLink: https://www.instagram.com/devereuxnational/FacebookHandle: @DevereuxNationalLink: https://www.facebook.com/DevereuxNationalLinkedInHandle: @devereuxLink: https://www.linkedin.com/company/devereuxAmy 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.
38 min - Ethics, Skill Building, and Collaboration | With Dr. Mary Jane Weiss #236
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
Dr. Mary Jane Weiss discusses the four core principles of the BACB Ethics Code: benefit others; treat others with compassion, dignity, and respect; behave with integrity; and ensure competence.BACB Ethics Code landing page: https://www.bacb.com/ethics-information/ethics-codes/
Full PDF: https://www.bacb.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Ethics-Code-for-Behavior-Analysts-240830-a.pdfLearn More About Dr. Mary Jane Weiss
Endicott College faculty page: https://www.endicott.edu/about/faculty-staff-directory/m/mary-jane-weissMelmark bio: https://www.melmark.org/staff/mary-jane-weiss/Further Reading
Rohrer, J. L., Marshall, K. B., Suzio, C., & Weiss, M. J. (2021). Soft Skills: The Case for Compassionate Approaches or How Behavior Analysis Keeps Finding Its Heart.https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-021-00563-xRohrer, J. L., & Weiss, M. J. (2022). Teaching Compassion Skills to Students of Behavior Analysis: A Preliminary Investigation.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-022-00748-y...............................................................
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.
36 min - Social Memory and Autism: Inside the Brain | Dr. Marilena Griguoli #235
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:
Dr. Marilena Griguoli — ResearchGate ProfileFeatured research:
Medial Septum: Relevance for Social MemoryRelated autism research funding:
Autism Research Institute — ARI-Funded Research StudiesInstitutional research profile:
Dr. Marilena Griguoli — CNR / Institute of Molecular Biology and PathologyResearcher bio:
Dr. Marilena Griguoli — European Brain Research Institute...............................................................
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.
24 min - When Water Becomes Dangerous: Autism, Drowning, and the Program Changing the Odds #234
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.
49 min - When Anxiety and Autism Collide: What Families Can Do | With Dr. Lauren Moskowitz #233
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
- SPIRIT-ID/A Training Program (Drexel University/Lerner Lab) – An online CBT training program for mental health practitioners working with individuals with intellectual disability and autism, co-led by clinicians and autistic providers. lernerlab.com/spirit-ida.html
- SPIRIT-ID/A Research Program (A.J. Drexel Autism Institute) – Information on the research program behind SPIRIT-ID/A within Drexel's Life Course Outcomes research area. drexel.edu/autisminstitute/research/ResearchPrograminLifeCourseOutcomes/SPIRITIDA
- Facing Your Fears Program (JFK Partners, CU Anschutz) – A group CBT program for autistic youth with anxiety, with versions for clinic, school, and IDD populations, plus provider training options. medschool.cuanschutz.edu/jfk-partners/clinical-services/facing-your-fears-program
- UCLA META (Meya) Autism Intervention Lab – YouTube Channel – Videos from UCLA's autism intervention research lab. youtube.com/@uclameyaautismintervention1480/videos
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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.
55 min
About Autism Weekly Podcast
From the publisher's feed
Autism Weekly brings you weekly conversations with researchers, clinicians, and families at the forefront of the autism community. Each episode explores a new perspective on autism news, therapy,…
inclusion, and life. Presented by ABS Kids. New episodes every week. Send us your feedback at [email protected].
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