In this week's episode, my friend Ray Bracht joins me to talk about special needs parenting from a dad’s perspective. Ray is an autism dad and an autism step-dad. He opens up about what his journey as a special needs dad has been like. We talk about some of the challenges he’s currently facing, what he fears about the future, how all the stress impacts his marriage, and what his hopes are for his amazing family. We talk dad stuff and even answer some listener questions. This was a great conversation and I hope it inspires other dads to open up.

Please note that in the episode, Ray states that he’s 56 years old. He is in fact 52 years old and I promised I would clarify that in the notes. :-)

About Ray Bracht:

Ray is the father of a young adult dude with Autism who lives at home with him and his wife on their hobby farm in semi-rural Minnesota. Ray works in IT, 100% remotely, and his wife is a paraprofessional who works with DCD high schoolers in a nearby town. Both Ray and his wife, who is Cam’s step-mom, are legal guardians and are currently faced with challenges related to transitioning to adulthood and what the future looks like for Cam. The family enjoys camping in their travel trailer, concerts, movies, plays, and gardening.

About Rob Gorski and The Autism Dad podcast:

Rob Gorski is a single Dad to three amazing autistic boys and Found and CEO of The Autism Dad, LLC. Multiple award-winning blogger, podcaster, content creator, digital marketer, social media influencer, and respected public figure for well over a decade.

Connect with Rob Gorski: https://listen.theautismdad.com.

Featured in this week’s episode:

Goally

Goally is a digital visual scheduler, AAC talker, token board system, and more all rolled into one easy-to-use app. It's made for unique thinkers like autistic kids and kids with ADHD. Kids together with Goally can conquer daily routines and therapy practice without prompting from mom or dad. This reduces that feeling of nagging your kids, and it also grants your kids some autonomy to sort of manage their own lives. Goally can easily be used on your child's existing device or with Goally's optional and affordable, dedicated device. In my house, we found that the dedicated device seems to work better for my son, so that's what we use.

For more information, you can visit getgoally.com and use the code “theautismdad” to save 10% off your order.