Do support groups actually help, or do they reinforce the very mindset that keeps parents stuck?

In this episode, I sit down with Sara Intonato to unpack this difficult question.

Both of us (and probably you) have lived the same reality:

• Hypervigilance,

• burnout,

• the constant demand of raising a non-speaking child.

When we went looking for help, what we found in traditional support spaces was not growth or even help.

Unfortunately we found:

• cycles of venting without direction

• low expectations presented as acceptance

• and a normalization of hopelessness

This is a hard but beautiful conversation, that digs deep and lets us find out what really helps.

We talk about:

• A simple 1-minute regulation tool you can use in crisis

• The HALT framework (Hungry, Angry/Anxious, Lonely, Tired)

• How to think about self-care when even 5 minutes feels impossible

Sara introduces a different model: community with leadership, structure, and high expectations.

Effort is great, but our kids need our regulated presence more!

If you've ever felt unsupported in "support" spaces, listen to this episode now.

Links:

Find more about Sara here.

Sara's free podcast mini-series

Autism Changemakers

Dr. Vaish Sarathy: Get on the waitlist for Non Linear Education here.

Most special education systems operate on this premise: Students with disabilities must master small foundational skills before they are allowed access to academic content. In practice, this often means students spend years repeating the same goals - decoding, counting, basic worksheets - while their peers move forward into real subjects like science, history, and mathematics. But what happens when a student with significant disabilities is simply included in a high school physics class? In this episode of Non Linear Learning, I speak with Sruthi Muralidharan, a high school physics teacher who is testing that question in a public school classroom. Sruthi teaches general education physics where students with significant cognitive disabilities - including students with Down syndrome - participate alongside their peers in labs, engineering activities, and scientific investigations. Her work challenges several assumptions that dominate special education today. Sruthi did not begin her career in education. She holds an MS in Physics and a PhD in Electrical Engineering and spent more than ten years working in the semiconductor industry. In This Episode We discuss: • Why mastery-based IEP goals often keep students repeating the same material year after year • The limitations of self-contained special education classrooms • What happens when students with significant disabilities join general education science classes • Why educators often confuse communication challenges with cognitive limitations • How inclusive classrooms can actually improve regulation and engagement • Why the burden of proving intelligence should never fall on the child About Our Guest Sruthi Muralidharan is a high school physics teacher and advocate for inclusive education. She previously worked for more than a decade in the semiconductor industry and holds an MS in Physics and a PhD in Electrical Engineering. Links & Resources

• Sruthi's Substack on lesson modification and inclusive teaching
• Vaish's course on making academics possible: Non Linear Education

If You Enjoyed This Episode • Share it with a parent, teacher, or school leader • Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

Dr. Vaish Sarathy speaks with Dr. Kendall Stewart (former surgeon turned functional medicine + genomics clinician) about the biochemistry of learning: how inflammation, metabolic factors, neurotransmitter balance, and genetics can influence regulation, sensory stability, and why some kids respond to interventions while others don't.

What we cover:

1. Why progress can look like "good days/bad days" when inflammation fluctuates

2. Nutrigenomics vs exome sequencing vs pharmacogenetics (and why personalization matters)

3. A parent-friendly clinical framework: inflammation → autophagy/insulin tendencies → neurotrophic factors → glutamate/GABA → methylation

4. Sensory stability (vestibular/visual) and why eye contact can reduce listening for some learners

5. Microbiome basics: inflammation load, butyrate, absorption/biofilms

Resources

1. Dr. Kendall Stewart: www.drkendalstewart.com

2. Non Linear Education (NLE): https://www.drvaishsarathy.com/nonlineareducation

Medical disclaimer (important):

This episode is for educational purposes only and does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your qualified clinician for medical decisions—especially for children and complex conditions.

Homeschooling sometimes begins when parents realize the education system is not serving their child.

In this episode of Non Linear Learning, Dr. Vaish Sarathy speaks with Victoria Lenormand, a former detective turned holistic health practitioner and homeschooling parent, about what it takes to trust a child's internal compass and let go of conventional definitions of success.

Victoria brings an evidence-based perspective to homeschooling. Trained to observe patterns and follow facts, she applied that same mindset to her son's learning and recognized that a linear schooling model was taking enormous energy just to maintain — without supporting his identity or growth.

Together, Vaish and Victoria explore:

1. How to build the mindset needed for homeschooling

2. The 3 factors learning is built around when done right.

3. How to interpret stubbornness or "wilfulness" in a way that works for your child, and

4. Why the energy cost of education is critical information for parents

This conversation is for parents considering homeschooling, questioning traditional schooling, or feeling the constant friction between who their child is and what school expects.

As we reflect in the episode:

"When something in education takes enormous energy just to maintain, it's worth asking whether it's actually working."

Resources

Victoria Lenormand's parent community: https://www.geminidirections.co.uk

You can find Vaish at www.instagram.com/drvaishsarathy

Parents of Autistic children and children with Down syndrome are often given advice that sounds compassionate, reasonable, and supportive. But much of it slowly limits learning, flexibility, autonomy, and long-term growth.

In this milestone Episode 200 of Non Linear Learning, Dr. Vaish Sarathy challenges 5 common pieces of parenting and education advice that unintentionally lower expectations and shift focus away from real learning.

In this episode, you'll learn why Dr. Vaish challenges:

• Strict routines and rigid structure — and how too much predictability reduces tolerance for learning and change • Traditional support groups — and how shared grief can quietly stall progress

... and more

This episode is for parents who:

• Have been told academics can wait • Feel uneasy about advice that sounds kind but feels limiting • Want age-appropriate, intellectually rich education for their child

Resources

Learn how to teach real academics non-linearly, without waiting for "readiness," inside Non Linear Education.

When 8-year-old non-speaking autistic Rafael found text-based communication, he didn't just start "answering questions." He started telling the truth about his body, his anxiety, and the frustration of being misunderstood. If you've ever looked at your non-speaking child and thought, "I know there's more in there… I just don't know how to reach it," this conversation is for you. Today I'm joined by Daria and her 8-year-old autistic, non-speaking son Rafael, co-creators of Spelling the Tea on Autism on Substack and Instagram. After discovering text-based communication, they realized how deeply Rafael had been misunderstood - and started documenting both his words and the science that helps explain them. Inside the episode, we talk about:

• Rafael's "goner mindset" before communication and what typing changed about his sense of the future.
• How apraxia creates a gap between intention and movement and why that gap gets mislabeled as "low IQ," "behavior," or "non-compliance."
• The concept of an "interference score" for food!
• How Rafael would redesign first in schools for non-speakers.
• Why regulation, communication, and learning are inseparable… and why independence in cognition does not mean independence in motor and sensory systems.

This is a humbling, practical, and very human reminder that:

• We can't keep separating "behavior," "sensory," and "cognitive" boxes.
• Research on autism that excludes non-speakers cannot be our only compass.
• And most importantly: sitting still is not a pre-requisite for real thinking or rigorous education.

You can find Daria and Rafael at https://www.instagram.com/spelling_the_tea_on_autism/ and https://spellingthetea.substack.com/ You can find Dr. Vaish Sarathy at https://www.instagram.com/drvaishsarathy/ Check out her 6 foundational tips on education at https://www.drvaishsarathy.com/nonlinearlearning

I first spoke with Dana Johnson nearly 4 years ago, and that conversation completely changed how I saw vision and learning. I call it my "ocular motor awakening" when I truly understood that vision has three components, and only one of them is corrected by glasses.

Dana is the co-creator of the Spellers Method and the founder of multiple centers dedicated to helping non-speaking individuals communicate and learn with purpose. As both an occupational therapist (OT) and a Spellers Method practitioner, she brings a unique approach to supporting individuals with autism, apraxia, dyspraxia, and sensory-motor differences.

In this episode, we talk about the power of purposeful motor skills, breaking down barriers for non-speakers, and what real communication means.

Key Takeaways: Vision isn't just about eyesight it's about how the brain processes what we see. Apraxia is a motor planning challenge, not a cognitive one.

Communication is possible when we focus on purposeful motor skills.

What does right support look like?

Get in Touch: 👉 Learn more about Dana Johnson's work at Spellers Method Tampa 👉 Connect with Dr. Vaish Sarathy on Instagram: @drvaishsarathy

If you're parenting an Autistic child and living in a state of constant alert (sensory overwhelm, dysregulation, sleepless nights, meltdowns, and the never-ending to-do list), this episode gives you a concrete biochemical map for how to get back to baseline. In today's conversation,I'm joined by Dr. Scott Sherr board certified internal medicine physician, certified practitioner of Health Optimization Medicine, and COO of Troscriptions, a company making physician formulated, precision-dosed buccal troches for focus, stress, sleep, and immune function. We talk about:

• What is the "sympathetic spiral of doom."
• What GABA deficiency actually looks like (and why calming down isn't as simple as "go meditate").
• Why mitochondrial dysfunction and chronic inflammation show up so strongly in autistic and disabled kids and how supporting cellular energy can actualy reduce hyper-excitability.
• The real problem with giving kids 10–20 supplements at once.
• How targeted support can help caregivers feel better now, while they work the longer game of diet, lifestyle, and environment.

Links Mentioned

• Dr. Scott Sherr's clinical practice: https://drscottsherr.com
• Troscriptions Products: https://troscriptions.com (Please work with a practitioner before using any product with a child.)

If you found this episode helpful: Please share it with a caregiver who feels stuck in stress, burnout, or dysregulation. And grab my free guide: Gut Health Toolkit

In this episode, psychiatrist and researcher Dr. Eric Strobl joins Dr. Vaish Sarathy to talk about a new re-analysis of the SOARS-B trial on oxytocin and autism. While earlier studies found no clear benefit, Dr. Strobl's fine-grained, item-level analysis using machine learning uncovered consistent evidence that oxytocin can enhance social-emotional reciprocity the ability to engage, connect, and respond in social contexts. Together, they discuss:

• Why most autism drug trials fail to show benefit
• What "blunt outcome measures" really mean in clinical research
• How machine learning can extract signal from noise in complex data
• What oxytocin actually does (and doesn't do) in real life
• How future studies could use more nuanced, individualized measures

Resources and Links Mentioned

• Study Discussed: Strobl E et al. (2024). "Item-Level Analysis Reveals Oxytocin Improves Social-Emotional Reciprocity in Autism Spectrum Disorder." Preprint
• Original SOARS-B Trial: Parker KJ et al. (2017). "A Randomized Clinical Trial of Oxytocin in Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder." Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA Psychiatry) Link
• Related Reading:
• Oxytocin and Social Behavior
• On machine learning in psychiatry: Nature – Machine learning in mental health research

Key Takeaways

• Oxytocin may help but not for everyone. Its most reliable effect seems to be reducing social anxiety and improving comfort in social exchanges.
• Measurement matters. "Blunt" outcome scales can bury meaningful results under noise. Item-level, data-driven analysis reveals nuance traditional methods miss.
• Autism heterogeneity is real. The same outward behavior can stem from different root causes - so future trials need precision tools, not averages.
• Hope through better science. New methods aren't about hype—they're about accuracy, compassion, and smarter research design.

About Dr. Eric Strobl Dr. Strobl is a psychiatrist and data scientist at the University of Pittsburgh who develops innovative machine-learning algorithms to uncover hidden structure in medical data. His current work focuses on autism, neurodevelopmental conditions, and the use of AI to improve clinical trial design. About Dr. Vaish Sarathy Dr. Vaish Sarathy is a TEDx speaker, PhD chemist, educator, and mom to a non-speaking autistic teen poet with Down syndrome. She hosts the Non Linear Learning podcast and leads the Non Linear Education course for parents and educators who believe that every brain can learn, given the right way to teach. Stay Connected

• Instagram: @drvaishsarathy
• Free Guide: Turn ON Your Child's Learning Switch
• Join the Non Linear Education Waitlist: Get on the list here →

This may be the most heartfelt episode I've ever recorded. In this deeply human conversation, Maxwell Ivey: The Blind Blogger, and I talk about what it means to keep moving when life doesn't hand you easy options. Maxwell lost his sight as a child, taught himself to code, built a business, and learned to ask for help without shame. We talk about the quiet power of asking, the courage to act before conditions are perfect, and a rare take on gratitude-not as politeness, but as the willingness to use what's been given. Somewhere along the way, we find ourselves reflecting on The Four Agreements and how "don't take things personally" and "don't make assumptions" become essential mindsets in the world of disability and education. It's unpolished, honest, and full of wisdom that only comes from lived experience. Stay to the end to hear Maxwell sing his original song, Don't Wait on Someday. You can find Maxwell at theblindblogger.net.