Rachel Coley is an OT and mom of three kids, one of whom is autistic. She’s also the founder of CanDo Kiddo, where she gives strengths-based strategies for supporting infant development. In this episode Rachel and I talk about how her OT practice has grown and changed to embrace a neurodiversity-affirming, strengths-based approach. We dive into what it means to be strengths-based with very early development, and concrete ways that schools and school-based therapists can better support neurodivergent kids at every level. 

View show notes and transcript at learnplaythrive.com/podcast

Moyna Talcer is an autistic occupational therapist and researcher who conducted a qualitative study on the sensory experiences of autistic mothers. Her findings have implications for the ways we support not only autistic mothers, but all autistic people, starting in childhood.

View show notes and transcript at learnplaythrive.com/podcast

Oswin Latimer is the founder and President of Foundations for Divergent Minds (FDM) and former Director of Community Engagement for the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN). In this episode, Oswin and I talk about the specific executive function strategies we can use to support our autistic clients’ participation in meaningful daily activities. 

View show notes and transcript at learnplaythrive.com/podcast

Dr. Andrew Gordon is a cognitive neuroscientist specializing in memory, decision making, cognitive control, and misinformation research. This episode is a deep dive into a study conducted by Dr. Gordon and a team of researchers on how executive function differences really show up neurologically for autistic people. And what they found in the study wasn’t that autistic people had executive function deficits, but that they used their executive control networks differently. In this episode, Dr. Gordon explores this research and its implications. This is part one of a two-part series on executive function. In the next episode, we’ll go even deeper into the practical ways we can support autistic people in their daily lives. 

View show notes and transcript at learnplaythrive.com/podcast

Michelle Neuringer is mom to an autistic 6 year old and neurotypical 9 year old. She’s committed to deeply learning from and about her daughter throughout her parenting journey. Jane Sloan, who teaches Michelle's daughter, is a seasoned educator with a deep passion and gift for partnering with parents. Listen into the episode to discover what a collaborative parent / professional relationship combined with a strengths-based approach truly looks like, and the concrete ways that you can translate this to your professional therapy practice. 

View show notes and transcript at learnplaythrive.com/podcast

Dr. Stephen Shore is an autistic advocate, consultant, writer, professor at Adelphi University, and adjunct professor at NYU. His work focuses on aligning best practice in supporting autistic people to lead fulfilling and productive lives. He’s a co-author of the book Ask and Tell: Self-Advocacy and Disclosure for People on the Autism Spectrum. 

Join us in Episode 29 where we:

• Learn Dr. Shore’s step-by-step framework for teaching self-advocacy
• Learn how to effectively scaffold self-advocacy so our clients feel supported and successful
• Explore how self-advocacy is an essential component for supporting our autistic clients
• Apply Dr. Shore’s self-advocacy framework to specific case studies

View show notes and transcript at learnplaythrive.com/podcast

Timotheus Gordon Jr. blogs and posts on social media as The Black Autist. His posts center on autism acceptance, race, disability, and the latest news relevant for autistic people who are black, indigenous, or people of color (BIPOC). 

Join us in episode 28 where we talk about:   

• Racism and exclusion within the disability community
• The stories of BIPOC autistic people interacting with police
• Real, replicable community-based alternatives to police intervention in crisis and the Community Emergency Services & Supports Act, expected to pass in Illinois
• Timotheus’s advice to therapists working with BIPOC autistic people.

This is an important conversation you don’t want to miss.

View show notes and transcript at learnplaythrive.com/podcast

Kate McLaughlin, M.S., CCC-SLP (“The AAC Coach” on social media) is a Speech-Language Pathologist specializing in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) for individuals with complex communication needs. She believes that autonomous communication, inclusion, and self-determination are fundamental human rights. Listen into this episode as we explore:

• The difference between autonomous and independent communication, and how understanding this distinction can open up new opportunities for our clients
• What it means to be an “emergent communicator” and tons of specific ways we can support them
• 4 concrete strategies we can use to teach robust AAC in a respectful and engaging way (Spoiler: not a single one of these strategies is prompting!)

View show notes and transcript at learnplaythrive.com/podcast

Rachel Dorsey is Autistic and an ASHA-Certified Speech-Language Pathologist. Join us in episode 26 as we totally overhaul everything you thought you knew about the social skills of autistic people. 

In this episode, we dive into:

• Rachel’s own experience as an autistic person with neurodiverse and neurodivergent friendships
• The subtle and insidious ways that OTs and SLPs are teaching our autistic kids to hide their own thoughts and emotions, even when we think we aren’t
• The surprisingly negative ways that traditional social and social/emotional interventions can play out throughout a child’s life
• How we can use a neurodiversity-affirming approach instead to support our clients’ strengths and their sense of positive self-identity and belonging

View show notes and transcript at learnplaythrive.com/podcast

Elsbeth Dodman is an autistic artist, creative writer, and public speaker. 

Tune into episode 25 where we talk about:

• Elsbeth’s own experience with autistic shutdowns, and the concrete strategies that helped her work through them
• Elsbeth’s brilliant reframe of what “Whole Body Listening” means and why autistic people are actually quite good at it
• What it looks like when we turn the mirror onto neurotypicals and examine concepts like rigidity and empathy
• How Elsbeth built a life on her strengths, and how we can support our clients to do the same

View show notes and transcript at learnplaythrive.com/podcast