Two Sides of the Spectrum

Sarah Selvaggi Hernandez is an occupational therapist and educator working to promote an intentional identity-first approach to autism and OT. She’s also a mother to three neurodiverse children. In this episode, we explore Sarah’s experiences as an autistic mother, the types of supports that help her thrive in her daily routines, and her own process of self-advocacy. Then we apply this insight to the clinical work of anyone working with autistic children, children with autistic mothers, and autistic mothers themselves. View show notes and transcript at learnplaythrive.com/podcast

Greg Santucci is an occupational therapist and the founder of Power Play Pediatric Therapy. Greg provides workshops and trainings to parents and professionals all over the country on compassionate, collaborative, and neuro-developmentally informed approaches. In this episode we talk about how restraint, seclusion, and behaviorism harm kids, and why they are more prevalent than we’d like to admit. Greg shares how he fights these practices on the ground as a school-based OT and at the policy level. And finally, we explore Greg’s Model of Child Engagement as an alternative to behavioral approaches. View show notes and transcript at learnplaythrive.com/podcast

Dr. Alyssa Hillary Zisk is autistic, a part-time AAC user, and a recent graduate from the interdisciplinary neuroscience program at the University of Rhode Island. In this episode, we talk about why and how part-time AAC use can support authentic participation for many autistic people. We also explore Alyssa’s insights on teaching AAC from Alyssa's perspective as an engineer, as a researcher, and as an AAC user. View show notes and transcript at learnplaythrive.com/podcast

Rachel Dorsey is an Autistic SLP in private practice, a consultant, and the creator of a new Learn Play Thrive course, Goal Writing for Autistic Students: A Neurodiversity-Affirming Approach. In episode 35, we cover the basics of the neurodiversity paradigm and why and how to write strengths-based goals. Rachel also gives us the inside scoop on her own journey towards neurodiversity-affirming practice.  View show notes and transcript at learnplaythrive.com/podcast

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-advocacyLearn how to effectively scaffold self-advocacy so our clients feel supported and successfulExplore how self-advocacy is an essential component for supporting our autistic clientsApply Dr. Shore’s self-advocacy framework to specific case studies  View show notes and transcript at learnplaythrive.com/podcast