Autism Stories

"Growing up, not knowing that I was on the spectrum, it was very, very easy just to people please your way through everything, and not understand, or even recognize your own voice, your own internal dialogue. I think for me, it's about learning how to recognize that internal dialogue that's me, instead of like what I've projected to be me," says Gabrielle Hailstone. Gabrielle  joins this...

"In fact, being able to have some respect for another person, and to feel understood by them, is really important from a clinical perspective, therapeutically. I often tell clients that if you don't like one counselor, find another one. It should be like looking for breakfast cereal. That if you don't like one just find another one that suites you better," says Scott Allen. Scott joins this e...

"Now I understand that my main issue all the time has been ignorance both with myself and my surroundings. And my real medicine, which is truly helping me to flourish as a human being, is to educate my environment about these cognitive differences and to accept and embrace them as a natural part of human diversity and celebrate them," says Elisabeth Wiklander. Elisabeth joins this episode of Autis...

"That's one of the big things that special education programs can do. Design your curriculum with the assumption that some of the people you're talking about might actually be in the classroom with you. If you think that your curriculum might be uncomfortable for a disabled person to sit through, that's a sign that there's an issue with your curriculum, not that the disabled student does...

"I decided that I really wanted to write a film that explains autism, but shows it in a normal light, like it's something that's no big deal. Because, yes, even though the selling point of my film is that she is autistic, it's still a normal relationship. And I don't feel like a lot of media surrounding autism presents autism in that way," says Rebecca Faith Quinn. Rebecca joins this episode of Au...

""Although it's a biological function, it's not something straight forward. It's not that you just hover the baby somewhere near the breast and it works. There's a complex range of positioning, attachment, the baby's suck needs to be right. Often, babies are born with an extra little piece of skin under their tongue. That means that their tongue can't move enough to actually help release milk...

"It wasn’t until I was 10 years old that I was introduced to supported typing and Alternative Augmented Communication, or AAC. By having the tactile input I needed, I was able to point to letters on a letterboard, to say exactly what I wanted to say, how I wanted to say it. For the first time, I was able to fully express myself. I soon learned to type on a keyboard with voice output, so it would s...

"When looking for a communication partner, I need to see if I connect with them, and I can tell if I will connect with them almost instantly, because I need to trust them with so many important aspects of my life. They become more than just a CRP; they become my family. They need to be patient, but also push me to do the most I can do," says Ben Breaux. Ben joins this episode of Autism S...

"We should ask rather than making assumptions. For example, I've had managers say to me, "I've got an autistic member on staff. Does this mean I shouldn't Teams call them?" And my answer to that is, "Please go away and ask that member of staff because we're all individuals," says Charlie Hart. Charlie joins this episode of Autism Stories to discuss her experience working in human resources, b...

"My work is very sensory. I experience and respond to the world very directly through my senses, and as I'm speaking to you or when I write, it is actually a translation. My words are not directly from my immediate experience. I feel that my work and my work with Simon expresses the rich and abundant ecology that is outside neurotypical expression. We want to validate our autistic sensory communic...

"I wasn't a natural athlete at 4 years old. I'm still not a natural athlete to this day. It's all about understanding and being able to speak in the language that your students understand, and that's a language that is inherent. Being autistic is my natural language, so it definitely is an advantage comparing to people who are not on the spectrum. There's more of a learning curve, whereas it just...

""I know how to write a research paper basically. I don't know how to creatively sit and just write feelings, that's not my thing. Its difficult, he'll give me a topic. I find it helpful if he gives me something  first. He'll say tell me about your worst vacation then I'm able to flow out ideas from there. Now I've started doing that at home myself where I'll pick out my own ideas from home a...

"We stay committed and consistent in these jobs or in these situations, whether it's a living situation or a relationship. We stay in them in that dedicated, committed-consistent way, and sometimes we need to just let things go. It is not so easy for us to let things go, or to recognize that we're enjoying the habit of it," says Becca Lory Hector. Becca makes her return to Autism Stories to discus...

"There is so much more to being a PDAer than just demand avoidance. There's this incredible, insistent, inherent drive for equity, equality, social justice. There's this beautiful sensitivity, and, again, this incredible, persistent drive for autonomy and freedom. The one thing I will say though is I really respect the way the research is conducted around PDA. There is an active involvement with t...

"I think in the autistic world especially, there's sort of a stereotype that an adult autistic person is either going to be unemployed or in IT. Those are kind of our only options. But that's not true at all! We're such an incredibly diverse group of people with so many different skill sets that if you can throw a dart at any field, you're gonna find some autistics there," says Luka Brave. Lu...

"As a kid, I faced many struggles due to being different, including the fact that I didn't learn to read as a kid until I was nine years old, and I had trouble making friends and had to deal with feeling isolated. When people try to discourage me from going into physics, saying it was hard and it would involve a lot of struggles, actually only helped push me further in the direction of physics. St...

Rachel Dorsey joins this episode of Autism Stories to discuss her goal writing course for autistic students, how masking affects this process, and what strengths based learning truly means. To learn more about Rachel visit https://dorseyslp.com. Br updated on the latest Autism Stories episode by subscribing on your favorite podcast listening platform. If you could give us a positive rating and rev...

Kelly Londenberg joins this episode of Autism Stories to discuss why accepting her autistic identity was so important in her life, being a certified occupational therapy assistant and the benefits of occupational therapy, and how volunteering greatly helped her on her employment path.

“Non-speakers with apraxia need people to believe in their intelligence and give them opportunities to show it. They need to be taught in a more engaging way. I like the back and forth teaching style of Soma. She gives a few sentences of instruction and then asks about it. It isn’t just a series of commands,” says Phillip Reyes. Phillip joins this episode of Autism Stories to discuss what you shou...

“It’s This shared special interest with my daughter. It’s so parallel play, because she does her own thing, I do my own thing, we’re not bothering each other, but we’re together. It’s the best,” says Ryan Steiner. Ryan Chinese this episode of Autism Stories To discuss her running has grown the relationship with him and his daughter in my life only got better as he entered his 30s. To learn more ab...

“When I started to wrestle more regularly, I always wanted to make a point of being openly autistic because you hear a lot of autistic people in other fields, and predominantly in sciences and maybe mathematics. That seems to be quite a common misconception as well with autistic people are all mathematical savants, and that kind of thing. I always wanted to make a point of being openly autistic be...

""I did some time at university, and everything was really structured and regimented- you have to write it this way, you need to have an outline, you need to have a thesis, you need to have your three main points, and it all needs to flow together...and I'm like, "What? I'm really, really struggling." But I think with poetry, it didn't call for any of those things. It called for me to get out of m...

"When we're overwhelmed, people try to talk, and have us walking and looking and lots of other things that we're trying to attend to, and that's too overwhelming, too much. It closes us down, cause they're not working with our learning style. They're not working with the way our brains are actually attuned. Monotropism is a theory unlike any other because it totally explains autism in every facet,...

"Modeling is significant because I'm that representation I didn't really get growing up. I'm autistic, I'm queer, I'm curvy, and there weren't a lot of people like me that I got to see modeling.....being able to model and being able to express myself and just feel pretty and feel like I'm making an impact means the world to me," says Kaye Baugher. Kaye joins this episode of Autism Stories to discu...

"Prior to Covid, a lot of what I've seen was schools tightening their belts, being less inclined to pay for out of district placements, even if those would be more appropriate for the student, because of money. Covid has been a real game-changer because so many kids are on remote instruction, and we still don't know what the effects of that are gonna fully be," says Michael Gilberg. Michael joins...