The Autism Dad

Join us in this enlightening episode as we sit down with Dr. Whitney Casares, a renowned pediatrician, accomplished author/spokesperson with the American Academy of Pediatrics, and mother to an autistic child. She brings to the table not only her professional expertise but also her personal experience navigating the world of autism. Dr. Casares tackles your most pressing questions about sleep hygi...

So many of you have been asking for help managing meltdowns and Mightier is the best way for help kids learn the skills they need to avoid them in the first place. In this weeks episode, I share a remastered interview with Dr. Jason Kahn, PhD. Jason is developmental psychologist, Chief Science Officer, and Co-Founder at Mightier. I originally recorded this during COVID and but the information abou...

In this week's episode, I speak with Ethan Sack about his autism parenting journey. Next week I speak to his wife and learn about her experience from her perspective. It's really interesting how people can experience the same thing differently. About Ethan Sack: Ethan graduated from Parchment High School in 2001 and worked in the grocery business/food manufacturing until 2022 when I joined my wif...

On this weeks episode, I sat down with Tara Reynolds from Peace, Love, Autism and Lauren Flack from the Channing’s Joy Foundation. Both are autism moms and both are amazing human beings. We had a conversation about their parenting journey. It’s emotional, hilarious and inspirational. About Tara Reynolds: A dedicated advocate and entrepreneur whose life took a profound turn when her son was diagnos...

In this week's episode, Master IEP Coach Kimberly Charles is on the show to help us better navigate the IEP process and answer some of your IEP questions. She has tons of advice that can help parents and IEP teams work better together. When we all work together, our kids benefit the most. About Kimberly Charles: Kimberly Charles is a Special Education Consultant and Master IEP Coach® who works wit...

In this week's episode, I spoke with Jason Brown about being a Dad and as well as his experience parenting his amazing autistic daughter. About Jason Brown: Jason Brown is the father of his beautiful, hilarious, incredibly smart 7-year-old daughter who was diagnosed with ASD at the age of 3. He is also the owner of Starling Studios, a recording studio, with a focus on Post Production for Film and...

On this week's episode, I sat down with my friend Megan Champion. Megan is the mom of 3 neurodivergent kids and the founder of On The Hard Days on Instagram. Megan talks about her personal journey toward acceptance, and how she discovered her calling to help other moms of neurodivergent kids with her amazing platform. About Megan Champion: Megan is a mom of three neurodivergent kids, a former educ...

This week I speak with Sara Roberts about her autism parenting journey. In this unscripted conversation, we learn about her life and the challenges she faces raising her autistic son. About Sara Roberts: Sara is a single mom to her 8 year old son with autism, adhd, dmdd and ocd. She wants to share their daily struggles and obstacles so other parents can know that they aren’t alone.  Connect with S...

Sensory eating is something so many autism families struggle with on a daily basis, mine included. My guest this week is Brittyn Coleman, aka The Autism Dietitian. Brittyn is one of only a handful of dietitians across the country specializing in autistic kids. She’s here to help us better understand what sensory eating is and how it differs from picky eating. We also talk about how we can help ens...

In this weeks episode, I share my annual Autism Awareness/Acceptance Month message. 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, social media influencer, and respected public figure for well over a decade. Connect with Rob Gorski: https://l...

In this week's episode, I take on the controversial topic of ABA therapy. My guest, Ashley Gibson-Stewart, is a board-certified BCBA with a decade of experience. We validate what our autistic adult friends endured as kids in ABA therapy. At the same time, we talk about how much ABA has changed since then, what we’ve learned, and how it’s very different now. We can’t begin to heal what has been don...

In this weeks listener questions episode, I answered your questions about ADHD. You guys have been sending in some really good questions and I picked the top three to answer this week. They are as follows: How did I go 43 years without being diagnosed? How do you know the difference between ADHD and simply being forgetful, unmotivated, or unfocused? What are some strategies that can be used to hel...

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...

In this week's episode, Mckell Smith is back to answer your questions about speech therapy. Mekell is a Speech and Language Pathologist, as well as a special needs Mom. Speech therapy is so important to so many kids, and won’t believe some of the things speech therapy can actually help with. It’s actually, kind of amazing. Mckell helps you navigate your speech journey by sharing things like when t...

In this weeks episode, I take some time to answer one of your listener questions. Since I began talking about the challenges I’ve been facing as I help my son make the transition into his adult life, you folks have been asking me “How do I prepare my kids for adulthood and when should I start?” This is such a good question and honestly, I had a tough time recording this episode because in doing so...

In this week’s episode, Dr. Crystal Morrison and I discuss our personal experiences with parenting guilt. We all experience parenting guilt, but how do we manage it and prevent it from impacting how we parent our kids? Secondly, on the topic of parenting, we talk about the importance of not only building your village but keeping the people within it communicating with each other for the betterment...

In this weeks episode, you’ll learn everything you need to about ABLE accounts. Sarah Pennington from ABLEnow, explains that ABLE accounts are tax-advantaged savings and investment accounts for individuals with disabilities. They allow these individuals to save money without impacting their eligibility for public benefits like SSI or Medicaid. This is incredibly important for special needs familie...

My guest this week is Marissa Pittard and she is empowering parents. We talk about what inspired her to create a free service that not only helps parents locate desperately needed services, supports, and resources but also builds out a roadmap for their newly diagnosed special needs kids. This is a free service for families within the United States and it's changing lives. About Marissa (Missy) Pi...

Welcome to The Autism Dad podcast, I'm Rob Gorski. This show is inspired by my own personal journey as a single dad raising three autistic kids. It's all about special needs parenting, the challenges that we face every day, and some of the things we have to learn to navigate along the way. This season, we're going to put a major focus on empowering parents. We're going to talk about building a com...

Season 5 is officially over and I thought it would be fun to close the season out by revisiting one of my favorite interviews from this season. Sit back and enjoy a great conversation with my friend Kate Swenson. Connect with Kate Swenson: Finding Cooper's Voice Check out Forever Boy About Kate Swenson: Kate is Cooper's mom, the founder of Finding Cooper's Voice, and the author of the new book For...

In this episode you'll learn what Board of DD is, who SSA's are and what OOD stands for. Autistic kids grow up to be autistic adults and many will need the services and supports that these agencies provide. This is our experience and what we've learned along the way. We've been talking about this on Facebook and I wanted to share what our journey has been so far. Come join the conversation at face...

In this final episode of season 5, I sit down and speak with Doug Farrago, retired family physician and author, about his book, “Noki.” Noki is about an autistic young man who has the remarkable ability to essentially become any boxer he’s ever seen fight. It’s a brilliant story, a fairly quick read, and I love the representation. Guest Bio: Douglas Farrago is a retired family physician, author of...

In this brief episode, I share a look back at Season 5 and a glimpse of what I have in store for Season 6. Thank you all for helping to make this podcast such a success. I'm looking forward to continuing to bring you content that is positive, relevant, and educational. Have a fantastic holiday season, and I'll see you in the new year. Host Bio: Rob Gorski is a single Dad to three amazing autistic...

There has been such a demand for this topic and I’m really excited to get the ball rolling on potty training. My guest today is Molly Johnson, otherwise known as The Autism Consultant. She’s here to share some potty training tips and tricks. . Guest Bio: Molly is an autism consultant, working with parents to reduce challenging behaviors and teach their child new skills. When working with parents,...

This week my guest is Christina Abernethy from Love Hope & Autism. She's here to talk about her journey as an autism mom, how something called Goally has profoundly benefited her son, and the advocacy work she's doing to make public restrooms more accessible. Mentioned in this episode: Visit getgoally.com and use the code "theautismdad" to save 10% off your order Guest Bio: Christina is a dedicate...