THE SJ CHILDS SHOW-Building a Community of Inclusion

Send us Fan Mail Your teen’s behavior makes more sense when you stop treating it like a moral failing and start treating it like communication. We sit down with Dr. Carla Cataria, an educator turned family support specialist, to talk about what actually helps teens thrive, especially neurodiverse kids who are too often stereotyped, mislabeled, or underestimated by the adults around them.  We dig i...

Send us Fan Mail A diagnosis can feel like it writes your child’s future in ink, but that story is usually wrong. We sit down with Sean Adelman, an orthopedic trauma surgeon and dad to a daughter with Down syndrome, to talk about what he’s learned outside the textbooks: people are not their worst day, and kids are not their labels. The big throughline is raising expectations, not as pressure, but...

Send us Fan Mail One sentence from a professional can steal your breath for years, and one unexpected win can finally give it back. We sit down with Dr. Norinne Russell, educator, advocate, and founder of Russell Coaching for Students, to talk about the part of parenting neurodiverse kids that rarely gets said out loud: the seasons when you never fully exhale, the loneliness behind the logistics,...

Send us Fan Mail Parenting gets loud when you’re stuck in the day to day. This conversation gets quiet in the best way and asks the bigger question: what do we want our kids to carry when our titles and paychecks are long forgotten? We’re joined by Nathaniel Turner, co-founder of the League of Extraordinary Parents, who opens with a powerful reminder that legacy is measured in character and relati...

Send us Fan Mail Your kid says they want to start a business, become a YouTuber, or make money from gaming and you’re left thinking, “Great… but how?” We sit down with Jessie Dennerline, founder of KidPitchBiz, to talk about what kids actually need before they ever “launch” anything: a simple way to think through ideas, practice public speaking, learn how money works, and get comfortable adjusting...

Send us Fan Mail The worst part of an autism diagnosis is not the word itself. It is the silence that can follow when you do not know where to go, what to trust, or who will truly understand your day to day life. We talk with Karen Simmons about that exact moment and the long road after it, from early parenting chaos to building reliable autism resources that help families feel less alone. We get...

Send us Fan Mail You can have the right intentions and still feel like your brain will not cooperate and that is exactly where ADHD and executive dysfunction love to hijack school, work, and daily life. We sit down with Zoe Lewis, founder of New Bloom ADHD Coaching, to talk about what actually helps young adults and college students when assignments pile up, deadlines sneak up, and motivation disa...

Send us Fan Mail Most people say they support accessibility, but very few can explain what it actually means or why it keeps breaking down in real life. We’re joined by Daniel Hodges, a nonprofit leader and advocate with a law degree who was born blind, to get specific about where the barriers really come from and what “equity” looks like when you strip out bias and bad design. We talk about Danie...

Send us Fan Mail The scariest autism parenting moments often start quietly: sleep disappears, words fade, new behaviors show up, and you keep telling yourself it must be a phase. We talk with Paul Voss, a father of eight, about what it felt like to watch those changes unfold in his youngest daughter and then face a profound autism diagnosis that “turned our life upside down.” What follows is a can...

Send us Fan Mail A meltdown in the grocery store. A fight over screens that spirals into yelling. A kid who seems “fine” at school and falls apart at home. When you’re parenting a neurodiverse child, a strong-willed child, or a deeply sensitive child, it can feel like the usual advice was written for a different universe. We wanted something more honest and more useful, so we sat down with Melissa...

Send us Fan Mail A rare diagnosis can sit quietly in the background for years, until one day a scan makes it real. That’s what happened for Will Ruddell, who joins us to share his life with Neurofibromatosis Type 2 (NF2), a rare genetic disorder linked to slow-growing tumors in the brain, spine, and along nerves. Will grew up watching his father deal with serious medical issues, then found out at...

Send us Fan Mail The parenting moves that look “right” on paper can fall apart in real life, especially when you’re raising a neurodivergent child with ADHD, autism, learning differences, anxiety, or executive functioning challenges. I sit down with clinical psychologist Dr. Anna Levy Warren to talk about the moment many families hit after testing and diagnoses: you finally have the report, but yo...

Send us Fan Mail If your child can talk for days but freezes the moment a pencil hits paper, the problem might not be “motivation” or “attention.” It might be handwriting. We sit down with educator and curriculum designer Holly Britton, founder of Squiggle Squad, to unpack why handwriting instruction is a core building block for literacy, written expression, and confident learning, especially in t...

Send us Fan Mail The fastest way to lose your kid is to keep talking when what they need is to be understood. That’s why I loved this conversation with Dr. Beth Long, a licensed professional counselor and ABA therapist in Montgomery, Alabama, who brings both clinical clarity and real-parent humility to the hardest parts of family life. We get into what children actually want from parents at differ...

Send us Fan Mail “The struggle is real, the label is not.” That line sets the tone for a deep, candid conversation with Roman Wyden, founder of the ADHD Is Over movement, as we challenge the way modern culture talks about ADHD, behavior, and so-called “disorders.” We don’t deny the pain families feel. We zoom in on what helps: naming the real struggle, reducing stress, and building environments wh...

Send us Fan Mail A life-changing diagnosis can make even the strongest person feel like they’re “too much” for the people they love. That single thought is what pushed Eric Wyatt to create Burden The Bear, a plush bear with a simple purpose: remind patients and families that the illness is the burden, not the person. Eric joins us from Philadelphia to share the real story behind the brand, startin...

Send us Fan Mail If school still looks like memorizing, pacing, and compliance, we’re preparing kids for a world that no longer exists. Today we sit down with educator, leadership researcher, and neuroscience-informed consultant Lisa Reigel to talk about what’s really driving student behavior, teacher burnout, and the rising feeling that the system can’t hold the humans inside it. We get specific...

Send us Fan Mail Your house can be beautiful and still be safer, easier, and more supportive for real life. I sit down with Erica Sell, owner of Harmony Home Medical in San Diego, to get practical about home accessibility, assistive technology, and universal design for families raising neurodivergent kids and for anyone planning to help aging parents live well at home. We start with how Erica buil...

Send us Fan Mail What if the biggest barrier to inclusion isn’t awareness, but the way our systems are built? We sit down with Robert Annis, a London-based founder of NEURO, to unpack how the “alignment trap”—cultures that prize sameness over substance—quietly locks out cognitive diversity and throttles innovation. Instead of chasing badges and box-ticking, Robert lays out a practical path where i...

Send us Fan Mail What if the fastest way to change your child’s behavior is to change how you show up? We sit down with parent coach and author Sue Donnellan to unpack why yelling fails, how Montessori principles build independence, and what it takes to lead the culture of your home with clarity and calm. From the chaos of going from one child to triplets to discovering behavior psychology, Sue sh...

Send us Fan Mail A lot of bright kids are still stuck on the basics of reading, and too many parents are told to wait—or sold cures that don’t work. We sit down with dyslexia therapist Faye Bankler Cressell to unpack what actually helps struggling readers and how families can start real progress at home without losing years to red tape. Faye shares her path from special education to structured lit...

Send us Fan Mail Imagine being told a first-grade reading level will define your future—then deciding to rewrite the script. That’s the spark behind our conversation with Russell, a New York State–funded dyslexia researcher who turned personal roadblocks into a practical method that helps students jump from frustration to fluency without elite price tags. We dig into the brain science that actuall...

Send us Fan Mail What if the words you needed were waiting inside the moments you try to rush past? We sit down with Australian poet and radiographer Nadine Ellis to explore late autism diagnosis, the quiet injuries of daily life, and the craft of turning hard feelings into language that heals. Nadine was diagnosed at 58, alongside her daughters and husband, and that clarity reframed decades of ma...

Send us Fan Mail What if the hardest moments with your child weren’t proof you’re failing, but signals pointing to the support they need? We sit down with autism mom coach and attorney Lisa Candera to explore a practical, compassionate approach to parenting through crisis, burnout, and the daily unknowns. Lisa shares how “regulation starts with us,” why reframing behavior as information changes ev...

Send us Fan Mail A box of chocolate peanut butter balls shouldn’t change a life—but in our Las Vegas kitchen, it often does. We sit down with Sugar and Spice founder Sherry Long, a former teacher who transformed a classroom skill set into a bustling confectionery that doubles as a paid training ground for neurodivergent and at‑risk young adults. What started as an accidental side hustle became a c...