As the parent of two teenagers, her youngest typically developing and her oldest an 18 year-old with severe autism, Laurie felt called to share her story. Laurie Hellman is the host of Living the Sky Life, a podcast that connects autism families and medical professionals with incredible stories and information. She is also the author of Welcome to My Life: A Personal Parenting Journey Through Autism. We discuss the resilience required to make it through the challenges of autism and the passion it can bring to some parents to make connections and impact this community across the world.
Today we are talking all about adult autism services for individuals with severe autism. This is an excerpt from podcast episode 153 that I did with Jill Escher, who is the president of the National Council for Severe Autism. We talk about the challenges with helping adults with severe autism and some steps that we...
What does it mean to have severe autism? And what does that mean for future support if the autism rates are truly increasing? Research advocate, Jill Escher, joins me in this episode to answer these questions and more. This is an educational and eye-opening conversation. We discuss her journey as a mother to children with nonverbal autism, her impact on research surrounding the causes of autism, severe autism, and the staggering increase of autism rates.
https://youtu.be/X8vQEW1721w Follow or Listen on Spotify Follow or Listen on iHeart Radio Follow or Listen on Apple Podcast Follow or Listen on Google Podcasts IEPs can be scary but they don’t have to be, that starts with learning how to advocate for your child. Amanda DeLuca and Kirby Morgan are autism moms and IEP consultants...
What is an IEP? And how to prepare for first IEP meeting? That is a subject we are tackling here with two IEP experts, Amanda DeLuca and Kirby Morgan. This short vlog is an excerpt from podcast number 152 where we talk a lot about the transition from age 2 (when birth to 3 services...
Why is ABA so controversial? I get this question all the time and today I am going to tackle this question from a different perspective. I recently interviewed Armando Bernal, who was diagnosed with autism at the age of three, and he was pretty significantly impaired. Now he’s an autistic adult who is also a...
As both a BCBA and an individual with autism, Armando Bernal is also the host of the podcast, A Different Path. Today we have a truly fascinating and enlightening conversation about Armando’s experiences with being diagnosed in the 90s, all the ways autism impacts his life as an independent adult, and how exactly he approaches ABA therapy as a person with autism himself. Armando is such a joy to talk to and really breaks down some hot topics in the autism and ABA community.
It doesn’t matter who you are or where you are; getting a diagnosis of autism can be tough on the whole family, not to mention the struggle of finding the right help. Melissa Leahy joins me today to talk about her unique challenges as a military family who was stationed overseas when they received a diagnosis for their then 2.5 year old Mattis. She has excellent insight on tricare coverage and services available on military bases. Mellissa also shares her incredible success with my online courses and how she found an in-home BCBA that fit right in!
Over the last month, I participated in a challenge titled: The 25 Days of Autism. This was inspired by Kate for Finding Cooper’s Voice and Autism Adventures with Alyssa. I had such a great time going through pictures and talking about what was going on in our lives or Lucas’s diagnosis or progress. Head on over to my website or Facebook so you can see all the pictures I am talking about in this episode.
Are you wondering how you can shift your parenting strategies to a more positive approach? Victoria Boone’s book Positive Parenting for Autism discusses psychology and ABA-based strategies for building desired behaviors and eliminating problem behaviors. In this episode, we are discussing extinction versus punishment, the benefit of differential reinforcement, and the controversy of ABA.
