Theory of (other) mind: (mis)understanding ‘others’ in a neurodiverse world

Theory of (other) mind: (mis)understanding ‘others’ in a neurodiverse world, with Dr. Gemma L. Williams, PhD., MA. Register: $15 USD Topic: Autistic social communication, the ‘double empathy problem‘ and ‘relevance […]
On the Dark History and Surprising Revival of Behavior Modification

Register: $15 USD Presentation Description“On the Dark History and Surprising Revival of Behavior Modification” examines the history of behavior modification and chronicles its development in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), the […]
Autism Pseudoscience: How providers can identify, educate and intervene to protect children

Autism Pseudoscience: How providers can identify, educate and intervene to protect children with Anne Borden King, co-founder of Autistics for Autistics When: Thursday, July 13, 2023 12 – 1:30 pm […]
AAC: Autistic Experience, Research, and Recommendations

AAC: Autistic experience, research, and recommendations with endever* corbin, an Autistic AAC User Register: $15 USD Topic: Evidence-based best practices for Speaking AAC Users across all environments (schools, post-secondary education […]
Flipping the Autism Narrative – Neurodiversity in the Public Schools – Part 3

A Free Facebook Live Public Event – Flipping the Autism Narrative – Neurodiversity in the Public Schools – Part 3 A conversation with a neurodiversity-affirming speech therapy team about their […]
Neurodiversity-Affirming Therapy: Positions, Therapy Goals, and Best Practices

Neurodiversity-affirming therapy: Dozens of neurodiversity-affirming therapy goals and best practice resources for ally SLPs and OTs.
Influencer Therapists: Dubious Ethics & Poor Quality Services

“And, at the end of the day, that’s what a lot of therapy “influencers” are after: exploiting vulnerable families to benefit their own bottom line and their online image. And it’s time that professionals and parents begin talking about it and pushing back.”
Ableism in Speech Pathology

1/24/2022, by Nicole Lobsey, Certified Practicing Speech Pathologist Like most health and education fields, Speech Pathology is a heavily ableist field. Speech Pathology practices are based on: Assessment against neurotypical […]
Case Study in Neurodiversity-Affirming Care: A Toddler with Childhood Apraxia of Speech

At the beginning of the evaluation, Adam appeared to enjoy playing with zoo animals with mom and the therapist. He laughed and smiled readily and paired gleeful, albeit, infrequent, babbling with gestures like pointing and guiding his mom’s hands to the toys he wanted her to play with. However, after a few misunderstandings in which neither mom nor the therapist could figure out what Adam was gesturing for them to do, Adam became highly frustrated and emotionally dysregulated. He threw himself to the floor and, in between sobs, began to bang his forehead on the floor repeatedly. His mother was worried that this self-injurious behavior had started happening more and more frequently in recent weeks.
A Parent’s Guide to Respectful Feeding Therapy: Part 2

ABA providers will tell you to break your child, to reward your child for eating food, to re-present food your child has spit out or vomited, to restrain your child in a chair and do not let them leave the chair. There are better ways.
A Parent’s Guide to Respectful Feeding Therapy – Part 1

When children have trouble eating, it can be incredibly stressful for parents. But you’re not alone! There are qualified professionals waiting to help you and your child.
Neurodiversity and Autism Intervention (ABA) can’t be reconciled.

And let’s talk about considerable ethical and financial conflicts of interest with this paper and its authors, shall we?
Reader, every single author of this paper is trained in ABA, (three of them are actually BCBAs), so clearly each author has a vested financial interest in duping people into believing that ABA is “Neurodiversity Approved”.
(It’s always about the $$$.)
They refuse to work. So now what? Just let them become unemployed and play Fortnite and eat Cheetos all day?

They refuse to work. So now what? Just let them become unemployed and play Fortnite and eat Cheetos all day?
“First Do No Harm”: How SLPs Who Ignore Coregulation Reduce Children’s Access to Authentic Communication

Many speech-language pathologists do not think of sensory, emotional, or cognitive regulation as a part of their area of practice. In actuality, though, all communication originates from the need for regulation, and it is impossible to support a child’s communication skills or language development without understanding and supporting their regulation needs.
Nothing about Social Skills Training is Neurodivergence-Affirming – Absolutely Nothing.

But, training the autism out of an autistic person is neither ethical nor accepting of neurodiversity. Deficit-driven clinicians continue to attribute any Autistic social difference as “deficient” but flat out ignore the fact that social communication reciprocity is a two-way street. Nothing about Social Skills Training is neurodivergence-affirming therapy. Absolutely nothing.
ABA Therapy and PTSD

I was called “unethical” by a professional colleague today.
The reason may surprise you—I said “ABA is abuse”. My peer was naturally taken aback because they are an SLP-BCBA and “would never dream of abusing a child.” I always find this rebuttal interesting because we usually don’t hear about people walking around admitting to abusing people; even overt predators somehow convince themselves that they are helping their victim. The sanctimonious SLP-BCBA told me that it was the “old ABA” and not “new ABA” that was harmful, and then only a small fraction of the time. She accused me of “throwing the baby out with the bathwater” (I still don’t really understand how this idiomatic expression applies here) and she further went on to insist that there is “no way ABA could cause PTSD in people with Autism.” (She really meant “Autistic people,” I am sure.)
Why We Model Language and Honor All Communication, instead of Using PECS®

Today in a virtual Zoom therapy session, the parent asked me why I don’t use PECS® in speech therapy (with non-speaking or minimally speaking Autistic children). After watching her child laugh, dance, and have fun during therapy, after watching them imitate action verbs, and spontaneously communicate a desire, spontaneously point to my assistant and me on the screen, and smile at us all, it became clear to this parent that there are different kinds of therapy sessions. This kind isn’t all about compliance.
On Writing Masking Goals for Autistic Middle School Girls – Stop It!

Our autistic female students are constantly mimicking and copying behaviors of peers so they can hide their autism. We, as clinicians, teach them to do this because we were taught that autism must be hidden and masked through the therapy we provide. We are licensed, credentialed ableists, “therapizing: our autistic students to learn to be in a constant state of making in order to be acceptable, to be worthy, to be liked.
AAC: The Big Myth

It is so important that we start with the presumption that the person is a learner! Learning takes time and sometimes a good amount of patience. Always presume they are on their way to developing competence in learning this new language.
TBI in Service Members – Real-life effects & the need for Empathetic, Compassionate & Trauma-informed Care:

Beginning in around the year 2000, the field of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) has included Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) among their ever-increasing scope of practice, claiming that ABA is “one of the most effective treatments for managing mood, behavioral and other mental disorders associated with brain damage”.3 ABA, in its simplest form, treats the behavior associated with TBI, rather than treating the underlying neurological reasons for that behavior.