Creating supportive environments for autistic children involves understanding their unique needs and making intentional adjustments in various settings.
In this episode (the longest to date), Chelsea offers suggestions for setting autistic children up for success across three environments: home, school, and short-stay community outings. Remember, every small change can make a significant impact on our kids’ ability to engage and flourish in a world created without their nervous systems in mind.
These previous episodes might provide more context for this topic:
- Episode 1: Introducing Chelsea's Vocation, the podcast, and Chelsea's family
- Episode 2: Introducing Justus
- Episode 4: Chelsea's Evolution
Here are more topics, terms, and resources, in order of their appearance in the podcast, that might evoke some curiosity:
- pre-verbal: a period of time in a child’s life when they don’t use spoken language (yet). Refer to Episode 17: Language Development & Autism.
- central nervous system and clothing: See this article from Golden Care Therapy.
- tactile defensiveness: sensory sensitivities connected to touch are heightened, so what might be perceived as a mild annoyance to most nervous systems is perceived instead as painful, which may elicit a fight, flight, or freeze defense.
- neurospicy
- co-/self-regulation: See this blog from Autism Awareness Centre.
- sensory input: See this article from the National Autistic Society.
- Autism and ARFID
- Refer to Katrina’s input on telling your child about their neurology in Episode 24: Bonus Content.
- stim toys, fidgets (not an endorsement or paid advertisement)
- functional behavior analysis/assessment (FBA): A systematic approach to identifying specific behaviors, understanding what that behavior is communicating, and either pre-boarding mitigating measures to prevent an undesired behavior, or establishing a set of action steps to manage harmful behavior once it starts.
- Just Give Him the Whale!: 20 Ways to Use Fascinations, Areas of Expertise, and Strengths to Support Students with Autism, by Paula Kluth & Patrick Schwarz
- meltdown: not a tantrum, but the physiological response to a state of overwhelm
Podcast includes an introduction for episodes 6 and following at the beginning. Transition music, "Taking a Vocation", by Noey Budde.
Closing narration for episodes 6 and following.
