Dear Reader, In a world that moves quickly and often expects autistic people to keep up, adapt, or perform... It's easy to forget something so simple yet important: Joy has its own rhythm. So, this Autism Acceptance Month, I want to gently invite you to notice what lights someone up… and choose to support it, rather than define or reshape it. Let passions exist without needing to control them.Invite joy without turning it into a lesson.Honor their pace and space of joy. Because joy doesn’t...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Dear Reader, Some neurodivergent people are born with visible differences. Others may look like everyone else, but experience and process the world in a completely unique way. Whether our differences can be seen or not, they shape how we move through the world—and how the world sees us in return. But at the core, we all want the same things: To belong.To contribute.To be heard and understood. Every neurodivergent person has a story to tell. A perspective shaped by lived experience,...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Dear Reader, There is so much pressure put on parents of autistic individuals. Pressure to manage behavior.Pressure to improve social skills. Pressure to catch up academically.Pressure to “fix” what others misunderstand.Pressure to focus on milestones, goals, and outcomes. But here is something I want you to hear—something I wish someone had told the adults around me when I was young: Everyone expects you to teach and change your autistic loved one’s behavior. What matters far more is the...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Dear Reader, We often talk about support, therapies, and accommodations for autistic people. But before any of that, there are rights—fundamental human rights—that too often get overlooked or made conditional. Autistic people should never have to earn the right to communicate, to learn, to play, to regulate their own bodies, or to be taken seriously. These are not privileges. They are the foundation of dignity and belonging. 1. Communication as a Human Right Communication comes in many forms:...
4 months ago • 2 min read
Dear Reader, Most conversations about echolalia focus on what can be heard: repeated words, phrases, scripts, or songs spoken aloud. But for many autistic people, echolalia also lives internally, as a quiet, looping experience that happens inside the mind. This internal experience is often overlooked in educational settings, misunderstood in clinical contexts, and rarely named in mainstream autism conversations. Yet it is a meaningful part of how many autistic people process language,...
4 months ago • 3 min read
Dear Reader, As parents and caregivers of autistic children, you may sometimes find yourself wondering what affection, engagement, or connection “should” look like. You might compare your child’s expressions of love to what you see in parenting books, in movies, or even in other families around you. But autistic communication doesn’t always follow those scripts. It doesn’t have to. What matters most is not whether the expression looks conventional, but whether it is authentic to the child. My...
4 months ago • 3 min read
Dear Reader, Across education, healthcare, and even everyday conversations, functioning labels still appear everywhere. “High-functioning.” “Low-functioning.” Neat little boxes that promise clarity but offer almost none. These labels were created for convenience, not accuracy. They tell outsiders how comfortable they feel interacting with an autistic person—not who that person actually is. And when we rely on these labels, we lose sight of the real human being standing in front of us....
4 months ago • 3 min read
Dear Reader, This question has been sitting quietly with me lately... Are we preparing autistic children for the real world, or for ableism? It’s a tender one. And an uncomfortable one. But the more I sit with families, educators, and autistic adults, the more I realize that this is exactly the conversation we need to be having. Because our children feel the difference. Because we feel the difference. Skills alone don’t create safety. Identity does. As an autistic adult and a mother, I’ve...
5 months ago • 2 min read
Reader, So many autistic learners are judged by ideas of what a “good student” should look like—ideas rooted in neurotypical expectations, not in understanding. These misconceptions often hide the truth: a child may be struggling not because they don’t want to learn, but because their nervous system is overwhelmed. So, let’s unpack these misconceptions... Misconception 1: A “good student” sits still. Stillness is not a measure of readiness.For many autistic learners, movement is how they...
5 months ago • 3 min read