Art is an essential way to honor our clients needs, identities, processes, and sense of self. But its importance is often overlooked by providers. Through heart-felt discussion and art-based prompts, Chenai Mupotsa-Russell shows how art provides somatic regulation, builds interoceptive awareness, and supports identity exploration. She teaches us processes that allow us to center consent, collaborative control, and authenticity in our work with neurodivergent and gender diverse clients.

Chenai helps us reframe a clients’ refusal as an act of self-protection, and shares how non-directive art prompts can re-center their autonomy and well-being. She helps us explore our clients’ intersectional identities in a way that centers justice, rather than asking our clients to adapt to oppressive conditions.

Throughout this beautiful, poetic, and deeply engaging training, Chenai shares specific art and movement-based prompts to use as invitations for your clients, and also for your own exploration of identity and regulation.

Practicing with unexamined biases causes harm to our multiply-marginalized Autistic clients. In this talk, Black Autistic educator Heather Clarke helps us deeply explore the intersection of anti-Black racism and ableism, and how they show up in our work as providers.

Black children in the U.S. face specific, deeply ingrained biases and prejudices in nearly every setting. For example, due to the adultification of Black children, Black children are viewed as “less childlike” than their white peers; they receive harsher punishments in schools than their white peers; and they are more likely to be put into the carceral system due to school behaviors. And this starts in early childhood, impacting our children’s sense of self, their families, and their communities. Heather helps us put anti-Black racism in historical context, tracing practices and attitudes through history to the present day.

Heather walks us through a case study centered in New York City, demonstrating the subtle and overt ways that Black Autistic children are marginalized in practice. She helps us see how these patterns appear in every community, even those without BIPOC representation. And she helps us reflect on our own practices, identifying how we can put anti-racist practices into action.

The world of sensory processing is complex, and supporting our Autistic clients’ sensory needs isn’t as simple as teaching sensory strategies, practicing mindfulness, or picking out a fidget. Our sensory supports must be dynamic, relevant, and deeply embedded in everyday life.

In this talk, Autistic OT Kim Clairy shares her own experiences of living with sensory processing differences. She walks us through what the world looks, sounds, and feels like to her, and what practical strategies and routines help her thrive in daily life. This talk explores synesthesia, misophonia, loss of speech and vision during sensory overwhelm, dyspraxia, interoception and more. Kim shares in great detail what it looks like to understand and deeply accept your sensory needs, and how to cope with sensory overwhelm and intense sensory input needs in daily life. She shares how we can replace harmful practices like desensitization with flexible and comprehensive routines, paired with an attitude of nonjudgemental acceptance.

If you’re new to understanding sensory processing, this course will touch on every sensory system in an impactful way. And if sensory processing is a regular part of your practice, learning from Kim’s nuanced descriptions of her experiences will change how you think about your Autistic clients’ experiences. You’ll walk away with a robust list of strategies to support kids in different emotional states and difficult routines during their day, including AAC scripts and visual supports for identifying and communicating sensory needs.

Our inner narrative guides our sense of self, our identity, our communication, our regulation, and so much more. In this talk, Autistic SLP Maribel Serrano Holder teaches us to ask “How is this [Autistic client] telling their story, and how do I become attuned enough to listen?” This talk heavily focuses on supporting non-speaking clients, as well as those who communicate through delayed echolalia.

Attunement is a core need, and missing it has profound impacts. Misattunement silences children’s communication attempts, their felt sense of safety, and even their identity. Maribel teaches us how we can use our presence to communicate that we see and hear our Autistic clients – especially those who are non-speaking – and to help them feel safe with us.

Maribel shares examples, mantras, videos, case studies, principles, and more to help us learn to move towards co-regulated communication. She also helps us explore ableism and implicit bias and how they impact our connection with children. This talk helps us become the connective, attuned communication partners our clients deserve.

Our clients’ physical well-being is deeply connected to their emotional and developmental well-being. But far too often, we never stop to explore the unique medical issues and access barriers that Autistic people face in accessing medical care, emotional safety, and real community.

In this talk, Autistic physician Dr. Mel Houser shares what we can concretely do to remove barriers to health and well-being for our Autistic clients. This talk dives deep into social isolation and its physical impact through the lens of: 1) neuroception, 2) neuronormative expectations, 3) monotropism, 4) physical barriers, 5) cognitive barriers, and 6) Autistic burnout.

Dr. Houser shows us what universal design can look like for neurodivergent kids in our clinics and schools. And she teaches us how we can create communities that normalize all paths to social participation, how we can build in meaningful executive function supports, and accommodate a variety of sensory and communication needs. (Mel’s videos from her Zoom Stuffy Party are a special treat!)

The way to support our Autistic clients’ social connections isn’t to teach them skills that come from the outside world. But rather, it’s to find what feels truly meaningful to them and build their repertoire of positive social experiences. Social experiences are messy, but the good news is our authentic interactions in our sessions can BE our therapeutic context, allowing us to discover our Autistic clients’ authentic preferences, strengths, and areas where they want to learn or grow.

In this talk from SLP Susan Ehlerman, you’ll learn how the dynamic, complicated social dynamics that take place during your sessions can build an internal dialogue of worth and competence for your clients in future social encounters. Susan teaches us how to identify and foster social experiences that are authentic and meaningful to our Autistic clients through interest-based groups. She shares concrete (and incredibly FUN!) examples of what social groups based on strengths and interests look like in practice. These groups are designed to help kids feel confident that they can take on the messiness of real-life social interactions without betraying their own authentic needs.

This talk dives deep into tricky social situations – like a blunt but honest comment that hurts another kid’s feeling, a kid whose behavior disrupts the flow of a group game, or a social group where everyone really just needs a break or rest. She teaches how to support our Autistic clients through validation and by gently translating the social dynamics to the child in a way that empowers their own decision making. She also teaches us to learn about the child through curiosity, holding space, validating, perspective taking, witnessing their strengths, and more.

This talk is our roadmap for how to create and model a culture where every way of being is welcome. And it’s our guide for how to help our Autistic clients explore social connection in a way that affirms authenticity, choice, connection and advocacy.