Neuroaffirming Practices

Jess Sciborski has been a dedicated special educator for over 20 years, working with students in grades K-12 with a wide range of disabilities, especially emotional/behavioral disabilities and autism. Currently a 1:1 Special Education teacher for an area educational agency, she is a fierce advocate for student needs, dignity for all, and celebrating neurodiversity. She believes in presuming competence and meeting students where they are. Outside of teaching, she’s a proud hockey mom to an amazing 8-year-old son with autism.

We spent a little time in this episode backing up to Autism Awareness and the vibe that accompanied that movement, which was really focused on what “allistics” (non-autistic people) wanted neurotypical people to know about autism. We then covered how Jess has seen the movement shift to Acceptance, and the progression to Affirmation.

The following topics and terms, in order of their appearance in the podcast, might evoke some curiosity:

• neuroaffirming approaches (Sunfield Center)
• Autism Acceptance Month (ASAN)
• autistic meltdown (Autism Parenting Magazine)
• autism and eye contact (Embrace Autism)
• No puzzle pieces, thank you (Drexel University Autism Institute)
• IDEA and Transition (PACER)
• Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) (Autism Little Learners)
• echolalia (Autism Parenting Magazine)
• student-led IEP meetings (Edutopia)
• Universal Design for Learning (UDL) (CAST)
• person- vs. identity-first language (Autism)
• functioning labels (Healthline)

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.