THE SJ CHILDS SHOW-Building a Community of Inclusion
🎙️ Welcome to The SJ Childs Show Podcast! 🎉 Join Sara Bradford—better known as SJ Childs—as she bridges understanding and advocacy for the neurodivergent community. This podcast shines a light on autism awareness, empowering stories, expert insights, and practical resources for parents, educators, and individuals alike. Brought to you by The SJ Childs Global Network, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting autistic individuals and their families worldwide, this show is your weekly dose of inspiration and actionable ideas. Visit sjchilds.org to learn more about our mission, find resources, and connect with our growing community. Catch us on platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Goodpods—or tune in Fridays at 8:30 AM EDT on the Helium Radio Network’s Life Improvement Radio (Channel 1). Together, let’s foster a brighter, more inclusive world! 🌟 Go here to check out more resources https://sjchilds.org
Episodes
A meltdown in the grocery store. A fight over screens that spirals into yelling. A kid who seems “fine” at school and falls apart at home. When you’re parenting a neurodiverse child, a strong-willed child, or a deeply sensitive child, it can feel like the usual advice was written for a different universe. We wanted something more honest and more useful, so we sat down with Melissa Schulz, a parenting coach and BCBA ...
A rare diagnosis can sit quietly in the background for years, until one day a scan makes it real. That’s what happened for Will Ruddell, who joins us to share his life with Neurofibromatosis Type 2 (NF2), a rare genetic disorder linked to slow-growing tumors in the brain, spine, and along nerves. Will grew up watching his father deal with serious medical issues, then found out at 26 that he also had NF2 after a migr...
The parenting moves that look “right” on paper can fall apart in real life, especially when you’re raising a neurodivergent child with ADHD, autism, learning differences, anxiety, or executive functioning challenges. I sit down with clinical psychologist Dr. Anna Levy Warren to talk about the moment many families hit after testing and diagnoses: you finally have the report, but you still don’t have a roadmap for mor...
If your child can talk for days but freezes the moment a pencil hits paper, the problem might not be “motivation” or “attention.” It might be handwriting. We sit down with educator and curriculum designer Holly Britton, founder of Squiggle Squad, to unpack why handwriting instruction is a core building block for literacy, written expression, and confident learning, especially in the early elementary years.Â
The fastest way to lose your kid is to keep talking when what they need is to be understood. That’s why I loved this conversation with Dr. Beth Long, a licensed professional counselor and ABA therapist in Montgomery, Alabama, who brings both clinical clarity and real-parent humility to the hardest parts of family life.
We get into what children actually want from parents at different ages: younger kids crav...
“The struggle is real, the label is not.” That line sets the tone for a deep, candid conversation with Roman Wyden, founder of the ADHD Is Over movement, as we challenge the way modern culture talks about ADHD, behavior, and so-called “disorders.” We don’t deny the pain families feel. We zoom in on what helps: naming the real struggle, reducing stress, and building environments where kids can actually function and f...
A life-changing diagnosis can make even the strongest person feel like they’re “too much” for the people they love. That single thought is what pushed Eric Wyatt to create Burden The Bear, a plush bear with a simple purpose: remind patients and families that the illness is the burden, not the person. Eric joins us from Philadelphia to share the real story behind the brand, starting with his mom’s lung cancer and the...
If school still looks like memorizing, pacing, and compliance, we’re preparing kids for a world that no longer exists. Today we sit down with educator, leadership researcher, and neuroscience-informed consultant Lisa Reigel to talk about what’s really driving student behavior, teacher burnout, and the rising feeling that the system can’t hold the humans inside it.
We get specific about how high-stakes testi...
Your house can be beautiful and still be safer, easier, and more supportive for real life. I sit down with Erica Sell, owner of Harmony Home Medical in San Diego, to get practical about home accessibility, assistive technology, and universal design for families raising neurodivergent kids and for anyone planning to help aging parents live well at home.
We start with how Erica built a high-touch, education-f...
What if the biggest barrier to inclusion isn’t awareness, but the way our systems are built? We sit down with Robert Annis, a London-based founder of NEURO, to unpack how the “alignment trap”—cultures that prize sameness over substance—quietly locks out cognitive diversity and throttles innovation. Instead of chasing badges and box-ticking, Robert lays out a practical path where inclusion becomes a strategic engine ...
What if the fastest way to change your child’s behavior is to change how you show up? We sit down with parent coach and author Sue Donnellan to unpack why yelling fails, how Montessori principles build independence, and what it takes to lead the culture of your home with clarity and calm. From the chaos of going from one child to triplets to discovering behavior psychology, Sue shares the exact reframes and systems ...
A lot of bright kids are still stuck on the basics of reading, and too many parents are told to wait—or sold cures that don’t work. We sit down with dyslexia therapist Faye Bankler Cressell to unpack what actually helps struggling readers and how families can start real progress at home without losing years to red tape.
Faye shares her path from special education to structured literacy, sparked by helping h...
Imagine being told a first-grade reading level will define your future—then deciding to rewrite the script. That’s the spark behind our conversation with Russell, a New York State–funded dyslexia researcher who turned personal roadblocks into a practical method that helps students jump from frustration to fluency without elite price tags.
We dig into the brain science that actually moves the needle: stop ha...
What if the words you needed were waiting inside the moments you try to rush past? We sit down with Australian poet and radiographer Nadine Ellis to explore late autism diagnosis, the quiet injuries of daily life, and the craft of turning hard feelings into language that heals. Nadine was diagnosed at 58, alongside her daughters and husband, and that clarity reframed decades of masking, missed cues, and misplaced sh...
Episode 342-From Crisis To Clarity: Tools For Autism Parenting Without Burning Out with Lisa Candera
What if the hardest moments with your child weren’t proof you’re failing, but signals pointing to the support they need? We sit down with autism mom coach and attorney Lisa Candera to explore a practical, compassionate approach to parenting through crisis, burnout, and the daily unknowns. Lisa shares how “regulation starts with us,” why reframing behavior as information changes everything, and the simple steps that ...
A box of chocolate peanut butter balls shouldn’t change a life—but in our Las Vegas kitchen, it often does. We sit down with Sugar and Spice founder Sherry Long, a former teacher who transformed a classroom skill set into a bustling confectionery that doubles as a paid training ground for neurodivergent and at‑risk young adults. What started as an accidental side hustle became a clear pathway to confidence, wages, a...
A quiet moment over coffee can redraw a life. That’s where our guest, Matt Ross, realized he wasn’t just surviving anymore—he was ready to build a plan for growth. We trace how that spark became Grow or Fold, a candid guide to navigating midlife, protecting your family, and designing a future that feels both possible and personal.
Matt shares the arc of his career—from building radio stations to leading Sch...
What if accessibility came first and everything else got better because of it? That’s the idea we rally around as Sara Bradford, aka SJ Childs—AuDHD Advocate and creator of Stream-Able Live and the SJ Childs Global Network—lays out a clear, urgent case for building inclusion into the foundation of our products, events, and stories. With one in four people in the United States living with a disability today and more ...
A blog that almost stalled. A book that took shape anyway. And a voice that keeps getting louder. We sit down with Michael, an autistic author from Ontario, to trace how “Michaelism: My POV on Life with Autism” went from idea to self-published reality—and why persistence beat perfection at every turn.
Michael opens up about the early days when the word autism felt abstract, while picture-based learning made...
What if the very traits that once set your career on fire could be turned into a repeatable system that saves companies and jobs—without burning you out? That’s the tension we explore with turnaround executive Todd Hagopian, whose fifteen years of undiagnosed bipolar disorder powered massive wins and painful self-sabotage before a diagnosis forced a new path. The meds worked, the edge seemed to vanish, and then he d...
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