The Autism Helper Podcast

If your class fell apart this week and September felt fine, you're not doing anything wrong - this is the week it always happens. Novelty wears off around week four or five, students start testing the real limits, and it feels like everything you built collapsed. But the spike isn't failure. It's the predictable next phase, and it's information about where the gaps are.

In this episode, I walk through what to do i...

In this episode, we're talking about prompt fading and why the start of the school year is the perfect time to plan for it. Those first weeks are naturally full of support, but the prompts we add in August can quietly become the prompts students depend on all year. We'll do a quick refresher on the prompt hierarchy and share five practical steps to take this month: picking priority routines, finding baselines, writing a simpl...

Sometimes the off-task behavior, the wandering, the "he just won't listen" moment isn't defiance at all - it's confusion. When a direction is unclear, students don't know what we expect, so they fill the gap with something else, and we read that as a behavior problem. Before long, we're in a power struggle over a direction the student never understood. The fix usually isn't a bigger consequence - it's a clearer direction.

In this ep...

When is the last time your data actually changed a decision you made? In this episode, we're getting honest about the difference between data collection and data use - and how compliance culture has turned one of our most important tools into busywork. We talk about what meaningful data systems look like, why collecting less is often more effective, and how to build a practice where data actually drives instruction instead of just ...

Name a student who crushed your social skills curriculum and still eats alone at lunch. In this episode, we're asking why - and the answer has a lot to do with how we're delivering instruction. We talk about why social skills taught in isolation rarely transfer, the important difference between a social skills deficit and a social performance deficit, and what peer-mediated and naturalistic approaches actually look like when ...

We have calm-down kits for our students, co-regulation protocols, and zones of regulation posters on the wall. But nobody talks about what happens when the teacher is the dysregulated one. In this episode, we get into the neuroscience of why you cannot co-regulate from a flooded nervous system, why special ed teachers are especially at risk, and practical strategies for regulating yourself in the middle of a really hard class...

What happens to behavior in your classroom when you forget the reinforcers? If the answer is 'everything falls apart' - that tells you something important about your system. In this episode, we're talking about the difference between reinforcement and bribery, how well-intentioned reward systems create dependency, and what it looks like to build toward natural reinforcers so students aren't permanently tethered to a token boa...

If a student can label colors at your table but not point to one at snack - did they really learn colors? Generalization is the actual destination of all our instruction, and most of us plan for skill acquisition and call it done. In this episode, we talk about what generalization actually means, why we skip it, and simple ways to build it into your teaching without starting from scratch.

Stokes & Baer (1977). An implicit techno...

Most paras spend their days doing proximity support - hovering at a student's elbow - and research is pretty clear that this actually works against independence and peer connection. But here's the thing: it's not the para's fault. In this episode, we talk about why paras default to hovering, what a well-utilized para actually looks like, and practical ways to redistribute support so your whole classroom benefits - not just on...

If your student hit every IEP goal this year but still can't ask for help, order food, or navigate a transition independently - did the goals do their job? In this episode, we're getting into the compliance trap in IEP writing, why teachers write goals they know students can hit, and what truly functional and ambitious goal-writing actually looks like. This one is for anyone who's ever felt like their IEP goals were more abou...

Sensory break has become a catch-all phrase we use when we're not sure what else to do - and that's a problem. In this episode, we're separating sensory-seeking behavior from escape behavior, talking about what a real OT-designed sensory diet actually involves, and getting honest about when our sensory tools might be reinforcing avoidance instead of supporting regulation. If you've ever wondered whether your sensory setup is ...

Think about the last five things you communicated to a parent. Were any of them good news? In this episode, we're talking about why home-school communication in special ed defaults to problems, incidents, and behavior data - and what families actually want to hear. We get into the trust gap that teachers unintentionally create, and share simple shifts that build stronger partnerships and better outcomes for students.

A behavior plan without a strong skill-building component isn't a plan - it's a patch. In this episode, we talk about why so many BIPs are heavy on consequences and light on replacement skills, and why that matters for long-term outcomes. We get into the skill-based treatment model, what functional communication training actually looks like in practice, and how to shift your team's thinking from reactive to proactive.

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Inclusion is one of the most important values in special education - and one of the most misunderstood placement decisions. In this episode, we're unpacking the difference between inclusion as a philosophy and inclusion as a checkbox. We look at what IDEA actually says about least restrictive environment, what meaningful participation really looks like, and how to have honest LRE conversations at the IEP table without shame o...

Token boards are everywhere in autism classrooms - but how many of them are actually working? In this episode, we're getting into what makes a token economy effective vs. what makes it just another laminated thing on the wall. We cover the three things that need to be in place before a token system will work, the most common mistakes teachers make, and how to build systems that are actually matched to the individual student.<...

Prompting is one of the most powerful tools we have - and one of the easiest to misuse. In this episode, we're talking about prompt dependency: what it is, how well-meaning teachers accidentally create it, and what to do instead. If you've ever had a student who shuts down the second you step back, this one is for you. We break down prompting hierarchies and what the research says about building real independence.

We spend hours building visual systems for our students and almost no time building them for ourselves. In this episode, we're talking about the irony of being the most scheduled, structured classroom in the building - and having zero systems for how we actually run our own day. From cognitive load to para fidelity, there's real research behind why teacher organization isn't just a nice-to-have. It directly impacts how your c...

DTT is one of the most well-researched strategies in our toolkit - and we might be leaning on it too hard. In this episode, we're making the case that over-relying on discrete trial teaching can actually work against our students when it comes to using skills in the real world. We dig into what the research says about naturalistic instruction, when DTT is absolutely the right call, and how to audit your own practice to make s...

In this episode, I’m joined by Quintara Tucker, BCBA to discuss the importance of cultural responsiveness in autism and special education. We explore how culture shapes perspectives on diagnosis and intervention, common ways professionals may unintentionally miss the mark, and how bias can show up in assessments, communication, and expectations. Quintara also shares practical strategies for building trust with families ...