Neurodiversity Affirming Strategies With Emily Byers Chaney

Do you ever find yourself wondering about things like, “what does it mean to be neurodiversity-affirming?”, “why do many autistic children have pronoun reversals”, “what is gestalt language processing”, “why should we honor protests from autistic children”, or “why aren’t WH question goals appropriate for many young autistic students”?. If you are curious about these questions and more…you are going to want to join me for this week’s podcast episode where I’ll be chatting with Emily Byer. She’s a speech/language pathologist and she was so kind to let me ask her a variety of questions that are often brought to me by my community. Emily talks about all of these things on her Instagram account, and I just knew she’d be the perfect person to interview for the Autism Little Learners Podcast. Emily Byers Chaney is a speech/language pathologist and is the speech and language program director at the Pediatric Therapy Playhouse in LA. Emily has been published in the America Speech-Language Association national magazine. She specializes in gestalt language processing and neurodiversity-affirming therapy. Emily is trained in and has experience with the Floortime Approach, PROMPT, Hanen’s It Takes Two To Talk and More Than Words, Natural Language Acquisition for Gestalt Language Processors, and the Inside Out Sensory Certificate. You can find Emily on Instagram at @ndaffirming.slp: https://www.instagram.com/ndaffirming... Topics Discussed: What it means to be neurodiversity-affirming Pronoun reversals and autism What is gestalt language processing? Why WH question goals aren’t always appropriate for gestalt language processors Modeling AAC without expectation Learning through play-based approaches vs. compliance-based approaches Building connections with autistic students Why planned ignoring doesn’t work Honoring protesting Other Links You May Be Interested In: Autism Little Learners on Instagram: Link here: www.instagram.com/autismlittlelearners Autism Little Learners on Facebook: Link here:   / autismlittlelearners   You can also join my free Visual Supports Facebook Group to “hang out” with like-minded educators and parents who want to take action and implement visuals at home or at school. Link here:   / 3922278281209994