125: Neurodiversity-Affirming Approaches to Social and Emotional Learning with Meg Proctor

Have you ever heard of the neurodiversity-affirming approach to therapy?    For many years, we have been taught to teach students how to adapt to the world around them, but what if we approach it differently? The neurodiversity-affirming approach means that you work with autistic kids in a way that doesn’t ask them to fundamentally change who they are.    In today’s episode of SLP Coffee Talk, I sat down with Meg Proctor to talk about how you can start offering therapy that is respectful towards the autistic community and doesn’t teach them to be inauthentic to themselves.    Meg offers neurodiversity-affirming, strengths-based trainings to OTs and SLPs who want to be more confident, effective, and affirming in their work with autistic kids.     Meg also hosts the podcast Two Sides of the Spectrum, designed to help neurotypical therapists better take the perspective of our autistic clients. Meg’s website, learnplaythrive.com, hosts a variety of free resources as well as CE trainings registered for AOTA and ASHA CEUs.    We have to let go of our neurotypical biases when working with autistic children. By teaching our students in the way that they need to be taught, we can get much better results and more motivation from them.    Tune in to learn more about the neurodiversity-affirming approach to therapy and how you can start utilizing this method in your therapy practice today.    Full show notes available at www.speechtimefun.com/125   Resources Mentioned:  Check out Meg’s website: https://learnplaythrive.com/ Follow Meg on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/learnplaythrive/ Listen to the Two Sides of the Spectrum podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/two-sides-of-the-spectrum/id1514489746 Join Meg’s Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/OTandAutism Listen to Rachel Dorsey’s episode: https://speechtimefun.com/role-of-goals-for-autistic-students-with-rachel-dorsey/   Where We Can Connect:  Follow the Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/slp-coffee-talk/id1497341007 Follow Hallie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/speecSubscribe today and get access to my secret podcast filled with my juicy secrets for planning with ease for secondary speech students. 6 quick episodes that you can quickly listen to and feel refreshed and inspired! https://speechtimefun.com/secondarysecrets