Social Sparks: Fueling Friendship and Confidence in Neurodivergent Youth with Lauren Greenwood

Sharon sits down with speech-language pathologist and creator Lauren Greenwood to explore practical, neuro-affirming ways to build social-communication confidence in kids and teens. Lauren shares the origin story of her SOCIALSPARK Conversation Picture Cards, why these portable and context-specific visual scaffolds reduce cognitive load while maximizing social attention, and how “small talk” and small moments can turn into greater connections with others. They discuss the importance of social communication skills, the challenges faced by neurodivergent individuals, and the tools and strategies that can help bridge the gap between neurodivergent and neurotypical individuals, especially teens and tweens with Autism and AuDHD.The conversation highlights the importance of connection over perfection in social interactions and offers hope for fostering meaningful relationships in a rapidly evolving social world.You can follow Lauren and the SOCIALSPARK curriculum on https://www.socialsparkspeech.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/socialsparkspeech/Follow Unmasking Social at: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unmaskingsocial1YouTube: Unmasking Social: The Podcast - YouTube