There’s an unspoken expectation that parents, especially parents of children with autism are always “on.” We are the planners, the regulators, the translators, the advocates, the ones who hold all the moving pieces together. Even on the hard days, we show up. Because we have to.

But what happens when we’re the ones who go down?

There are moments in parenting where you know, deep down, that what you’re doing is necessary, even if it looks questionable, uncomfortable, or downright alarming from the outside.

For a long time, success in therapy, and honestly, in parenting, has been measured by how well a child follows directions. Did they sit? Did they comply? Did they stop the behavior?

As both a clinician and a special needs parent, I understand why compliance became the stand-in for progress. It’s visible. It’s measurable. It often makes life feel calmer in the short term. When a child is quiet and “easy,” everyone breathes a little easier.

But here’s the truth many parents feel in their gut long before anyone validates it:

Compliance is not the same as learning.

I’m not just a clinician.

I’m not just a BCBA.

And I’m not just someone who studies burnout from the outside. I’m also a parent of an autistic 8-year-old boy.

So when I talk about burnout, I’m not talking at you.

I’m talking with you—from the same boat.

Halloween can be a magical night. Costumes, candy, and community fun, but for many autistic children (and their parents), it can also feel like a social obstacle course with a sugar high. Between the costumes, noise, and unexpected social rules, the evening can quickly become exhausting and overwhelming. But with a little planning and practice, you and your child can have a night full of fun (and maybe a few peanut butter cups).

The holidays are hard enough without unsolicited science lessons. Here’s a guide for parents of children with autism on surviving family gatherings, Fox News relatives, and too much political commentary — with humor, grace, and sanity intact.

If you’ve come across the term pathological demand avoidance (PDA), you’re not alone — it’s a label that’s been doing a lot of quiet, steady traveling from clinics in the U.K. into conversations among clinicians, schools, and families in North America. For parents trying to make sense of baffling meltdown cycles, daily refusals, and behaviors that look like “defiance” but feel different, PDA can be a helpful way to understand what’s going on. Below I’ll explain what PDA typically looks like, where the idea came from, how treatment approaches (including adaptations of ABA) differ for PDA, and straightforward, practical strategies parents can use at home and at school.

If you’re a parent of a child on the autism spectrum, chances are you’ve spent sleepless nights searching for answers. Maybe you’ve replayed pregnancy decisions in your head, questioned every vaccine appointment, or wondered if that one dose of Tylenol for a fever somehow changed the course of your child’s life. I want to say this as clearly and lovingly as possible: you did not cause your child’s autism.

In these same conversations, political leaders often promise to “find the cause” of autism, as if discovering a single explanation will eliminate the struggles families face. While research is valuable, an overemphasis on searching for a cause overlooks what families need most right now: access to reliable, affordable, and community-based supports.

If you’re a special needs mom , you probably don’t need anyone to tell you how important sleep is—you feel it in your bones every day. But what’s harder to explain is how sleep has become more of a memory than a reality. While the rest of the world assumes our kids will start “sleeping through the night” after the baby stage, many of us are still running on fumes—years later. Because when your child doesn’t sleep through the night—and hasn’t for years—your nights don’t feel restful, they feel like a second shift.

As the school year draws to a close, many of us find ourselves attending graduation ceremonies, concerts, recitals, and end-of-year parties. While these events are often joyful, they can also be particularly challenging for parents of children with disabilities.

This has been one of the most difficult weeks for people in southern California in recent memory. Los Angeles has been on fire in several locations for over a week now. As of the writing of this post, there are still 88,000 homes currently under evacuation orders. While we are safe here at the LBS headquarters, several of our staff and families have been directly affected by the fires, and many of our families are anxious as we enter fresh red-flag warnings in our area for the next few days.

Let’s talk about some of the things most people don’t know, and most parents aren’t prepared for, that can come along with an autism diagnosis. We can start with the obvious:

Whether you are embarking on a school year similar to ours, or your kids are returning to the school they know and love, there are some things we can do for them today and over the coming weeks to help ease their transition back to the school environment. 

Much of the focus of therapy for the autistic community is geared towards the early years. Early intervention, school aged therapy and social skills for teens and young adults. As autism is a lifelong diagnosis, shouldn’t therapies and supports available to the autistic community be the same?

It has been a dream of mine for years to have my own clinic space where we can deliver ABA therapy to our learners in a safe, warm, inviting, and productive environment. It brings me so much joy to announce that Learning Beyond The Spectrum is moving to a clinic in June!

Our ability to communicate with others is essential to our ability to function as humans. We communicate to get our needs met, to express our emotions, to gain someone’s attention, to get out of things we don’t want to do, the list goes on and on.

Continuity of care is a term that is used in the medical field, the school environment, as well as in applied behavior analysis. This term makes an appearance in all of our documents and reports that we write, and is constantly discussed among professionals, but what does it mean? Let’s talk about what it means for children with and without special needs.

What is burnout? It is described as an emotional state and mental exhaustion as a result of prolonged stress. I don’t know about you, but that pretty accurately describes the last 18 months of my life.

In the few days left before school starts, instead of making sure they know their letters and numbers and sight words, this is an excellent time to work on functional skills.