Dr. Lisa Marnell, OTD, MBA

As an Autistic adult, with my own OT clinic and a lot on my plate with speaking and delivering school district professional development, I face the same challenge every day. And it is this: I struggle with transitions. The stress I feel typically (always) disappears once I am inside a new task, especially when this task is something I enjoy and that I am drawn toward. Once I start the task, I remember how I LOVE to engage deeply and I do engage. Then, I am fine. I suspect all people and...

As the school year moves forward, I find myself thinking about the word break. It is a word that shows up in classrooms, IEPs, and behavior plans, yet it is rarely examined closely. We talk about breaks as if they are one thing: A pause. A reward. A moment away from work. But when you respectfully try to understand Autistic students, it becomes clear that breaks are not interchangeable. A break that supports one child’s nervous system may dysregulate another. And a break that looks restful on...

🌱Last month I visited a school where a little boy, Mateo, was working with a behavior technician who had been hired to deliver Autism “therapy.” She was kind, patient, and clearly wanted to help. But as I watched her try to manage his overwhelm with a laminated token board and a series of rehearsed prompts, something became painfully clear. She had never been taught how to understand what his nervous system was trying to communicate. ➡️ No one had taught her about sensory overload. ➡️ No one...