Work in Progress
Category and Resource Descriptions for Directory
Autism
Autism from the Inside https://www.youtube.com/c/aspergersfromtheinside/playlists. Autistic Coach Paul Micallef states: I discovered I have Asperger’s at the age of thirty. It has been my life’s mission to understand these funny creatures we call humans. My special interest is a combination of emotional intelligence, psychology, neuroscience, thinking styles, behavior, and motivation (i.e. what makes people tick). My background is in engineering and I see the world as systems to be analyzed. My passion is for taking the incredibly complex, deciphering the pattern, and explaining it very simply.
Behavior Support
Positive Behavior Support Home and Community Network https://hcpbs.org/ is a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding and enhancing the application of PBS principles across home and community settings, contexts, and the lifespan for people with behavioral challenges (including intellectual and developmental disabilities, mental health diagnoses, and seniors who require memory care and other related services) and the systems that support them. Our website is loaded with practical resources, videos, stories of how PBS positively impacted people, and much more.
College
Positive Behavior Support Home and Community Network https://hcpbs.org/ is a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding and enhancing the application of PBS principles across home and community settings, contexts, and the lifespan for people with behavioral challenges (including intellectual and developmental disabilities, mental health diagnoses, and seniors who require memory care and other related services) and the systems that support them. Our website is loaded with practical resources, videos, stories of how PBS positively impacted people, and much more.
Educational Materials
All About Learning https://www.allaboutlearningpress.com/ offers effective, fun, and affordable reading and spelling programs to help your student become a proficient reader and speller for life. The step-by-step unique, multisensory lessons are based on Orton-Gillingham’s approach. Complete Reading or Spelling programs, reasonably priced, and very well-supported with many free resources for students who have not yet learned to read and spell!
Executive Functioning
Life Skills Advocate https://lifeskillsadvocate.com/ unique and unparalleled executive functioning coaching tools to empower neurodivergent individuals with greater self-confidence, capacity to take healthy risks, better relationships, life skills development, and overall well-being.
Seth Perler, Executive Function, ADHD, & 2e Coach https://sethperler.com/. Seth is one of the most amazing resources with blogs, vlogs, youtube, trainings, courses, coaching, and an annual extraordinary EF Summit. “If a child of any age struggles with motivation, focus, homework, getting started, follow through, organization, planning, procrastination, distractibility, remembering details, prioritizing the important things, decision making, responsibility, overwhelm, or underachievement, then demystifying “Executive Function” is critical if you want to help, especially for students who resist help.
Homeschooling
Different By Design Learning https://differentbydesignlearning.com/. Shawna Wingert is a special education teacher turned educational consultant, parent coach, speaker, and writer… and now a homeschooling mom of two brilliant boys with differences and special needs. She has written four books for parents of special needs and learning differences and offers many resources about interest-led and strength-based learning, homeschool weekly lessons, helping struggling readers and many more innovative resources and solutions.
Information (Articles, Videos, Podcasts, etc)
ADDitude https://www.additudemag.com/. Since 1998, millions of parents and adults have trusted ADDitude’s expert guidance and support for living better with ADHD and its related conditions. Our mission is to be your trusted advisor, an unwavering source of understanding and guidance along the path to wellness. This online magazine is a comprehensive resource providing free articles, booklets, newsletters, webinars about everything ADD/ADHD and beyond.
Google https://www.google.com. There is probably no better search engine in our world today than Google. It will bring you to resources, articles, videos, programs, or even images of any topic related to you, your child, your family.
Parenting Special Needs (PSN) https://www.parentingspecialneeds.org/about/. The PSN site/vlog/magazine was started 15 years ago by Chantai Snellgrove “to get some help raising my daughter with special needs. While helping my daughter, I also wanted to share what I have learned to help other families.” Today Parenting Special Needs’ website, magazine, and Social Media reaches over 300,000 families each month who are “in the trenches” raising a child with special needs. With Parenting Special Needs Magazine, you can: Listen to the articles, Read the text and tips, Watch the online videos, and Connect with direct links to services, programs, experts, products, and more.
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/. Look up any word from Autism to Xenophobia or Zoology and there is a YouTube about it. Amazingly informative and helpful insights about everything and anything around caring for your child, your family, and yourself. Warning: You can spend hours and hours on YouTube! Another Warning: Although YouTube monitors and removes or blocks offensive messaging, protect yourself by only watching/listening to what brings you joy and hope.
Moms
Inspiring Mom Life http://www.inspiringmomlife.com/ is one of the most empowering places online I have seen for women like us. A certified Life Coach, Frances offers lots of excellent freebies, online courses, and everything coaching with the skill and knowledge of a positive thinking, big dream dreamer, and Mom of a disabled child. In fact, she offers a “Be a Better Parent in 30 Days” program. Lots of free resources and her emails are so empowering!
NeuroDiversity
Bright & Quirky https://brightandquirky.com/. If you’ve got a 2e child, chances are you feel like many of the parents I work with – isolated on a journey most people don’t understand, frustrated that typical parenting strategies don’t work, feeling the pain of your child not fitting in with friends or academically, and exhausted trying to bring more calm and peace at home.
Empowered Parents: Cultivating Calm Connected Families http://www.empoweredparentservices.com/ . Great resource I found when googling our topic… located in Canada… lots of therapeutic information for parents of special needs kids including a new 6-week recorded program called CALMer Kids Therapeutic Program which helps families deal with emotional regulation issues.
Tilt Parenting https://tiltparenting.com/. More than 20% of today’s children are in some way neurodivergent, or what Tilt founder Debbie Reber calls, “differently wired.” Tilt Parenting works to change the way neurodifferences in children – ADHD, learning disabilities, autism, giftedness, processing challenges, twice-exceptionality, and more – are perceived and experienced so these exceptional children, and the parents raising them, can thrive in their schools, their families, and in their lives. So many resources!
Parenting
Happily Family: Confident, Capable, & Compassionate Kids https://happilyfamily.com/. Cecilia and Jason Hilkey are passionate about helping parents communicate with their kids to avoid meltdowns and power struggles. “We do things differently here! While the “mainstream” does time outs, we do time ins. When “conventional wisdom” says to punish, we find a win-win and set limits. When other people say “big kids don’t cry” and “be tough,” we talk to kids about their feelings and give them empathy.” To learn about parenting “differently” especially when it comes to dealing with difficult behaviors, visit their website. You can join their “Village”.
ImpactParents: Helping Parents Help Kids https://impactparents.com/ Provides affordable behavior management training (Behavior Therapy) for parents and educators worldwide, online, and on the phone – a first-line recommended treatment for kids with ADHD and related challenges of Executive Function
Low Demand Parenting https://www.amandadiekman.com/ “Parenting often feels like an intricate dance of expectations and demands, leaving us entangled in the web of “shoulds” and “musts.” In the pursuit of a more connected and vibrant family life, I’ve outlined six transformative steps that delve into the heart of low demand parenting… and change everything.” Visit for a Masterclass, Mastermind, Book and Quiz.
Parenting ADHD & Autism https://parentingadhdandautism.com/ previously known as The Behavior Revolution https://thebehaviorrevolution.com/ “Life-changing parenting for your neurodiverse family…we help you celebrate and support your child through neuroscience-backed insights, hard-won strategies, compassion, and guidance.” Penny Williams has offered help to thousands of parents through her podcast, award-winning books, online parent training programs, parent coaching, and mom retreats. “I’m honored to help families on this always chaotic, often stressful, anything-but-ordinary parenting journey.”
Parenting Boys Peacefully https://parentingboyspeacefully.com/reconnect/ Tosha Schore is a parent coach, an author, and a mom of three (big) sweet boys. She is on a mission to create a more peaceful world, one sweet boy at a time, by supporting parents to care for themselves, connect with their boy deeply, set limits lovingly, and play wildly! Her free 10 Day Reconnect for age 2-ish to 13-ish boys, offers:
- 10 days worth of short, educational, and hopefully a bit humorous experiments (If we don’t
laugh, we’ll cry, right! No day’s mission will take you more than 15 minutes. Promise!) - A printable PDF to stick on your fridge or bathroom mirror to keep you on track.
- New videos (almost) every Tuesday.
- Forever access. Come back to the learning hub for a refresh whenever you need it.
Parenting Sensory Kids with Confidence is Kelly’s fabulous Facebook Community for parents and caregivers who want to learn how to better understand their child’s sensory needs. You will learn and be supported on this journey while gaining a deeper understanding on how to help your child thrive! kelly@kellydeyoung.com is an occupational therapist and a mom of 4 young kids with varying sensory needs.
Parents with Confidence https://parentswithconfidence.com/. When you’re empowered with information on your child’s social-emotional development, you can put difficult and puzzling behaviors into proper context, and respond to your child in way that is both supportive AND nurturing to their future well-being. “I want to help you feel confident at the end of each day, that you’ve done your best to help grow an emotionally healthy child ready to take on the world. ~ Angela
Raising Your Strong-Willed Child FB home of Forward Together Parenting https://www.forwardtogetherparenting.com/ is here to help you feel confident and at ease as you are raising considerate, compassionate, life-loving humans. (Just like you!) Founder Sonali uses humor, clarity, heart-centered, joy-filled and fun! parenting approaches that allow you to parent your way.
Self-Sufficient Kids https://selfsufficientkids.com/ A great resource for parents who want to raise independent, responsible, and ultimately self-sufficient kids. Learn positive discipline, improved communication, ways to motivate chores and routine, teaching of practical life skills and a growth mindset. “The same parenting tools that create more harmonious relationships in families also support and encourage our kids’ self-advocacy, self-reliance, and independence.”
We Are Resilient from Dovetail Learning (https://dovetaillearning.org/) helps you and others face challenges more effectively, make better decisions, have more honest relationships, and be the person you want to be. Our trauma-informed approach supports resilient educators, healthcare providers, parents, caregivers, and others in transforming our communities and creating a path to unlearn and dismantle structures of systematic racism and discrimination and celebrate diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Podcasts
ADHD ReWired Podcast is the super successful and informative podcast led by Eric Tivers, Psychotherapist, Coach, Podcaster, Speaker, Consultant and Entrepreneur (with ADHD). https://www.adhdrewired.com/ Since 2014, 500+ episodes, 7M+ downloads, in 119 countries. Hear stories, learn strategies, and get great productivity tips about real-life struggles and what it takes to achieve success with ADHD/Autism.
Special Needs Resources
ABLE National Resources Center https://www.ablenrc.org/get-started/what-is-able/ Living with a disability is often associated with significant amounts of extra costs. Millions of individuals with disabilities and their families depend on a wide variety of public benefits for income, health care, food and housing assistance. Eligibility for these public benefits (SSI, SNAP, Medicaid) requires the individual to have very minimal savings. ABLE accounts are tax-advantaged savings accounts that can fund disability expenses without impacting public benefits.
Guiding Exceptional Parents https://guidingexceptionalparents.com/ Special Needs Care Navigation ~ Helping parents figure out what supports to put in place and helping them navigate medical, educational, and community-based systems to access those supports. Relationship Development Intervention ~ Coaching parents of kids with social communication challenges and autism to teach their kids the skills that make relationships (and life!) work. Parent Coaching ~ Working with parents to brainstorm challenging situations and behavioral issues so they can put effective supports in place and teach their kids essential skills.
Special Needs Alliance https://www.specialneedsalliance.org/ A national alliance of committed attorneys who help with all types of legal and financial planning for families with disabled children, maximizing and preserving benefits, protecting assets, and assuring lifelong care.
Please note: The majority of these resources are located in the U.S. but there are many resources around the world that can be sources of information and support, regardless of where you live. Nearly 240 million children in the world today have some form of disability. (UNICEF Feb.2022).
You are not alone!