Inchstones with Sarah | Autism Advocacy & Caregiver Stories
- Folgen
- 138
- Erscheint
- wöchentlich
- Letzte Folge
- 12. Nov. 2026
Über den Podcast
INCHSTONES is a podcast about caregiver stories, nonverbal autism, and the realities of special needs parenting—hosted by Sarah Kernion, a mother raising two children with profound, non-speaking autism. Here, we talk honestly about the parts of autism and disability parenting that don't always fit neatly into an inspirational story: caregiver burnout, grief and acceptance, communication, sensory needs, advocacy, family dynamics, therapies, education, sibling relationships, and the uncertainty of raising children with significant support needs. But INCHSTONES is also about learning to recognize progress differently. Because when you're parenting a child with profound or nonverbal autism, the moments that change everything aren't always traditional milestones. Sometimes they're the inchstones: a new form of communication, a regulated transition, a moment of connection, a life skill practiced for the hundredth time, or something your child does today that once felt impossible. Through candid caregiver stories and conversations with parents, physicians, therapists, researchers, educators, advocates, and autistic voices, Sarah explores the questions families are actually asking about autism, special needs parenting, profound autism care, autism communication, caregiver mental health, autism therapy options, special education, sensory support, and life beyond childhood. There are no perfect answers here. There are real families, complicated conversations, practical insights, hard truths, unexpected joy, and a community that understands that progress doesn't have to look typical to matter. If you're raising an autistic child, parenting a nonverbal or nonspeaking child, navigating profound support needs, or looking for honest conversations about special needs family life, welcome to INCHSTONES. Because milestones aren't the only measure of a meaningful life.
Folgen 138
Why the National Autism Association Is Returning to Its Roots | NAA Executive Director, Krystal Higgins
What does meaningful autism advocacy look like when families need both immediate safety resources and answers to difficult medical questions? In this episode of the INCHSTONES Podcast, Sarah Kernion welcomes …
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What does meaningful autism advocacy look like when families need both immediate safety resources and answers to difficult medical questions?
In this episode of the INCHSTONES Podcast, Sarah Kernion welcomes Krystal Higgins of the National Autism Association (NAA)** to discuss the organization's evolving approach to profound autism, parent advocacy, wandering and elopement prevention, and emerging conversations about leucovorin.
Krystal shares how NAA's parent-led history shaped its safety initiatives and why a recent educational webinar on leucovorin prompted renewed conversations about the information autism families want.
Together, Sarah and Krystal explore:
- The National Autism Association's history and mission
- Wandering and elopement safety for autistic children
- Parent demand for information about leucovorin
- The importance of discussing complex autism experiences without dismissing families
- Why different perspectives within the autism community can coexistFamilies deserve safety, meaningful information, and a voice in the conversations shaping their children's futures.
Discover more at www.inchstonespodcast.com.
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Stem Cell Therapy for Autism: Hope, Evidence & Informed Consent | BetterStem Founder, Greice Murphy
Can stem cell therapy help children with autism, and how should parents evaluate treatments that remain investigational? In this INCHSTONES Podcast conversation, Sarah Kernion welcomes Greice Murphy, Founder …
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Can stem cell therapy help children with autism, and how should parents evaluate treatments that remain investigational?
In this INCHSTONES Podcast conversation, Sarah Kernion welcomes Greice Murphy, Founder and CEO of BetterSTEM, to explore stem cell therapy for autism, regenerative medicine, informed consent, and the responsibility of balancing parental hope with scientific evidence.
Together, they discuss:
Why stem cell treatments for autism remain investigational and are not FDA-approved
What parents should understand when outcomes cannot be guaranteed
The importance of rigorous clinical trials, baseline assessments, and measurable outcomes
How parent observations can inform assessments of quality of life
The ethical responsibility to communicate uncertainty and avoid unsupported promises
BetterSTEM's approach to individualized evaluation and family support
For families navigating profound autism and nonspeaking autism, curiosity about emerging science deserves both compassion and scientific rigor.
Hope should inspire research. Evidence should guide decisions. Transparency should never be optional.
Explore more at www.inchstonespodcast.com.
Greice Murphy is the Founder and CEO of BetterStem, a pioneering company focused on advancing personalized medicine and investigational stem cell therapies for children with autism. Born in Brazil, her passion for autism care began with her cousin Raul, inspiring a lifelong mission to improve access to innovative healthcare. An award-winning entrepreneur and EY Entrepreneur of the Year, Greice previously founded Advanced Care Partners, one of America's largest pediatric home healthcare providers. She also owns Miami Stem Cell. Through BetterStem, Greice is redefining autism care with a physician-led, whole-child approach that explores underlying biological factors beyond symptoms and behaviors.
What If Your Nonspeaking Child Understands More Than You Know? Hope & Faith with Katie Asher
What if your nonspeaking autistic child understands far more than they can communicate? In this episode of the INCHSTONES Podcast, Sarah Kernion welcomes Katie Asher, co-author of The Book of Heaven with her …
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What if your nonspeaking autistic child understands far more than they can communicate?
In this episode of the INCHSTONES Podcast, Sarah Kernion welcomes Katie Asher, co-author of The Book of Heaven with her nonspeaking autistic son, Houston, for a deeply personal conversation about profound autism, presuming competence, motherhood and Christian faith.
Katie shares her family's journey, the communication experiences she describes with Houston, and how faith has helped her navigate grief, uncertainty and hope.
Together, Sarah and Katie explore:
Why speech and motor difficulties should not automatically be mistaken for a lack of understanding
What it means to presume competence in nonspeaking autism
The grief and guilt that can accompany disability parenting
How faith and hope coexist with profound suffering
The invisible emotional and spiritual lives of our children
Why caregiver love is often expressed through ordinary, daily acts
How much of a person are we missing simply because they cannot show us who they are in the ways we expect?
Discover more caregiver stories at www.inchstonespodcast.com.
Guest: Katie Asher is a writer, researcher, advocate, and mother. She and her son Houston were featured in season, one of The Telepathy Tapes. After over two decades of trauma her vaccine injured son, Houston, began communicating the depth of his intelligence, personality, courage, and faith, forcing her to reckon with the lies she had believed about severe autism and what is actually true and possible. This discovery led her to extensive research about quantum mechanics, physics, chemistry, biology, physiology, and scripture. Katie and her son Houston have explored how science actually confirms the spiritual realm, the truth of Scripture, and the promises of God. The Book of Heaven is their effort to bring understanding regarding severe autism and hope in all we have through the atonement of Christ and love of God.To purchase a copy of A Book of Heaven: CLICK HERE
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What Happens When Disability Services Run Out? Lexi's Law with Brie Abate
What happens when you've advocated for your child at every turn, but the disability services they need still aren't there? In this episode of the INCHSTONES Podcast, Sarah Kernion welcomes Brie Abate, founder …
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What happens when you've advocated for your child at every turn, but the disability services they need still aren't there?
In this episode of the INCHSTONES Podcast, Sarah Kernion welcomes Brie Abate, founder of Lexi's Law Family Advocacy Network, to discuss the gaps in adult disability services, special education transition programs, and mental health care for young adults with complex needs.
Brie's daughter Lexi is 22. After years of navigating systems that struggled to address her intellectual disability and mental health needs, Brie began advocating for legislation to close age-related service gaps.
Together, Sarah and Brie explore:
Why the transition from school to adult disability services leaves families struggling
The challenges of accessing appropriate care for complex disabilities
What Lexi's Law hopes to change
Why parents shouldn't have to become experts in broken systems
The difference between keeping our children safe and helping them live meaningful lives
Because our children deserve more than services. They deserve lives filled with belonging, relationships, and possibility.
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What If It's Not Bad Behavior? Autism, Sensory Needs & Regulation | Laura Petix
When your autistic child is hitting, screaming, refusing a task or melting down, the first question is often, “How do I stop this behavior?”But what if we're asking the wrong question?In this episode of …
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When your autistic child is hitting, screaming, refusing a task or melting down, the first question is often, “How do I stop this behavior?”
But what if we're asking the wrong question?
In this episode of INCHSTONES, Sarah Kernion welcomes Laura Petix, pediatric occupational therapist, creator of The OT Butterfly and author of The Sensory Code, for a conversation about sensory processing, nervous-system regulation and what children's behavior may be communicating.
Laura challenges the familiar question, “Is it sensory or is it behavioral?” and explains why the more useful question is what may be happening beneath the behavior.
Together, Sarah and Laura explore:
- How to recognize the difference between “won't” and “can't right now”
- Why sensory overload can look like refusal or defiance
- Regulation versus compliance, and why harmless stimming shouldn't automatically be interrupted
- How to identify sensory patterns without becoming consumed by caregiver hypervigilance
- Why autistic children may become dysregulated after school
- Understanding elopement while taking its serious safety risks into account
- Three things parents can observe to better understand their child's sensory needs
- Why sensory dysregulation can accumulate throughout the day or week
- How parents can support their children's regulation while learning to understand their own nervous systems
As the mother of two children with profound, nonspeaking autism, Sarah brings the perspective of a caregiver who understands how much communication can happen without spoken words.
This conversation is not about finding one universal solution for every autistic child. It's about becoming more curious, more observant and more willing to consider what a child's body may be communicating before deciding how to respond.
Because sometimes the most important shift isn't changing the behavior. It's changing the question we're asking about it.Guest: Laura Petix | The OT Butterfly | The Sensory Code
Host: Sarah Kernion | INCHSTONES Podcast | Instagram: @inchstonesbysarah
More conversations about profound autism, caregiver stories and special needs parenting: www.inchstonespodcast.comKapitel
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Don't Let Fear Make Every Decision: Traveling with Autism | Jordana Izzo
For parents raising children with profound autism or significant disabilities, planning a vacation can feel overwhelming before anyone even packs a suitcase. Airports, TSA, sensory overload, unfamiliar hotel …
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For parents raising children with profound autism or significant disabilities, planning a vacation can feel overwhelming before anyone even packs a suitcase. Airports, TSA, sensory overload, unfamiliar hotel rooms, food restrictions, elopement risks and disrupted routines can make families question whether traveling is worth attempting at all.
But what if the goal isn't to eliminate every risk? What if it's to prepare well enough that fear doesn't make every decision?
In this episode of INCHSTONES, Sarah Kernion welcomes Jordana Izzo, Director of Accessible Travel at Travelmation, for a practical and deeply personal conversation about traveling with autistic children and family members with significant support needs.
After her son Sal was diagnosed with autism, Jordana refused to accept the idea that her family's world needed to become smaller. Today, she helps other families navigate accessible travel with greater preparation, realistic expectations and confidence.
Together, Sarah and Jordana discuss:
- Preparing autistic children for airports, flights and unfamiliar environments
- Practice flights, airport walkthroughs and visual preparation
- Planning around elopement risks, hotel safety and swimming pools
- Why downtime and realistic expectations can transform a vacation
- Choosing three meaningful activities instead of trying to do everything
- Accessible cruises, group travel and specialized respite support
- Making room for siblings whose needs and interests may be different
- The importance of asking specific questions before booking a trip
Sarah also shares what traveling looks like with her two nonspeaking children, Milly and Mack, whose needs and safety considerations are very different.
This isn't a conversation about creating the perfect autism-friendly vacation. It's about expanding our children's worlds without pretending that the work, risks and planning aren't real.
Because what might happen shouldn't automatically take away from what could happen.
Guest: Jordana Izzo | Travelmation
Host: Sarah Kernion | INCHSTONES Podcast
Find more conversations about profound autism, caregiver stories and special needs parenting at www.inchstonespodcast.com.Kapitel
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The Parts of Profound Autism We Don't Say Out Loud | Jillian Eisloeffel
There are parts of profound autism that rarely make it into public conversation. Severe self-injury. Medical complexity. The fear of not being able to keep your child safe. And the isolation that comes when the …
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There are parts of profound autism that rarely make it into public conversation. Severe self-injury. Medical complexity. The fear of not being able to keep your child safe. And the isolation that comes when the world has no idea what life inside your home actually looks like.
Jillian Eisloeffel, founder of Bobby's World Profound Autism Advocacy, joins Sarah Kernion for an intimate conversation between two mothers raising children with profound autism.
Jillian shares how her son Bob began engaging in severe self-injurious behavior seemingly overnight, changing their family's life and beginning a difficult search for medical answers. She describes the emotional toll of trying to protect him, the barriers to accessing care, and what it means to advocate without a dependable support system.
But this conversation is also about the joy of watching Bob reconnect with the world around him, and the profound meaning Jillian finds in the smallest moments of his life. Together, Sarah and Jillian explore why mothers share difficult stories publicly, why caregivers with the greatest responsibilities are often missing from advocacy spaces, and how we might build communities that meet families where they actually are.
They also discuss the complicated relationship between honesty and advocacy: how to acknowledge the profound disability our children experience without diminishing their dignity, intelligence or humanity.Because loving our children completely does not require us to pretend that their lives, or ours, are easy.
Honesty about profound autism isn't the opposite of love. Sometimes honesty is precisely what love requires.
Guest: Jillian Eisloeffel | Bobby's World Profound Autism Advocacy
Host: Sarah Kernion | INCHSTONES Podcast
More conversations: www.inchstonespodcast.comKapitel
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Belonging Is More Than Being Allowed in the Room | Brooks Herring on Disability & Music
What does disability inclusion look like when nobody is trying to make a statement—they're simply helping someone fully enjoy the moment?Nashville singer-songwriter, Navy veteran and former physical therapist …
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What does disability inclusion look like when nobody is trying to make a statement—they're simply helping someone fully enjoy the moment?
Nashville singer-songwriter, Navy veteran and former physical therapist Brooks Herring joins Sarah Kernion after a video of him singing a young woman's favorite song directly to her reached millions of people.
Brooks shares how his relationship with disability was shaped by his younger brother Mark, who has Down syndrome, and why music has become one of the ways he creates connection across disability, veterans' communities and live audiences.Sarah and Brooks talk about accessible experiences, controlling the environment when outings feel overwhelming, the power of favorite songs and why the smallest moments can become enormous.
Because belonging isn't simply being allowed into the room. It's getting to fully live in the room once you're there.Topics Discussed:
disability inclusion, disability family stories, sibling relationships, Down syndrome, special needs siblings, inclusive communities, music and disability, accessible live music, disability advocacy, nonverbal communication, caregiver experiences, sensory-friendly outings, community participation, sibling advocacy, veterans, physical rehabilitation, joy, belonging, inclusion, sobriety, role models and meaningful moments.
Key Questions Answered
1. What does authentic disability inclusion look like in everyday life?
2. How did having a brother with Down syndrome shape Brooks Herring's perspective?
3. Why did Brooks' interaction with a young woman with disabilities resonate with millions of people?
4. What can music offer when spoken language isn't the primary form of connection?
5. How can caregivers make live music experiences more accessible or manageable?
6. Why can quieter times and smaller environmental changes make community participation easier?
7. What can artists do to help people with disabilities feel genuinely welcome?
8. Why are seemingly small moments sometimes enormous for people with disabilities and their families?
9. What's the difference between access and belonging?
10. How can siblings and allies become meaningful advocates without making disability about themselves?
Resources
Brooks Herring
Follow Brooks Herring for his music, live performances and work connecting with audiences through music.
Watch the Viral Video
INCHSTONES PodcastSubscribe to the INCHSTONES Podcast for caregiver stories and honest conversations about special needs parenting, profound autism, disability, inclusion, communication, caregiver wellbeing and building meaningful lives for people with significant support needs.
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Who Will Care for My Child When I Can’t? Building a Future for Profound Autism with Nicole Milo
Who will care for my child when I can't? For parents raising children with profound autism, the question of adulthood can feel impossibly far away—until suddenly it isn't. Nicole Milo's son Caleb entered …
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Who will care for my child when I can't? For parents raising children with profound autism, the question of adulthood can feel impossibly far away—until suddenly it isn't.
Nicole Milo's son Caleb entered residential care at five and spent 17 years living hours from his family. As adulthood approached, Nicole confronted the disability-services cliff and realized the existing options didn't match the life she envisioned for him. So she began building another one.
Nicole joins Sarah Kernion to discuss profound autism, residential care, guardianship, adult services, caregiver grief, advocacy, collaboration and House of Hope, the micro-residential model she created to bring Caleb back to his community.
This is a conversation about planning long before 21—and allowing ourselves to ask a question many exhausted parents have stopped asking: What would the best possible adult life for my child actually look like?
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Stop Holding It All in Your Head | Allison Dickin of Neuraparent
Parents of neurodivergent children become extraordinary observers. We notice what happened before the meltdown, how our child slept, what changed at school, which transition was difficult and what worked last …
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Parents of neurodivergent children become extraordinary observers. We notice what happened before the meltdown, how our child slept, what changed at school, which transition was difficult and what worked last time. The problem? We're also exhausted...and much of that knowledge lives entirely inside our heads.
Allison Dickin, mother, UX researcher and founder of Neuraparent, joins Sarah Kernion to explore how AI can help parents recognize patterns without pretending technology knows their child better than they do.
They discuss behavior as information, why generic parenting advice often fails neurodivergent children, reducing the cognitive load of tracking, trusting parental expertise, and using technology to turn thousands of small observations into greater clarity.
The goal isn't to optimize or “solve” our children. It's to remain curious about them and give what we're already noticing somewhere to live. Parents of neurodivergent children become data collectors almost by accident. We remember the difficult transition before a meltdown, the night of poor sleep, the food our child didn't eat, the strategy that worked twice but failed the third time, the teacher's observation and the subtle shift nobody else would necessarily notice. The information is valuable. The person carrying it is also exhausted
Allison's path began with her own son. Generic advice about boundaries, consequences and rewards didn't adequately explain what she was seeing. A major shift came when she encountered Ross Greene's idea that children do well when they can. Instead of asking how to stop a behavior, Allison began asking what might be getting in her child's way.That same curiosity became foundational to Neuraparent. Rather than asking exhausted parents to maintain elaborate spreadsheets, the platform allows them to quickly record what they're noticing and, over time, look for larger patterns: What consistently helps this child? What makes things harder? Which parenting strategies seem to backfire?
Sarah and Allison also confront an important tension in the age of AI. More data isn't automatically better, and technology shouldn't become another demand for optimization. The promise isn't that an algorithm will know a child better than their parent. It's that technology might help organize what the parent already knows.
Because parental intuition isn't the opposite of data. Often, it's where the data begins.Topics Discussed
Neurodivergent parenting, AI and parenting, parenting technology, pattern recognition, caregiver cognitive load, parental intuition, behavior as communication, ADHD parenting, autistic children, meltdowns, emotional regulation, caregiver regulation, parenting strategies, IEP advocacy, parent expertise, caregiver burnout, parenting data, child behavior patterns, individualized parenting, Ross Greene, collaborative parenting, caregiver confidence and tracking progress.Download NeuraParent Here and Get Started Today!
Subscribe to the INCHSTONES Podcast for caregiver stories, conversations about nonverbal autism, and honest perspectives on special needs parenting, profound autism, communication, behavior, caregiver mental health, education, advocacy, technology and raising children with significant support needs.
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What Good ABA Should Actually Look Like | Leah Gross of Circle Care Services
What should good ABA therapy actually look like in 2026? Leah Gross, founder of Circle Care Services and an occupational therapist and BCBA, joins Sarah Kernion to discuss how ABA has evolved and why autism …
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What should good ABA therapy actually look like in 2026? Leah Gross, founder of Circle Care Services and an occupational therapist and BCBA, joins Sarah Kernion to discuss how ABA has evolved and why autism therapy should be individualized, collaborative, compassionate, and built around the whole child.
Leah brings sensory regulation, environment, play, communication, and behavior into the same conversation.She and Sarah discuss behavior as communication, why parents must help shape the care plan, how skills should generalize into real family life, and the difference between building agency and simply teaching compliance.
For parents navigating ABA, the question becomes less “Is ABA good or bad?” and more: Does this therapy help my child communicate, feel safe, build meaningful skills, and participate more fully in their own life?
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What If It’s Not “Just Autism”? Looking at the Whole Child with Greer McGuinness
When a nonspeaking autistic child can't reliably tell you their stomach hurts, they're exhausted, or something feels different, how do parents make sure everything happening in their body isn't simply …
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When a nonspeaking autistic child can't reliably tell you their stomach hurts, they're exhausted, or something feels different, how do parents make sure everything happening in their body isn't simply attributed to autism?
Greer McGuinness, registered dietitian, functional medicine practitioner, founder of Biomedical Healing for Kids, and autism mom, joins Sarah Kernion to explore that question. Greer shares her son's developmental regression, her search for answers, and why she began looking more closely at nutrition, gut health, testing, and co-occurring medical concerns.
They discuss the tension between conventional and functional medicine, individualized care, caregiver observation, and why supporting a child's health doesn't require rejecting or trying to “fix” who they are.
The question underneath it all: Are we looking at the whole child?
In This Episode
00:00 When everything gets attributed to autism
01:31 Greer's son's early development and regression
04:45 Receiving an autism diagnosis and questioning what changed
05:34 Following the traditional autism therapy path
06:23 The friend who introduced Greer to biomedical conversations
07:48 Studying functional medicine and autism research
09:16 Beginning supplements and noticing changes in her son
10:36 Using data to track progress
12:03 Where Greer starts with families: nutrition and gut health
13:17 Co-occurring medical conditions versus “just autism”
14:54 What do we actually know about the gut and autism?
15:42 Why Greer wants conventional and functional medicine to work together
16:40 Supporting health versus trying to “cure” autism
18:20 Profound support needs and communication
20:00 Why another family's success doesn't predict your child's response
20:38 When a popular protocol made things worse for Greer's son
21:40 Parent intuition, experimentation, and discernment
22:35 Working with conventional and functional practitioners
24:11 Why parents often look to doctors for permission
25:03 When Greer disagreed with her developmental pediatrician
27:30 Standard of care versus individualized care
28:27 Looking at an autistic child's health isn't the same as trying to fix autism
29:47 Greer's resources for families
Topics Discussed
Profound autism, nonspeaking autism, developmental regression, functional medicine, biomedical approaches to autism, nutrition, gut health, gut microbiome, feeding challenges, constipation, sleep, co-occurring medical conditions, supplements, individualized care, caregiver observation, parent advocacy, conventional medicine, functional testing, autism research, and whole-child health.
Key Questions Answered
1. How can parents distinguish autism-related differences from possible medical problems?
2. What does a biomedical or functional medicine approach to autism actually mean?
3. Where does Greer suggest families begin when exploring whole-child health?
4. Why does she focus on nutrition and gastrointestinal health?
5. What can constipation, sleep changes, feeding issues, or behavior potentially tell parents?
6. Why can the same supplement or protocol affect children differently?
7. How can parents document changes rather than relying solely on memory?
8. Can conventional and functional medicine work together?
9. How can parents advocate when their clinician disagrees with an approach they want to explore?
10. Can parents accept their autistic child while still investigating pain, discomfort, or co-occurring health problems?Resources
Greer McGuinness holds a Master of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics, is a Registered Dietitian, Certified Detox Specialist, Certified Master Herbalist, Certified Lyme Specialist, and a Certified Mental Health Specialist. Based in New York, she owns Biomedical Healing for Kids, a virtual Private Practice. As a dedicated professional with almost 20 years of experience, Greer has made significant contributions to the field of pediatric health. Her expertise lies in detoxifying toxins, enhancing gut health, and optimizing nutrient status. As a published researcher, she has focused on Autism and alternative medicine, showcasing her commitment to exploring innovative approaches to healthcare. Greer is a trailblazer in her field, having developed the pioneering Detoxing Toxins in Pediatrics course. Through her Rebalance Roadmap, she empowers parents and healthcare providers to safely and effectively detoxify toxins in children. By incorporating biomedical testing and integrative treatments, she aims to facilitate the advancement of children's developmental abilities, enabling them to lead active and healthier lives. Greer's passion for holistic health and her dedication to pediatric well-being make her a respected figure in the realm of nutrition and alternative medicine.
Follow Greer McGuinness and Biomedical Healing for Kids for education about nutrition, functional medicine, gut health, laboratory testing, and her approach to supporting children with autism and other complex needs.
Explore Greer's free Biomedical Workbook and ebooks, including information she provides for parents who want to learn more about laboratory testing and questions they can discuss with their child's healthcare providers.For evidence-based information about autism and co-occurring medical conditions, families can also consult resources from the American Academy of Pediatrics, National Institutes of Health, and their child's licensed medical team before making significant dietary, supplement, or treatment changes.
Subscribe to the INCHSTONES Podcast for caregiver stories, conversations about nonverbal autism, and honest perspectives on special needs parenting, profound autism, communication, medical complexity, caregiver wellbeing, advocacy, education, and raising children with significant support needs.
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Your Child’s Anxiety Isn’t the Enemy | Jennifer Cohen Harper
What if the goal isn't to make your child's anxiety disappear? Jennifer Cohen Harper, founder of Little Flower Yoga, joins Sarah Kernion to explore childhood anxiety, nervous system regulation, sensory …
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What if the goal isn't to make your child's anxiety disappear? Jennifer Cohen Harper, founder of Little Flower Yoga, joins Sarah Kernion to explore childhood anxiety, nervous system regulation, sensory overwhelm, mindfulness, and what children actually need from us when they're struggling. Jennifer reframes anxiety as information rather than an enemy and explains why reassurance like “you're okay” or “take a deep breath” may not reach a child whose nervous system is already overwhelmed. Instead, parents can reduce overstimulation, increase connection, use sensory anchors, and first regulate themselves. This conversation explores the difference between supporting and accommodating anxiety, why overwhelmed children often cannot learn in the hardest moment, and how parents can build capacity without making children feel they need to be fixed. The inchstone? Ask yourself: What is my role right now?
In This Episode
00:00 Why the goal isn't eliminating childhood anxiety
02:01 Navigating anxiety instead of trying to make it disappear
03:18 Anxiety is information
05:37 Normal anxiety versus anxiety that disrupts daily life
06:14 Supporting children without doing everything for them
08:10 Two things that make anxiety worse: overwhelm and disconnection
09:28 Reducing sensory overstimulation
11:13 Using one sensory experience as an anchor
12:18 How sensory input can help children orient to safety
14:36 Why parents need to orient themselves first
16:46 Regulation, co-regulation, and connection
18:03 When a parent's need to “fix it” can increase anxiety
19:08 Why helping others can build competence in children
21:44 Mindfulness for parents and children
22:09 Not every difficult parenting moment is an emergency
23:38 Don't teach the skill during the overwhelm
24:33 Connection can look different for different children
26:02 Build skills after the nervous system settles
28:50 Jennifer's “layers of sound” mindfulness practice
31:28 Why mindfulness isn't simply about calming down
32:55 Teaching children to trust their bodies
34:09 The question parents can ask themselves in an anxious moment
35:22 Being with your child instead of immediately changing themTopics Discussed
Childhood anxiety, nervous system regulation, co-regulation, sensory overwhelm, mindfulness, sensory anchors, parenting anxious children, autism and anxiety, caregiver regulation, emotional resilience, window of tolerance, connection, accommodation versus support, parental anxiety, body awareness, child development, and building capacity.Key Questions Answered
1. Should parents try to eliminate their child's anxiety?
2. What does it mean to say “anxiety is information”?
3. When does normal childhood anxiety require additional support?
4. Why doesn't reassurance always work when a child is overwhelmed?
5. How are sensory overwhelm and anxiety connected?
6. What is a sensory anchor, and how can parents use one?
7. Why should parents regulate themselves before trying to regulate their child?
8. What's the difference between supporting anxiety and accommodating it?
9. Should parents teach coping skills during a meltdown or anxious episode?
10. How can children gradually develop greater capacity for uncomfortable feelings?
ResourcesJennifer Cohen Harper is a mindfulness and yoga educator, equine assisted learning facilitator, author, and founder of Little Flower Yoga, widely recognized for its trauma-informed school programming and training for educators and mental health providers. Jenn has spent two decades helping children and caregivers navigate anxiety and build inner resources. She is also the founder of Mindfulness with Horses, where she facilitates retreats for adults and families to build connection, compassion and courage. Jenn’s work has been featured in notable publications such as Psychotherapy Networker, The International Journal of Yoga Therapy, and The New York Times, and endorsed by thought leaders including Daniel Siegel, Mona Delahooke, Sharon Salzberg, and Rick Hanson. Jenn teaches regularly at leading retreat centers, offering practical, compassionate tools for embodied healing.
Learn more about Jennifer Cohen Harper and Little Flower Yoga & Mindfulness with Horses, including her work supporting children, families, educators, and communities through mindfulness, movement, and nervous system-informed practices. Explore Jennifer's Navigating Anxiety in Children program through the Omega Institute for a deeper exploration of helping children develop a healthier relationship with anxiety and build tools for navigating difficult experiences.Subscribe to the INCHSTONES Podcast for caregiver stories, conversations about nonverbal autism, and honest perspectives on special needs parenting, profound autism, communication, behavior, sensory needs, caregiver wellbeing, nervous system regulation, education, and raising children with significant support needs.
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Can One Autism Spectrum Really Hold All of This? A Conversation with Laurie Dove of Everyday Autism Essentials
Can one autism diagnosis adequately describe people whose abilities, challenges, communication, independence, and lifelong support needs may be radically different? In this episode of the INCHSTONES Podcast …
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Can one autism diagnosis adequately describe people whose abilities, challenges, communication, independence, and lifelong support needs may be radically different?
In this episode of the INCHSTONES Podcast, Sarah Kernion sits down with fellow autism mother Laurie Dove for a candid conversation about the autism spectrum, diagnosis, profound support needs, parenting, nervous system regulation, advocacy, and what happens when families with very different lived experiences try to talk honestly with one another.
This isn't a conversation about deciding whose autism is harder.
It isn't a competition.
It's a conversation about whether we can acknowledge the enormous heterogeneity within autism while maintaining dignity and respect for everyone who carries the diagnosis.
Sarah and Laurie explore how broad the autism spectrum has become and why that can sometimes make conversations about autism confusing for parents, autistic adults, clinicians, advocates, and the public. They discuss the importance of listening to autistic people who can describe their internal experiences while also making room for families caring for children and adults who cannot reliably communicate their needs and may require substantial lifelong support.
The conversation also moves from the abstract debate about autism into the minute-to-minute reality of caregiving.
For some families, everyday activities that appear simple from the outside can require enormous amounts of preparation, patience, regulation, and co-regulation. Sarah and Lori discuss the role a parent's nervous system can play in those moments and why understanding behavior requires looking beyond what is immediately visible.They also wrestle with one of the most difficult dynamics in modern autism advocacy: how to disagree without dismissing another person's lived experience. Acknowledging profound autism does not require minimizing autistic people with lower support needs. Listening to autistic adults does not require ignoring parents caring for children with significant disabilities. And recognizing differences across the spectrum does not mean measuring whose life is harder.
There has to be room for more than one truth.
The goal of this conversation isn't to settle the autism debate.
It's to make the conversation itself more honest.
To ask another question.
To listen again.
And to remain curious enough to recognize that understanding autism may require us to hold experiences very different from our own.In This Episode
00:00 Why difficult autism conversations need to happen out loud
01:59 What an autism diagnosis means today
05:50 Understanding the enormous differences across the autism spectrum
06:52 Why heterogeneity matters when talking about autism
12:02 Parents, advocacy, and making room for different perspectives
18:04 The minute-to-minute realities of autism parenting
19:31 When everyday life requires constant regulation and support
23:58 Bridging very different experiences of autism
25:41 Why we need to talk about what's actually happening
26:20 Autism isn't a contest or competition
29:56 Ask another question and listen again
Topics Discussed
Autism spectrum disorder, autism diagnosis, profound autism, autism heterogeneity, autism advocacy, special needs parenting, caregiver stories, nervous system regulation, co-regulation, daily caregiving, autistic lived experience, parental perspectives, support needs, autism identity, respectful disagreement, community, curiosity, and making room for different experiences across the autism spectrum.Key Questions Answered
1. Can one autism diagnosis adequately describe people with radically different support needs?
2. What does heterogeneity within the autism spectrum actually mean for families?
3. Why can conversations about profound autism become contentious?
4. How can parents and autistic adults listen to experiences very different from their own?
5. Can profound support needs be acknowledged without diminishing autistic identity or dignity?
6. Why shouldn't conversations about autism become competitions over who has it harder?
7. What role does parental nervous system regulation play in everyday autism caregiving?
8. Why can seemingly ordinary daily routines become extraordinarily difficult for some autistic children and families?
9. How can the autism community have difficult conversations without dismissing one another?
10. What changes when we approach disagreement with curiosity rather than certainty?Resources
Find all of Laurie's advocacy work on Instagram at Everyday Autism Essentials
Learn more about autism spectrum disorder, diagnosis, and the wide range of abilities and support needs associated with autism through resources from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute of Mental Health.
For families navigating significant or lifelong support needs, explore research and advocacy conversations surrounding profound autism and the experiences of individuals who require substantial assistance with communication, safety, daily living, and care.
Subscribe to the INCHSTONES Podcast for caregiver stories, conversations about nonverbal autism, and honest perspectives on special needs parenting, profound autism, communication, behavior, sensory needs, caregiver wellbeing, education, advocacy, and raising children with significant support needs.Kapitel
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When Your ZIP Code Determines Your Child’s Autism Services | Danielle Fields
What happens when the autism services your child needs simply aren’t available where you live?Danielle Fields knows the answer because she moved across four states trying to find them.In this episode of the …
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What happens when the autism services your child needs simply aren’t available where you live?
Danielle Fields knows the answer because she moved across four states trying to find them.
In this episode of the INCHSTONES Podcast, Sarah Kernion sits down with Danielle, mother and fierce advocate for her 19-year-old autistic son, Paul, to talk about the extraordinary decisions families make when their children’s educational and support needs aren't being met.Danielle began her journey in California, where Paul was diagnosed with autism at age two. She quickly discovered one of the most frustrating realities of special needs parenting: being told what services your child needs means very little when there aren't enough people available to actually provide them. So she moved. From California to Nevada. From Nevada to Georgia. And eventually from Georgia to New Jersey. Each state taught Danielle something different about autism services, special education, IEPs, and advocacy. But the moves came with enormous costs. Danielle had been preparing for law school before Paul's diagnosis changed the trajectory of her life. Repeatedly relocating meant leaving jobs, rebuilding professionally, moving farther from family and friends, and expending the kind of emotional, physical, financial, and mental energy that caregivers of children with significant support needs understand all too well.
Then, in New Jersey, something happened Danielle wasn't expecting. Paul's own public school team told her they didn't believe the next available district program was appropriate for him. They recommended an out-of-district placement, opening the door to a private special education program chosen around Paul's individual needs. Danielle and Sarah discuss the difference between accepting the program a system happens to offer and advocating for the education an individual child actually requires. They talk about IEPs, out-of-district placement, caregiver exhaustion, the professional sacrifices mothers make, rebuilding community far from home, and what happens when advocacy becomes part of motherhood itself. Danielle also shares one of the simplest strategies she uses when fear and uncertainty become overwhelming: write it down. Put the fear on paper, get it out of your head, and begin identifying what you can actually do next. Ultimately, this conversation is about trusting yourself enough to keep asking a deceptively simple question:What does my child actually need?
Because children with disabilities shouldn't have to reshape themselves around whatever services happen to be available. Our systems should be able to respond to the child standing in front of them.Resources:
Learn more about special education, IEP advocacy, and the educational rights of students with disabilities through the U.S. Department of Education’s Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) resources.
Subscribe to the INCHSTONES Podcast for caregiver stories, conversations about nonverbal autism, and honest perspectives on special needs parenting, profound autism, communication, advocacy, caregiver wellbeing, special education, IEPs, and raising children with significant support needs.About Danielle Fields
Danielle M. Fields is the proud mother and "mama bear" advocate for her 19-year-old son, Paul, who was diagnosed with autism at age two. She remains deeply committed to autism advocacy and intends to continue that work throughout her life.Danielle Fields (Facebook)
@team_uv_3 (Instagram)
@thedmarieaesthetic (Instagram)
@autismadvocacysupermom (Instagram)In This Episode:
00:00 When autism services depend on your ZIP code
02:01 Meet Paul: Danielle's 19-year-old autistic son
03:26 Realizing California couldn't provide the services Paul needed
05:18 What moving for autism services cost Danielle personally and professionally
06:33 Turning grief and anger into advocacy
08:17 How repeated moves affected Danielle's career
09:13 What Danielle found when she finally reached New Jersey
11:30 The exhaustion special needs mothers carry
12:35 Discovering out-of-district special education placement
14:51 The IEP versus whatever program a school happens to offer
15:52 Why parental intuition matters in special education advocacy
17:26 What happens when you're the only person telling you to keep going
18:47 Danielle's strategy for fear: write it down
20:02 The hidden cost of moving away from family for disability services
21:42 Danielle's inchstone: trust your instincts
22:45 Why a child's education shouldn't depend on where they liveTopics Discussed:
Autism services by state, special needs parenting, autism school advocacy, IEPs, special education, out-of-district placement, private special education, caregiver burnout, maternal advocacy, caregiver mental health, moving for disability services, parental intuition, educational inequity, family support, career sacrifices, autism across the lifespan, and parenting an autistic young adult.
Key Questions Answered:
1. Why do some families move to another state for autism services?
2. How can autism and special education services differ depending on where a family lives?
3. What is an out-of-district school placement?
4. What happens when a public school cannot appropriately meet an autistic student's needs?
5. How can parents distinguish between what's available and what their child actually needs?
6. What can repeated advocacy and relocation cost a caregiver professionally and emotionally?
7. How can parents approach an IEP when they believe their child's current program isn't appropriate?
8. How does caregiver burnout affect special needs mothers over many years?
9. How can parents make decisions when they're overwhelmed by conflicting advice?
10. What did Danielle learn from raising and advocating for Paul from childhood into young adulthood?Kapitel
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Who Plans for This? A Father's Life with Profound Autism | Mike Hanner
What happens when a father whose career is built around managing risk is handed something he can’t plan his way out of? In this episode of the INCHSTONES Podcast, Sarah Kernion talks with autism advocate and …
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What happens when a father whose career is built around managing risk is handed something he can’t plan his way out of? In this episode of the INCHSTONES Podcast, Sarah Kernion talks with autism advocate and corporate risk management professional Mike Hanner about raising his eight-year-old son Kingston, who is nonspeaking, autistic, and has apraxia. Mike spends his professional life anticipating what could happen, assessing uncertainty, and building systems designed to protect people from risk. Then came profound autism.
Kingston met early developmental milestones, used words, sang and danced. Mike describes the pain of watching his son lose previously used speech and skills and the years it took him to understand that Kingston’s inability to reliably speak did not mean there wasn’t far more happening inside him. That realization changed the questions Mike began asking. Instead of only asking how to manage a symptom or behavior, he became increasingly interested in what might be happening underneath it.
His office now contains multiple whiteboards filled with treatments, tests, therapies, diagnoses, and questions - a visual representation of a father determined to keep learning. Sarah and Mike talk candidly about navigating conventional medicine alongside Mike’s interest in biomedical and functional approaches. Mike is equally clear about something important: he is skeptical of anyone claiming to have one solution that works for every autistic child. The conversation instead centers on curiosity, collaboration with qualified practitioners, individualized decision-making, and the difficulty of evaluating emerging or contested approaches when your child cannot reliably tell you what hurts or how they feel.
They also explore something discussed far less often: what profound autism can do to the family system.
Two parents can love the same child completely and still have dramatically different capacities, coping styles, beliefs, and approaches to helping that child. Mike discusses the friction that can create inside marriages and partnerships - and why caring for the family itself cannot become an afterthought.Underneath the entire conversation is a question with no simple answer: How do you prepare for a future you never planned for? Mike’s answer isn’t certainty. It’s learning to live differently with uncertainty.
Find your people. Ask better questions. Avoid the landmines other families have already encountered. Remain hopeful about what may be possible while preparing responsibly for significant lifelong needs.
And above all, don’t become so consumed by the answer you’re still searching for that you miss the progress already happening. Because sometimes the progress isn’t a milestone. It’s an inchstone.Mike Hanner is a national employee benefits risk management executive who has spent his career helping employers navigate the complexities of group health insurance and healthcare strategy. More importantly, he is a father to an 8-year-old son with profound regressive autism. Mike and his family have spent years navigating the often-overwhelming world of autism: specialists, therapies, testing, treatments, schools, insurance, and the constant search for answers. He joined Sarah Kernion on Inchstones to share a father’s perspective on raising a child with significant support needs, navigating the many landmines families encounter, and advocating for his son every step of the way.
Subscribe to the INCHSTONES Podcast for honest caregiver stories about nonverbal autism, special needs parenting, profound autism, caregiver burnout, disability, communication, family life, and the realities of raising children with significant support needs.
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What If It’s Not “Bad Behavior”? Understanding Your Autistic Child with Dr. Amy See
What if the behavior you’re trying to change is actually telling you something? In this episode of the INCHSTONES Podcast, Sarah Kernion talks with developmental psychologist and learning support specialist Dr …
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What if the behavior you’re trying to change is actually telling you something?
In this episode of the INCHSTONES Podcast, Sarah Kernion talks with developmental psychologist and learning support specialist Dr. Amy See about nonverbal autism, special needs parenting, behavior, nervous system regulation, and learning to see the whole child before deciding what their behavior means. Parents of autistic children become accustomed to watching closely. Is my child listening? Why aren’t they responding? Why could they do this yesterday but not today? Is this refusal? Inattention? A sensory issue? A developmental delay? A behavior we need to correct?
But Dr. See encourages parents and educators to slow down before assigning meaning. Because the same child can look very different in different environments. A child who struggles in a bright, noisy classroom may function very differently at home. A child who appears unable to participate in one environment may demonstrate far more ability when they feel calm, safe, connected, and regulated. For children with nonverbal autism, non-speaking autism, or significant communication and motor challenges, that distinction becomes especially important. What a child can demonstrate in a particular moment isn’t necessarily the same as what that child understands.
Sarah shares what she has observed with Milly and Mack: even a response to something they understand can sometimes arrive much later than expected. A glance, movement, transition, or acknowledgment that takes longer to appear doesn’t necessarily mean the original language wasn’t received. Sometimes processing simply doesn’t happen on our timetable.
Dr. See introduces a simple framework she uses when looking beneath behavior: capacity, safety, and regulation.
What capacity does this child have in this moment? Do they feel safe and secure in this environment? Is their nervous system regulated, or is it overloaded? Rather than beginning with “Why is this child behaving this way?”, those questions allow parents, teachers, and clinicians to become curious about what the behavior may be communicating.
Sarah and Amy also explore the pressure many special needs parents feel to turn nearly every moment into an opportunity for progress. When your child is developmentally behind, letting them wander through the backyard, play independently, or engage in an activity without a therapeutic objective can almost feel irresponsible.
But play has value precisely because it isn’t always directed toward an outcome. Children need opportunities to rest, explore, consolidate what they’re learning, follow their interests, and experience connection without constantly being asked to perform. And sometimes one of the most powerful ways to connect with a nonverbal child isn’t asking them to enter our world at all. It’s entering theirs. Watch what brings them joy. Sit beside them. Pick up the object they’re fascinated by. Repeat the movement. Listen to the song. Join the play.Because before we decide what a child needs to learn next, we may need to become much better at seeing the child who is already in front of us.
In This Episode
00:00 – Why INCHSTONES looks at the whole child
01:45 – Dr. Amy See's background in developmental psychology and learning support
02:45 – Why every child begins to make more sense when we understand what they need
03:25 – Observing children before trying to change them
03:55 – Nature and nervous system regulation
04:55 – Why environment can completely change a child's behavior
05:55 – Non-speaking autism, apraxia, and what children can demonstrate
06:45 – Why calm environments can reveal different abilities
08:05 – Developmental age versus chronological age
08:30 – Delayed responses don't necessarily mean a child didn't understand
10:15 – Celebrating responses that others might overlook
10:55 – What “all behavior is communication” actually means
11:20 – Capacity, safety, and regulation: Dr. See's CSR framework
12:45 – Why parents can catastrophize small developmental differences
14:30 – Frequency, severity, and looking for patterns before drawing conclusions
15:55 – Why caregiver regulation matters, too
16:20 – The pressure to optimize every moment of childhood
17:40 – Why independent play and downtime matter
18:45 – Connection as one of life's great luxuries
19:50 – Stop asking children, “Why can't you just focus?”
20:20 – Ask instead: “What lights you up?”
21:10 – Finding connection with nonverbal and non-speaking children
22:05 – Why refusal may actually be difficulty and inattention may be overwhelm
23:00 – Dr. See's inchstone: slow down enough to notice your childResources:
Subscribe to the INCHSTONES Podcast for caregiver stories, conversations about nonverbal autism, and honest perspectives on special needs parenting, profound autism, communication, behavior, sensory needs, caregiver wellbeing, education, and raising children with significant support needs.
You can find Dr. Amy See on her Substack and dig more into her incredible work, starting with this foundational article: Connection Before Correction — why safety has to come before a child can actually learn anything
Dr. Amy See is a developmental psychologist and Learning Support Specialist working within an international school community, and mother of two boys. She writes The (WHOLE) CHILD on Substack, exploring child development through what she calls a "rose-coloured lens" - assuming competence and good intent first, then asking what a child's environment, nervous system, or developmental stage might be asking of them. Her work sits at the intersection of clinician, educator, and parent, covering everything from connection-before-correction parenting to the science behind letter reversals.
Your Child Isn't the Only One Dysregulated: Special Needs Parenting with Stacey Uhrig
Special needs parenting can keep a caregiver's nervous system on high alert long after the immediate crisis has passed. In this episode of the INCHSTONES Podcast, Sarah Kernion talks with Stacey Uhrig, founder …
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Special needs parenting can keep a caregiver's nervous system on high alert long after the immediate crisis has passed. In this episode of the INCHSTONES Podcast, Sarah Kernion talks with Stacey Uhrig, founder of Flip Your Mindset, about caregiver burnout, nervous system regulation, chronic stress, and what happens to parents after years of caring for children with significant support needs. Autism families spend enormous amounts of time learning about their children.
Communication. Behavior. Sensory needs. Therapies. Education. Regulation. But Sarah and Stacey turn the lens around and ask a different question: What happens to the parent?Stacey explains why parenthood can expose coping strategies and patterns that may have been operating quietly for decades. Perfectionism. People pleasing. Conflict avoidance. Caretaking. Deprioritizing yourself to meet everyone else's needs. Those adaptations may once have served a purpose. But combine them with the demands of special needs parenting, nonverbal autism, intensive caregiving, and chronic uncertainty, and caregivers can eventually feel like a shell of who they once were. Stacey introduces the idea of the “invisible backpack” we each carry: our lived experiences, the meaning we've assigned to them, what we've learned to believe about ourselves and others, and the coping strategies we've developed along the way. Sometimes we're still carrying things that no longer belong in the backpack.
Sarah and Stacey explore what happens when those old patterns collide with the extraordinary demands of raising a child with disabilities—and why caregiver wellness isn't another responsibility parents should feel guilty about failing to accomplish. It's part of sustaining yourself for the long haul.They also explore parts work and polyvagal theory, including how Stacey uses these frameworks with clients to understand stress responses, anxiety, overwhelm, shutdown, perfectionism, people pleasing, and the feeling so many adults describe as: “I don't even know who I am anymore.”
And then there's co-regulation. Sarah shares how raising children with profound support needs has forced her to recognize something uncomfortable but powerful: her children experience her regulation, too.
The morning routine still happens. The pull-up still needs changing. Teeth still need brushing. Transitions still need navigating. A parent's internal state doesn't erase the child's disability, but it can influence the environment in which both parent and child are trying to function. Stacey describes this as an invitation to stop believing the only solution is changing the child. Sometimes the environment changes when we change how we enter it.This is not another conversation telling exhausted special needs parents to meditate, take a bath, or add one more item to their self-care checklist. It's a conversation about understanding what's happening inside you. Because caregiver burnout isn't always evidence that you're incapable of carrying your life. Sometimes it's information about how long your body has been carrying it.
Learn more about Stacey Uhrig and Flip Your Mindset, including her work around nervous system regulation, parts work, trauma, and personal transformation.WEBSITE: www.flipyourmindset.com
● PODCAST: www.flipyourmindset.com/podcast
● INSTAGRAM: www.instagram.com/staceyuhrig
● LINKED IN: www.linkedin.com/in/staceyuhrig
● YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/@flipyourmindset
● BRAINZ MAG ARTICLES -
www.brainzmagazine.com/executive-contributor/stacey-uhrigStacey Uhrig is a Certified Trauma Care Practitioner and Rapid Transformational Therapy Practitioner, as well as the host of the Flip Your Mindset podcast. She is the creator of The Calm CodeTM, an 8-week program to help individuals heal anxiety from within, and the HURRTTM Survey, a tool to assess hidden stress and resilience patterns. Through 1:1 coaching and group programs, Stacey blends Parts Work and Polyvagal Theory to help individuals heal emotional wounds, build confidence, and foster resilience.
Subscribe to the INCHSTONES Podcast for honest caregiver stories about nonverbal autism, special needs parenting, profound autism, caregiver burnout, disability, communication, family life, and the realities of raising children with significant support needs.
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Stop Looking for Someone to Tell You What to Do: Autism Parenting with Len Arcuri
What if one of the most powerful things you can do for your autistic child is stop waiting for someone else to have all the answers? In this episode of INCHSTONES, Sarah Kernion sits down with Len Arcuri …
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What if one of the most powerful things you can do for your autistic child is stop waiting for someone else to have all the answers? In this episode of INCHSTONES, Sarah Kernion sits down with Len Arcuri, founder and host of the Autism Parenting Secrets podcast, for an honest conversation about special needs parenting, nonverbal autism, caregiver stories, root causes, and learning to trust what you observe in your own child. After his son was diagnosed with moderate-to-severe autism at 18 months, Len didn't want to become an autism expert. He didn't particularly want to be curious, either. He wanted what so many parents want after an autism diagnosis: someone to tell him what to do.
Years later, Len sees that differently. He and Sarah explore why curiosity, humility, critical thinking, and open-mindedness can become some of the most important tools in special needs parenting. Parents don't need to know everything about autism. But they can learn to observe their child carefully, ask better questions, evaluate options thoughtfully, and become active participants in decisions about their child's health, communication, regulation, education, and support.
The conversation goes deeper into root cause thinking and why Len believes parents should keep asking why. Why is communication difficult? Why is my child dysregulated? Why are certain behaviors occurring? Why isn't something working?
For Len, root cause thinking isn't about finding one universal explanation for autism or one treatment that works for every child. It's about remaining curious about the individual child standing in front of you and making thoughtful decisions about where to focus limited time, energy, and resources.Sarah and Len also talk about something especially complicated for families navigating nonverbal autism, profound support needs, and special needs parenting: Can you fully accept your child as they are while still wanting more for them?
Len shares candidly that he once confused acceptance with giving up. Looking back, he realized he was deeply attached to the future version of his son he hoped would emerge rather than fully accepting the child in front of him. Eventually, he discovered that the two ideas didn't have to compete. A parent can completely love and accept their child today while continuing to pursue better health, communication, regulation, connection, and quality of life.
They also examine the parent's side of the equation.
Caregiver stress isn't only about finding the next autism therapy or intervention. Sometimes the most important change begins with how a parent navigates uncertainty—their beliefs, nervous system, decision-making, expectations, and ability to stay grounded when they don't know what happens next.
And that may be one of the greatest lessons of caregiver stories like Len's: parents don't need certainty to move forward.
They need curiosity, discernment and the humility to change course when new information emerges.
And they need to recognize that the years they've spent observing their child have given them knowledge that deserves a place at the table.Len Arcuri is a Private Strategic Advisor to parents navigating autism and other complex developmental challenges. After more than two decades in financial leadership as a CPA, CFO, and Six Sigma Master Black Belt, his son's autism diagnosis redirected his life's work. Drawing on nearly two decades of lived experience and more than 300 conversations with leading experts as host of the top 1% Autism Parenting Secrets podcast, Len helps parents think clearly, make better decisions, and lead with greater confidence. He believes parents are the single greatest force multiplier in a child's life.
Resources
Listen to Len Arcuri's Autism Parenting Secrets podcast and learn more about his individualized advisory work with autism parents. All of his work can be found here:
https://allinparent.com/
https://elevatehowyounavigate.com/
Subscribe to the INCHSTONES Podcast for more caregiver stories, conversations about nonverbal autism, and honest discussions of special needs parenting, profound autism, communication, caregiver mental health, therapies, advocacy, and raising children with significant support needs.Kapitel
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Who Speaks for Profound Autism? The Fight Over the Future of Autism Research with Tyler Hudson & Olivia Rojo
Who gets represented when the government decides the future of autism research? In this episode of INCHSTONES, Sarah Kernion is joined by advocates Tyler Hudson and Olivia Rojo for an urgent conversation about …
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Who gets represented when the government decides the future of autism research? In this episode of INCHSTONES, Sarah Kernion is joined by advocates Tyler Hudson and Olivia Rojo for an urgent conversation about profound autism, caregiver stories, special needs parenting, and the families asking federal autism research to better reflect people with the most significant support needs.
At the center of the conversation is the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) and its working draft for the next federal autism strategic plan. Sarah, Tyler, and Olivia discuss why the proposal has generated such intense debate—and why families raising children with profound autism believe this moment could help bring greater attention to a population they say has too often been missing from autism research.
But this conversation goes far beyond one government document.
What should autism research be trying to understand? Should researchers investigate causes, regression, medical complexity, communication challenges, gastrointestinal problems and other co-occurring conditions? How do we improve quality of life for autistic people today while still investigating the most disabling presentations of autism?
And perhaps most importantly: who speaks for autistic people who cannot advocate for themselves?Tyler and Olivia discuss the tension between autism self-advocacy and parent advocacy, including their concern that conversations about autism acceptance can sometimes fail to represent families living with profound disability. They argue that acknowledging severe disability does not diminish an autistic person's dignity—and that accepting an autistic person and wanting to understand the causes of their suffering are not mutually exclusive.
Olivia also shares the reality behind her advocacy: she is moving to another state seeking better care for her daughter while leaving her older daughter behind. Her family's experience opens a larger conversation about autism sibling dynamics, caregiver stress, profound care needs, and what happens when today's siblings become tomorrow's next of kin.
Tyler shares his own family's experience trying to understand his son's recurring gastrointestinal problems and the exhaustion of parents being told, once again, that they are essentially responsible for experimenting, observing, adjusting, and trying to determine what helps their child.
The three also confront a difficult reality of nonverbal autism and special needs parenting: much of the labor and suffering involved is invisible to people who have never lived it. Families may navigate dysregulation, communication barriers, medical issues, hypervigilance, sibling impact, and uncertainty about lifelong care—while simultaneously being criticized for talking publicly about those realities. This isn't a conversation asking for pity.
It's a conversation asking for visibility, research, better systems, and the willingness to remain curious about what we still don't understand about autism.As Sarah says near the end of the episode: Severity is not the opposite of dignity.
Families can fully love and accept an autistic person while still asking why they are suffering, what medicine may be missing, and what science still needs to understand.
In This Episode
00:00 — Why Sarah, Tyler and Olivia came together for this conversation
01:55 — What families should understand about the IACC working draft
03:25 — “Autism is not a reason to stop looking”
03:50 — Profound autism and representation in autism research
06:35 — Why visibility matters for families with significant support needs
07:05 — Olivia's decision to move states seeking better care for her daughter
08:45 — Profound autism, terminology and representation
09:50 — Who advocates for autistic people who cannot self-advocate?
14:05 — What the proposed autism research framework could change
16:40 — Biomedical research and why families want researchers to keep asking questions
18:20 — What parents and allies can do now
23:00 — Reorienting autism research instead of repeating old systems
25:25 — Medical complexity and investigating what may be affecting autistic children
26:55 — Tyler's son's gastrointestinal issues and the exhaustion of figuring it out yourself
29:10 — The physical and emotional health of autism caregivers
30:50 — What happens to siblings when parents are gone?
32:25 — Autism sibling dynamics and future caregiving responsibilities
33:30 — Why families share the realities of profound autism publicly
36:55 — What allies need to understand about special needs family life
37:40 — Tyler's call to action: systems must change to produce different outcomes
39:30 — Olivia's call to action: “Nothing changes if nothing changes”
40:35 — Why severity and dignity can coexistResources
Read the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) working draft and learn more about opportunities for public participation in federal autism research and policy.Follow Tyler Hudson and Olivia Rojo for their perspectives on profound autism, caregiver advocacy, disability, and family life.
Subscribe to the INCHSTONES Podcast for caregiver stories, honest conversations about nonverbal autism, and the realities of special needs parenting, profound autism, disability caregiving, communication, research, family life, and raising children with significant support needs.
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What Fiction Can Teach Us About Special Needs Parenting | Jacqueline Friedland, Author of Breathing Underwater
What can fiction reveal about special needs parenting that facts and statistics sometimes cannot? In this episode of INCHSTONES, Sarah Kernion talks with author Jacqueline Friedland about Breathing Underwater …
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What can fiction reveal about special needs parenting that facts and statistics sometimes cannot? In this episode of INCHSTONES, Sarah Kernion talks with author Jacqueline Friedland about Breathing Underwater, her new novel exploring autism, caregiving, adolescence, independence, identity, and the extraordinary power of having one person who refuses to stop believing in you.
Jacqueline was raised by a professor of special education and began writing fiction in part because she believed stories could create empathy and help people see experiences outside their own. In Breathing Underwater, that mission takes shape through Leo, a 16-year-old autistic boy, and McKenna, a college swimmer whose seemingly successful life is quietly falling apart.
Their relationship raises questions that will feel deeply familiar to many special needs parents: How much support is enough? When does helping become holding on too tightly? How do we prepare autistic children for adulthood when so many services disappear after high school? And how do we learn to live without certainty about what comes next?Sarah and Jacqueline also discuss the enormous importance of swimming and water safety for autistic children, including the elevated risk of drowning that helped inspire Jacqueline's novel. Their conversation moves beyond statistics, though, into the sensory and emotional experience of water—and the connection, regulation, and joy that can sometimes exist there.
They also explore caregiver stories, maternal identity, invisible labor, the desire to control every variable, and the difficult practice of allowing other people to help. Jacqueline shares one of the central realizations she had while developing Leo: difference does not automatically mean something needs to be fixed. A child's challenges and strengths can coexist, and autism cannot be reduced to one universal experience or one universal solutioAt its heart, this conversation is about support—not saving someone by changing who they are, but becoming the person who remains beside them while they discover what they're capable of.
In This Episode
01:30 — Why Jacqueline chose fiction to tell stories that matter
03:00 — Writing an autistic teenager instead of a young autistic child
05:00 — The “services cliff” after high school and preparing for adulthood
06:00 — How much support is too much—or not enough?
07:45 — Why one person believing in a child can change everything
09:45 — Autism, swimming, water safety, and drowning risk
11:15 — The sensory experience of being underwater
13:00 — Caregiving and the realization that not everyone needs to be “fixed”
15:30 — Invisible labor, motherhood, stress, and learning to relinquish control
18:30 — McKenna, college-student homelessness, and what happens without a support system
20:00 — Why there is no “struggle Olympics” in parenting
21:00 — Finding beautifully typical moments inside nonverbal autism
22:30 — Why caregiver stories can increase empathy and change how we see one another
Jacqueline Friedland is the USA Today and Amazon bestselling author of historical and contemporary women’s fiction. After earning degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and NYU Law School and practicing as a commercial litigator, she received her MFA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College. Her novels have earned multiple honors, including Readers’ Favorite Gold Medals, a Kirkus Reviews Best Indie Book of the Year selection, and a SheReads Best Book Club Pick. Her sixth novel, Breathing Under Water, arrives from Harper Muse in August 2026 following acclaim from Booklist, People, Zibby Owens, and the Jewish Joy Book Club. She lives in Westchester, New York.
Read Jacqueline Friedland's Breathing Underwater, a novel exploring autism, caregiving, identity, swimming, support, and the unexpected relationships that can transform our lives.Subscribe to the Inchstones Podcast for more caregiver stories, conversations about nonverbal autism, and honest discussions of special needs parenting across childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.
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Autism Advocacy: Why Access to Care Matters More Than Ever | Dr. John Gaitanis on Meadow
What happens when families know a treatment could help their child—but can't access it? In this episode of Inchstones, Sarah Kernion sits down with pediatric neurologist Dr. John Gaitanis to discuss autism …
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What happens when families know a treatment could help their child—but can't access it? In this episode of Inchstones, Sarah Kernion sits down with pediatric neurologist Dr. John Gaitanis to discuss autism advocacy, autism therapy options, and why Meadow was created to help families access individualized care beyond a diagnosis.
For many families, an autism diagnosis is only the beginning. The harder question often comes next: Where do we go from here?In this follow-up conversation, Sarah Kernion and pediatric neurologist Dr. John Gaitanis explore why so many parents struggle to access testing, treatments, and physicians willing to investigate the underlying biology affecting their child's health and development. Together, they discuss the vision behind Meadow, a telehealth platform designed to expand access to physician-guided care for autistic children and families.
Dr. Gaitanis explains why treatments such as leucovorin, gut microbiome testing, mitochondrial support, and other evidence-informed interventions are often difficult for families to obtain—even when research demonstrates safety and potential benefit. Rather than promoting a single solution, he describes a whole-child approach that asks a different question:
What is preventing this child from feeling and functioning at their best?
Sarah and Dr. G also discuss communication, pain, nervous system regulation, caregiver advocacy, and why behavior should never be viewed in isolation. For many non-speaking autistic individuals, behaviors such as aggression or self-injury may be expressions of untreated pain, inflammation, sensory challenges, or an inability to communicate effectively. Looking beyond behaviors and searching for root causes has the potential to improve quality of life for both children and their families.Whether you're beginning your autism diagnosis journey or looking for additional autism support resources, this episode encourages families to ask better questions, seek individualized care, and remain open to evidence-based approaches that prioritize the whole child.Resources
Learn more about Meadow Health and Dr. John Gaitanis' work in individualized autism care.
Subscribe to the Inchstones Podcast for conversations about autism advocacy, caregiver stories, and neurodivergent parenting, featuring physicians, researchers, caregivers, and advocates working to improve the lives of autistic individuals and their families.
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What a Special Education Teacher Taught Me About Presuming Competence | Zack Ponder
Castos DescriptionEpisode SummaryWhat happens when a special education teacher spends years working with profoundly disabled students—and then realizes the biggest lesson wasn't about teaching at all? In this …
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Castos Description
Episode Summary
What happens when a special education teacher spends years working with profoundly disabled students—and then realizes the biggest lesson wasn't about teaching at all? In this episode of Inchstones, Sarah Kernion sits down with former special education teacher and Unspecial Podcast host Zack Ponder to explore caregiver stories, autism advocacy, neurodivergent parenting, and why presuming competence changes everything.
Full Episode Description
Before launching the Unspecial Podcast, Zack Ponder spent years teaching students with profound autism, complex communication needs, and significant disabilities. Those experiences fundamentally changed the way he understands intelligence, behavior, caregiving, and human connection.
In this thoughtful conversation, Sarah and Zack discuss what it means to presume competence, why outward behavior rarely tells the full story, and how educators, parents, and clinicians can better support children by seeing their strengths before their limitations. Zack shares stories from the classroom that forever shaped his understanding of autism communication, emotional regulation, and the incredible capabilities that often remain hidden beneath motor planning challenges. zack-sarah.txtTXT
The conversation also explores fatherhood, caregiver resilience, nervous system regulation, homeschooling, balancing family life during a spouse's cancer journey, and why caring for yourself is essential if you hope to co-regulate with the children who depend on you.
Together, Sarah and Zack examine why parents should trust what they observe, why difficult conversations strengthen advocacy, and how small moments of connection often become the most meaningful inchstones.
In this episode, we discuss:
autism advocacy through presuming competence
caregiver stories from both the classroom and home
neurodivergent parenting and emotional regulation
profound autism care and communication
autism education strategies
caregiver mental health and nervous system regulation
fatherhood and disability caregiving
special education advocacy
why connection matters more than compliance
finding hope through everyday inchstones
Whether you're raising an autistic child, working in special education, supporting neurodivergent families, or simply trying to become a calmer parent, this episode offers a hopeful reminder that every child deserves to be seen beyond what the world immediately notices.
In This Episode
02:30 — Why Zack left special education but never left the mission
05:00 — What profound autism taught him about seeing the unseen
08:00 — Caregiver burnout and protecting your nervous system
11:00 — Co-regulation begins with the parent
14:00 — Presuming competence in non-speaking children
17:00 — The classroom story that changed everything
20:00 — Fathers, strength, and disability parenting
24:00 — Why advocacy should create collaboration—not conflict
27:00 — Finding hope in the smallest everyday moments
Resources
Learn more about Zack Ponder and listen to the Unspecial Podcast, where he shares conversations with parents, educators, and disability advocates.Subscribe to the Inchstones Podcast for more conversations about autism advocacy, caregiver stories, and neurodivergent parenting that help families feel seen, supported, and understood.
Read more essays on the Inchstones Substack.
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Caregiver Stories: Telling the Truth About Disability Without Losing Hope | Elyse Davis
Can you tell the truth about disability parenting without losing hope? In this episode of Inchstones, Sarah Kernion sits down with caregiver advocate Elyse Davis to explore caregiver stories, neurodivergent …
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Can you tell the truth about disability parenting without losing hope? In this episode of Inchstones, Sarah Kernion sits down with caregiver advocate Elyse Davis to explore caregiver stories, neurodivergent parenting, grief, resilience, and why honest conversations help families feel less alone.
After years of feeling like she didn't quite fit anywhere, Elyse Davis decided to stop softening her family's story.
Instead of repeating comforting platitudes, she began speaking honestly about the emotional complexity of raising a child with significant developmental disabilities—the grief, the love, the frustration, the joy, and the deep transformation that can all exist at the same time. Her words resonated with thousands of caregivers who quietly thought, Finally, someone said it.In this conversation, Sarah and Elyse explore what happens when families give themselves permission to hold contradictory emotions without guilt. They discuss disability parenting, caregiver mental health, sibling dynamics, communication challenges, navigating educational systems, and why parents should never have to minimize their reality to make others comfortable.
They also explore the often-overlooked complexity of children whose diagnoses don't fit neatly into one category, the importance of individualized communication supports, and how parents become their child's most effective advocate by learning to trust what they observe every day.
This episode explores:
caregiver stories and honest conversations
autism advocacy beyond labels
neurodivergent parenting and complex diagnoses
caregiver emotional support
navigating IEPs and educational advocacy
sibling relationships in disability families
grief, resilience, and acceptance
why hope grows stronger when it's built on truth
Whether you're newly navigating a diagnosis or years into your caregiving journey, this conversation offers something rare: permission to tell the truth about your life while still believing in your child's future.
In This Episode
02:00 — Why Elyse stopped sugarcoating disability parenting
06:30 — Holding grief and joy at the same time
10:45 — Raising neurotypical and disabled siblings under one roof
15:30 — Living between diagnoses and not fitting into one community
20:00 — Sign language, communication, and trusting your child's strengths
25:00 — Navigating IEPs and advocating within broken systems
30:00 — Why caregivers must trust what they see
34:00 — The evolving meaning of "Welcome to Holland"
Resources
Connect with Elyse Davis on Instagram for honest reflections on disability parenting, advocacy, and caregiver life.
Subscribe to the Inchstones Podcast for conversations about autism advocacy, caregiver stories, and neurodivergent parenting, featuring parents, clinicians, researchers, and advocates working to help families feel seen and supported.Elyse Davis is a disability mom, content creator, and advocate who shares the honest realities of raising a child with complex needs. Through storytelling, faith, and humor, she explores disability parenting, advocacy, grief, guilt, motherhood, and the everyday moments that connect us. Known for saying the things many parents are thinking but rarely say out loud, Elyse has built a community where families feel seen, understood, and a little less alone as they navigate the unexpected journey of disability parenting.
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Caregiver Stories: What My Daughter's Disability Taught Me About Living with Evan Rosenblum
What happens when the life you planned disappears overnight? In this episode of Inchstones, Sarah Kernion sits down with former TMZ executive producer Evan Rosenblum to explore caregiver stories, disability …
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What happens when the life you planned disappears overnight? In this episode of Inchstones, Sarah Kernion sits down with former TMZ executive producer Evan Rosenblum to explore caregiver stories, disability parenting, neurodivergent families, and how raising a child with profound disabilities transformed his understanding of purpose, fatherhood, and joy.
When Evan Rosenblum's daughter Sydney arrived at just 25 weeks gestation, everything changed in an instant. After 143 days in the NICU, multiple surgeries, a traumatic brain injury, and a long list of medical diagnoses, Evan found himself navigating a reality he never imagined while desperately trying to hold onto the life he thought he was supposed to have.In this deeply honest conversation, Sarah and Evan explore what happens when identity, career, expectations, and parenthood collide. Together they discuss the emotional journey of becoming a special needs father, processing grief, balancing work and caregiving, and learning to see disability not as the end of a story—but the beginning of a completely different one.
Evan shares how leaving his career at TMZ allowed him to embrace a new definition of success, why his daughter Sydney became one of his greatest teachers, and how his son is growing into a compassionate sibling whose understanding of disability is quietly changing the world around him.
This episode is about more than disability. It's about what happens when life forces you to become someone new.
Whether you're navigating an autism diagnosis, raising a child with profound disabilities, supporting neurodivergent families, or simply searching for hope inside an unexpected life, this conversation is a reminder that joy can exist alongside grief—and that sometimes the life you never planned becomes the one you were always meant to live.
In This Episode
02:00 — Sydney's birth at 25 weeks and surviving 143 days in the NICU
06:15 — Identity, work, and trying to hold onto a "normal" life
09:30 — Processing grief after a life-changing diagnosis
13:00 — Why fathers experience caregiving differently
17:15 — Anger, healing, and emotional recovery
21:00 — Raising siblings alongside children with disabilities
25:00 — Inclusion, friendship, and changing the next generation
29:00 — Adventure, surfing, Disney, and giving children full lives
33:00 — Living in the present instead of fearing the futureResources
Learn more from Evan Rosenblum by reading his Substack, where he writes about fatherhood, disability, caregiving, and finding meaning through unexpected life experiences.
Subscribe to the Inchstones Podcast for more conversations about autism advocacy, caregiver stories, and neurodivergent parenting featuring parents, clinicians, researchers, and advocates helping families thrive.Kapitel
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Parent the Child, Not the Diagnosis | Nora Canzoneri on Autism, Acceptance, and Letting Go
An autism diagnosis changes everything—but it should never become the only thing you see. In this episode of Inchstones, Sarah Kernion sits down with longtime friend and autism mom Nora Canzoneri for an honest …
Shownotes
An autism diagnosis changes everything—but it should never become the only thing you see. In this episode of Inchstones, Sarah Kernion sits down with longtime friend and autism mom Nora Canzoneri for an honest conversation about autism advocacy, caregiver stories, and learning to parent the child before the diagnosis.
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Full Episode Description
When Nora Canzoneri’s son Cam received his autism diagnosis in 2018, she walked out of a developmental pediatrician’s office with a diagnosis, a list of books, and instructions to find ABA therapy. Like so many parents beginning an autism diagnosis journey, she was left with more questions than answers.
Years later, Nora reflects on what she wishes she had known from the beginning: while autism is an important part of her son’s life, it is not the whole story.
Together, Sarah and Nora explore neurodivergent parenting, caregiver experiences, the pressure to act quickly after an autism diagnosis, and the cultural expectations that quietly shape how parents measure progress. They discuss the urgency many families feel to “do everything right,” the grief of letting go of imagined timelines, and the freedom that comes from recognizing inchstones instead of milestones.
The conversation also explores family travel, adapting expectations, sensory regulation, anxiety, and raising an autistic child who continues to surprise everyone—including his mother—with his humor, memory, resilience, and personality.
This episode explores:
* autism advocacy through everyday parenting
* caregiver stories and shared experiences
* autism diagnosis journeys
* parenting autistic children beyond the diagnosis
* autism family dynamics
* caregiver emotional support
* autism parenting advice
* understanding neurodiversity through acceptance rather than comparison
* finding peace in the unexpectedWhether you’re newly navigating an autism diagnosis or years into your family’s journey, this conversation is a reminder that your child is far more than a checklist of behaviors or developmental milestones. They are becoming who they are—and you are becoming the parent they need.
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In This Episode
00:00 – Remembering diagnosis day and the emotions that followed
04:00 – Walking out with an autism diagnosis and more questions than answers
07:00 – The urgency parents feel after diagnosis
10:00 – Letting go of developmental timelines
13:30 – Expectations, acceptance, and finding inchstones
16:30 – Why autism parenting changes as children grow older
19:00 – Traveling with an autistic child and embracing adventure
23:00 – Understanding behavior through connection instead of fear
26:00 – Parenting the child—not the diagnosis
30:00 – Advice for parents beginning their autism diagnosis journey
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Listen to more episodes of the Inchstones Podcast, where Sarah Kernion shares caregiver stories, champions autism advocacy, and explores neurodivergent parenting through honest conversations with parents, clinicians, researchers, and advocates helping families feel seen, supported, and understood.
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Caregiver Stories: Choosing Love Through the Unexpected Journey of Motherhood with Valerie Probstfeld
Every mother begins with expectations. Few of us imagine how deeply motherhood will transform our identity. In this episode of Inchstones, Sarah Kernion sits down with author and nurse practitioner Valerie …
Shownotes
Every mother begins with expectations. Few of us imagine how deeply motherhood will transform our identity.
In this episode of Inchstones, Sarah Kernion sits down with author and nurse practitioner Valerie Probstfeld, creator of To Mom Is to Love, for a heartfelt conversation about caregiver stories, neurodivergent parenting, grief, identity, and learning to choose love when life unfolds differently than expected.
Valerie shares the experience of becoming a mother in the NICU, where losing control forced her to rethink what motherhood truly means. Together, she and Sarah explore how unexpected diagnoses, profound autism, medical trauma, and unmet expectations reshape caregivers—and why healing often begins by releasing the illusion of control.
From autism parenting advice and caregiver emotional support to the role of nature, community, and nervous system regulation, this conversation reminds every parent that growth is rarely linear. Whether you’re raising a child with autism, navigating a difficult diagnosis, or simply learning to trust yourself again, this episode offers encouragement to recognize the sacredness hidden inside ordinary moments.
In this episode:
02:10 — Becoming “Mom” and the unexpected identity shift of motherhood
06:10 — Why unmet expectations can feel more painful than reality itself
10:20 — Medical trauma, grief, and feeling unseen as a caregiver
13:10 — Releasing the illusion of control through motherhood
15:00 — Nature, resilience, and why growth is never linear
18:00 — Water, nervous system regulation, and profound autism
21:15 — Why caregivers need community more than ever
24:00 — Choosing love over fear in everyday parenting
27:00 — Finding meaning through the smallest inchstones of motherhood
Resources
Learn more here about Valerie Probstfeld and her book To Mom Is to Love.
Subscribe to the Inchstones Podcast for more conversations about autism advocacy, caregiver stories, neurodivergent parenting, and practical encouragement for families raising autistic children.
Read Sarah’s caregiver essays on the Inchstones Substack.
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Beyond the Autism Diagnosis: Seeing the Child Before the Label | Dr. John Gaitanis
What if autism isn’t one condition to treat, but many different biological stories waiting to be understood? In this episode of Inchstones, Sarah Kernion sits down with pediatric neurologist Dr. John Gaitanis …
Shownotes
What if autism isn’t one condition to treat, but many different biological stories waiting to be understood?
In this episode of Inchstones, Sarah Kernion sits down with pediatric neurologist Dr. John Gaitanis to explore why autism care should begin with understanding the individual child—not simply the diagnosis. Together they discuss autism advocacy, root cause medicine, caregiver experiences, neurodevelopment, inflammation, motor planning, and why families often recognize important patterns long before medicine does.
Dr. Gaitanis challenges the idea that autism is a single biological condition, explaining why many children share a diagnosis while presenting with remarkably different medical histories, developmental pathways, and support needs. He shares why physicians should focus on understanding each child’s unique biology, why systemic inflammation and developmental regression deserve closer attention, and how artificial intelligence may help uncover patterns that families have recognized for years.
The conversation also explores the emotional side of neurodivergent parenting. Sarah and Dr. G discuss maternal pattern recognition, caregiver stress, nervous system regulation, sleep deprivation, and why supporting parents is inseparable from supporting autistic children.
Whether you’re navigating a recent autism diagnosis, raising a child with profound autism, searching for autism therapy options, or simply looking for thoughtful autism advocacy grounded in curiosity rather than certainty, this episode offers a hopeful framework for asking better questions.
In this episode:
03:10 — Why “autism” may describe many different biological conditions
07:30 — Maternal pattern recognition and why caregivers often notice problems first
10:05 — Systems thinking versus siloed medicine in autism care
14:00 — Why two autistic children can have completely different biological profiles
18:15 — Artificial intelligence and the future of autism diagnosis and personalized medicine
21:05 — Whole-body dyspraxia, motor planning, and autism communication
27:20 — How physicians can move beyond diagnostic labels to see the whole child
35:45 — Caregiver burnout, chronic stress, and protecting parent health
41:05 — Why trusting maternal intuition matters throughout the autism diagnosis journeyResources
Learn more about Dr. John Gaitanis and Meadow BioSciences.
Subscribe to the Inchstones Podcast for more conversations about autism advocacy, caregiver stories, neurodivergent parenting, profound autism care, and practical support for families raising autistic children.
Read more caregiver essays on the Inchstones Substack.
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Autism Fatherhood: When My Son Brought Me to My Knees | Tommy of Spectrum in Camouflage
What does autism teach a father about strength? In this episode of Inchstones, Sarah Kernion sits down with Tommy of Spectrum in Camouflage for an honest conversation about autism fatherhood, faith, mental …
Shownotes
What does autism teach a father about strength? In this episode of Inchstones, Sarah Kernion sits down with Tommy of Spectrum in Camouflage for an honest conversation about autism fatherhood, faith, mental health, and how raising a nonspeaking autistic son completely transformed his understanding of success, purpose, and what truly matters.
When Tommy’s son Wyatt began losing language around age two and a half, everything he thought he knew about fatherhood changed. As a construction business owner, husband, and father, he spent years believing strength meant fixing problems. Autism forced him to discover a different kind of strength: presence, surrender, and learning to live one inchstone at a time.
Together, Sarah and Tommy explore autism parenting, profound autism, fatherhood, caregiver mental health, marriage, faith, and the quiet transformation that often happens inside parents long before anyone else notices it.
This conversation explores:
* autism fatherhood
* nonspeaking autism
* profound autism
* caregiver mental health
* autism parenting and marriage
* faith during difficult seasons
* living in the present moment
* autism advocacy
* parenting beyond societal expectations
* finding joy in inchstones instead of milestonesTommy also shares his experience navigating anxiety, depression, and the realization that while he could not fix autism, he could become a different father because of it. His story offers encouragement for autism dads, caregivers, and families searching for hope grounded in reality rather than false promises.
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In This Episode
00:00 – Introducing Tommy and Spectrum in Camouflage
02:00 – Becoming a father after years of waiting
04:00 – Wyatt’s autism regression and losing language
06:00 – Anxiety, mental health, and feeling powerless
08:00 – The mountain where everything changed
10:00 – Why autism brought Tommy to his knees
12:00 – Faith, surrender, and finding purpose through autism
15:00 – Success versus significance in fatherhood
17:00 – The hidden expectations parents carry
19:00 – Why inchstones matter more than milestones
21:00 – Learning to see growth differently
23:00 – Autism, communication, and presence beyond words
25:00 – Living where your boots are: staying present today
28:00 – Parenting typical and autistic children differently
31:00 – Mental health, nervous system regulation, and resilience
33:00 – Speaking openly so other autism dads feel less aloneListen to more episodes of the Inchstones Podcast, where Sarah Kernion shares caregiver stories, autism advocacy, profound autism experiences, neurodivergent parenting, and honest conversations that help families feel seen, understood, and less alone.
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Why Autism Moms Never Stop Listening for Footsteps with Libby Hudson
What happens when years of caregiving, hypervigilance, grief, and responsibility finally catch up with a mother? In this episode of Inchstones, Sarah Kernion sits down with Libby Hudson for an unfiltered …
Shownotes
What happens when years of caregiving, hypervigilance, grief, and responsibility finally catch up with a mother? In this episode of Inchstones, Sarah Kernion sits down with Libby Hudson for an unfiltered conversation about profound autism, marriage, caregiver burnout, grief, and what it takes to survive when your family’s needs seem bigger than your capacity to carry them.
Libby and her husband Tyler Hudson have become respected voices in the profound autism community, but behind advocacy and awareness lies a deeply personal story. As their son Lyric entered adolescence, a devastating family loss triggered profound behavioral changes, escalating aggression, and years of living in a near-constant state of vigilance and fear.
Libby shares what it felt like to lose her father, watch her son struggle to process grief he could not communicate, and navigate the impossible reality of loving a child while simultaneously fearing what dysregulation might bring next.
Together, Sarah and Libby discuss:
* profound autism and adolescence
* caregiver burnout and nervous system exhaustion
* grief and autism
* marriage under chronic stress
* maternal hypervigilance
* supporting autistic adults
* emotional collapse and resilience
* the importance of asking for help
* finding purpose after survival modeThe conversation also explores something rarely discussed openly in autism spaces: the cost caregiving can have on a mother’s body, identity, relationships, and health. Libby shares how years of accumulated stress ultimately contributed to a stroke and the difficult changes her family had to make to survive.
This episode is for autism moms, caregivers, and families navigating profound autism, aggression, caregiver burnout, marriage stress, grief, and the emotional realities that often remain hidden behind advocacy.
In This Episode
00:00 – Living with constant hypervigilance and caregiving stress
02:00 – Reading nonverbal communication through behavior and body language
04:00 – The death of Lyric’s grandfather and profound grief
05:30 – When autism, adolescence, and loss collide
07:00 – Aggression, dysregulation, and fear inside the home
08:30 – The emotional toll of surviving crisis mode
10:00 – Why caregiving changed Libby’s health forever
11:30 – A stroke, burnout, and the body keeping score
13:00 – Marriage under pressure and redefining family roles
15:00 – Learning to ask for what you need
17:00 – Why flexibility matters in autism families
19:00 – Autism, relationships, and nervous system regulation
21:00 – The hidden emotional labor of autism motherhood
23:00 – Why support systems matter more than services alone
25:00 – Receiving an autism diagnosis 18 years ago
27:00 – Grief, acceptance, and adapting to reality
29:00 – The lessons profound autism has taught about life and love
31:00 – What makes Libby most proud as Lyric’s motherListen to more episodes of the Inchstones Podcast, where Sarah Kernion shares caregiver stories, profound autism experiences, autism advocacy, and honest conversations about neurodivergent parenting.
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