From Diagnosis To Dialogue: Autism, Mindset, And A Family’s Playbook For Progress with Neil Rogers

A confusing label, years without sleep, and a son who couldn’t speak—then a letter board changed everything. We sit down with creative entrepreneur and advocate Neil Rogers to explore how a family built a sustainable framework—inspired by Positive ActivityTM (developed by Neil and his wife Lori set to help people professionally and personally) in order  stay clear, resilient, and inventive while raising an adult son with profound autism. From gratitude journaling and exercise to practical diet changes and sensory integration, Neil shares the specific choices that improved sleep, reduced frustration, and opened space for learning.

The turning point came with Spelling to Communicate. Once Craig had a reliable motor path to point and type, his intelligence, heart, emotions, and intellectual thinking rushed forward—defining DNA on the spot, recognizing Muhammad Ali and the fact Cassius Clay was his name at birth, and sharing deep thoughts of people coming together as one instead of picking people apart. That voice unlocked autonomy. Craig has a desire to achieve higher aspirations and moves at his own pace. We talk about collaborating with schools especially when budgets fell short, and why respecting a person’s pace leads to better outcomes than pushing through.

We also zoom out to challenge old stereotypes and highlight where hope is rising.  Assistive tech—from advanced robotics to brain-computer interfaces—could soon scale care and communication. 

 If you care for a nonspeaking person, work in education or therapy, or just believe every human deserves a voice, this story offers a practical, humane roadmap you can start using today.

To learn more about Neil and Lori, please visit https://www.positiveactivity.net/. Neil is the author of "Bar Tips" -Everything I Needed to Know in Sales I Learned Behind the Bar. Neil is coming out with another book "Navigating the Special Needs World with Positive Activity." 

Chapters

• 1:38 Meet Neil Rogers And Craig
• 2:57 Building A Positive Mindset Framework
• 5:03 Early Diagnosis And System Gaps
• 8:05 Media Frames And Public Perception
• 11:54 Health Trends, Environment, And Debate
• 17:05 Lessons: Diet, Sleep, Sensory Tools
• 22:14 Collaboration With Schools Over Conflict
• 25:42 Speech Limits, Apraxia, And New Paths
• 27:53 Spelling To Communicate Breakthroughs
• 31:54 Friendship, Agency, And Philosophy
• 36:01 Tech Hopes: Robotics And Neural Links
• 39:11 Autonomy, Goals, And Daily Joy

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:49

Hello everyone and welcome to today's episode of On the Spectrum with Sonia. Today we have a very special guest, Neil Rogers. Neil Rogers is a creative entrepreneur whom I was introduced to by the incredible Julie Logan. Julie is one of my dear friends and has been very instrumental in not only helping me personally, but also professionally in getting my book out and giving me branding ideas. And if you don't know, CreativeCon is happening this February. My publisher, Dominic Domasky, will be there. Julie Logan is going to be obviously there as she is the matriarch of Creative Con. And it's in February in Chicago at Intercontinental. So if you have not bought your tickets, I highly recommend you buy them and join in on the fun. But here to discuss profound autism, business positivity, and just the inner play of keeping a positive mindset and helping caregivers with coming up with solutions based on his work and how he has helped his son. Is Neil Rogers, thank you so much for being here.

SPEAKER_03: 1:58

Hello, Sonia. How are you, my dear?

SPEAKER_00: 2:00

Thank you so much for being here. I'm good. I'm good. How are you doing today?

SPEAKER_03: 2:05

Good, but I'll I'll have to I'll have to kick off with one thing right of the way. Uh we are a team here at Rogers, and that is Lori, my wife, who is very intricate in Craig's development and is the one that's really the straw that stirs the drink.

SPEAKER_00: 2:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 2:21

We have kind of different role. I mean, we work together, but mine is more along the line of more big picture stuff. Lori's always into the into the nitty-gritty and uh does a marvelous job. See, right now that we've found this new way as we discussed earlier, and I will get into it here in a little bit, but because of this new intervention we found, she's right back into mama mode with a 34-year-old child. So it's it's marvelous to see, and of course, I'm very supportive of the whole thing.

SPEAKER_00: 2:47

So what has this journey been like for you from start to where it is now?

SPEAKER_03: 2:52

Well, ironically enough, I I'm about 13 chapters into a new book, uh, which will be called Navigating the Special Needs World with Positive Activity. And positive activity is the program that Lori and I have developed, and it's kind of the sum total of our lives and how we've operated both in our businesses and in our personal life. And so, and it really it's all it's grounded in getting your mindset right. So you uh you're in a place of positivity because you're gonna be way more productive, way happier. You know, if you're if you are in sales or you're in business, you're gonna sell 37% more, you're gonna be 31% more productive. And this is all this is all research done by Sean Acor in the in the book called The Happiness Advantage. And so we have adopted that and we we use it every day. We're journalers, we're meditators, we we're exercisers, we watch our diet, we do all those things that that help keep our mind sharp. And so that puts us in a place of open-minded, divergent thinking solution providing creativity. So we kind of walk around in creative mode a lot uh most of the time. You know, we don't really very rarely feel boxed in. So it it it's been very helpful over the years. Now, I'm not saying there has been days, especially in the journey with Craig, that we didn't feel boxed in, because as I as I've written these chapters, it's like, oh my goodness, this has just been a crazy lifetime. And you know, it starts out with just, huh? What does he have? Oh, he's PDD. What is PDD? Pervasive developmental disorder. Well, what is that? And then you would do some research and you go, Oh, he's got autism, right? So it's like, I don't know, a sleight of hand. And it was certainly this is nineteen ninety, hold on, where we get the math right here. Uh I think it's nineteen it's in the nineties when he got diagnosed. Right? If I'm doing the math right. Yeah, because yeah, because he's ninety. He's ninety-one, his nine uh man is eighty s eighty-nine. Yes, that's how it works with Camus 94. So somewhere probably ninety-four or so, ninety ninety-three or so, he got diagnosed because he the tri the the sim the the regular way of if you talk to nine out of ten people, they're gonna give you the same story. And when the kid was diagnosed, and it's gonna be at a certain period of time, between eighteen and twenty-four months, or they just kind of disappear. They will eyes roll back in their head, they stop babbling, they still want no eye contact, they won't they don't they're reverse to being hugged. So as you might well imagine, as I'm rewriting the re- as I'm going through this process of writing this book, and my go, it was blubbering with tears doing this stuff. But we feel there's always I felt there's always important. We and we feel it's important because I think there is a story to tell there, and I think there's it's a consistent one. It's one that you'll hear a lot of. And then we did some, but as as as things went on, we we did some more when we we jumped in a little bit, you know, even though we were confused, what is this? My the first thing I said to Lori when when we were when I mean this is how little we thought that we thought it was going to be okay. I wasn't even here. I was in New Jersey in a car going on sales calls. And I called her, I said, you go, yeah, well, he's got this thing, PDD, and okay, well, again, confusion and well, does the is the does the doctor say it's something we can work with? She says, Yes. I said, well, then that's what we'll do. So we just from there, from there on out, we we, you know, left left no stone unturned and was all over the certainly out into Chicago, New York, you know, we went anywhere where somebody had an intervention or a thought that could help him that was that was non-invasive. You know, you know, so it was just we didn't want to we wanted to stay away from pharmaceuticals and all those things. So anything that was natural, we were all about that. So that's kind of where it all, you know, that's so that's where we started. And then now he's get now he's in early intervention, he's going into schools, you know, into the school system. Now there's a whole now we got a whole nother stuff, another lot of things we gotta we gotta think about. Uh in you know, it's this notion where you have to fight for everything, fight for every dime and whatnot, which really isn't my way, our way. I mean, we're not we're not, you know, it's uh yeah, sure, we were we we were a squeaky wheel, but we also were a cooperative wheel. So we developed we developed a program, a little organization called PACE, Parents Assisting Special Educators. And essentially it was a what we called it it was a positive, proactive parent organization looking to support the effort of educating our kids.

SPEAKER_00: 7:12

So when your son got diagnosed, did you find that there were a lot of available resources there at the time?

SPEAKER_03: 7:19

No. No. We were right in the we were right where that hockey stick is, right? And they call us like this. Right. Here's where we were. So that's you know, he's 30. So that's 32 years ago.

SPEAKER_00: 7:33

So you know it's interesting you mentioned 1994 because that term Asperger got put in, and formerly it was the DSM4, the this was also this was for people who what they coined as higher functioning autism, because people still did not understand autism back then. And, you know, and unless you really showed like a more conspicuous symptomology, right? That's what I think would raise bells for clinicians back then. Like I can't tell you how many times people have said, Oh, when I think about autism, I think about the movie Rain Man, you know, and yeah, well, that's what people thought it was, right?

SPEAKER_03: 8:15

And so I just feel like it's you know they Well, no, no, sorry, nobody was gonna make a movie about Craig. Because there was no, you know, he he was he was humming, he was chinning, he was flapping, all these things, and didn't have uh Dustin Hoffman to play. Now, some of that stuff, like the repetitive nature, and you know, I wanted I brought Nerd3 or whatever it was, whatever those things were that can't remember all of them. But uh but that's I can't blame the folks because that's their frame of reference. I mean it's like, you know, Yeah, exactly. The one that I remember vividly was remember the m remember the show Saint Elsewhere? No, it's it's an old show, so maybe before your time. It was a hospital, uh a uh made-up hospital in uh Boston.

SPEAKER_00: 9:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 9:01

And so and it was with Denzel Washington and Ed Begley Jr., the all these people in the beginning part of their careers, right? Okay. And the guy who ran the show was the president or whatever, he was the head doctor, I forget exactly what it's he had a he had a autistic. And he was like, he was one of the you know, squirmy, wouldn't sit still, that type of guy. And uh I remember vividly saying to myself, I hope I don't get one of those. Well, guess what? Now Craig was never, never in that fa fashion. He was never injurious or of himself or others, but but he was, you know, he is what it is. But yeah, so I can't blame the folks, but it's but it's like anything. If you if you hear now, if you hear enough of it uh on social media or whatever, it becomes fact, right?

SPEAKER_00: 9:46

Well I think people have a better appreciation and understanding for it now in terms of what knowledge is being disseminated about it, what shows are being done, even though I think there's still a long way to go. In fact, I actually spoke with a producer about a show that is currently very popular that deals with autism. And I was even reading.

SPEAKER_03: 10:05

Is that the doctor about the doctor?

SPEAKER_00: 10:07

No, no, no, it's something different. And and I was gifting them my book, basically. And I was like, I would love to add value to your show to talk about different aspects of the show and talk about people who, you know, just add more varieties of different kinds of people on your show, right? And discuss because I feel like a lot of times too, you know, they hone in on certain types of things. But if you could expand it and let people see all different kinds of people, I think you know that's where it's gonna grow. Yeah, it's just more appreciation can grow. Education and understanding.

SPEAKER_03: 10:42

I think that um most of these things take on a life of their own. And and like I said, I don't think anybody's gonna be get excited about I mean a documentary, sure. I think that would be a a cool thing. I don't think there's gonna be a sitcom of, you know, or a or drama of watching a kid flap around, you know, junior high and in in elementary. I so I I just wish they people got the understanding and and they underst and they also, you know, in terms of I want people to get behind what happened to these kids. And I don't mean just our kids. I mean all the kids and the chronic illnesses and children these days. I mean it's staggering. You know, so but instead of actually focusing on that, you know, or or you know, we're we're we're fighting over it. What does this mean? What does that mean? And and you know, he's bad and he's anti-vax and he's this, it's like, you know, folks.

SPEAKER_01: 11:30

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 11:31

You know, you just brand them and then it's over. So you well, in this case it isn't. Robert Kennedy just keeps on moving along and doing what he's gonna do. And now he's now he's just doing a whole thing on Lyme disease. I got a friend, I get a f we have a friend here who's actually one of Craig's teachers, had debilitating line. No answers, no answers. And so, and that's another unexplained deal. So she's walking around, she still looks beautiful. She's just, you know, to some people, it's like, what's wrong with her? Well, she's she's got this stuff and it it hurts. So I I just saw something on that the other day. They're doing a whole, they, they're they're really bringing that to the fore. So I think that's important. I mean, this there's there's there's just so much that we're and that that we're that we're missing out there, you know, and especially, you know, now they you know, the way they're changing the the dyes and foods and because I don't know what happened, but something happened, right? Some predisposition, sure, I'll buy that. Some combination of things. Yeah, that makes sense to me. Let's keep let's keep looking at it, right? You know how when, you know, you know, it's because it's not just I mean, Sonia, I don't remember a time as a kid growing up where I had to worry about sharing my peanut butter and jelly sandwich with anybody.

SPEAKER_00: 12:40

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 12:41

There were no peanut allergies. What is that? And that's part of it. That's part of this laundry list of I saw this by and uh woman, this woman Mary Holland had had posted it on a on a talk she gave in Boston. I wish I had gone to the talk because I I've heard her interview before. And uh, although she her she's affected by autism, she didn't just she wasn't just talking about autism, she was talking about teenage, you know, teenage suicide and and depression and and uh ADHD, diabetes, obesity. That's it's all there. And it's like and we're like, you know, for for the m you know, so it's you know, and and it should all be looked at some some form of fashion.

SPEAKER_00: 13:18

I agree, I agree. And I think a lot of it is all you know very tied together, right? Especially when you talk about teenage depression and suicidality and ADD and obesity. I think they're, you know, ways, shapes, and forms connected to one another.

SPEAKER_03: 13:34

Aaron Powell Well, yeah. I mean, why is it why is it and now I don't eat fruit loops, I don't eat sugar, you know, as a general rule. But why do our fruit loops have got, you know, I I can't remember what the actual number is. X number more ingredients than the fruit loops you get over in Europe. Why is it it's better pro more processed, is it more effective, is it cheaper to to produce? I don't know. But he's the that's the type of stuff that they're looking at. They're looking at get it out of the get it out of the system. And that can't be a bad thing.

SPEAKER_00: 14:00

No, I agree with that.

SPEAKER_03: 14:01

You can point to you blue in the face, I don't like this guy because he works for that guy. I don't care.

SPEAKER_00: 14:05

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 14:05

You know, let's make something happen. Provide solutions and stop talking about it. That's I mean, this stuff has been talked about for years. They've always talked about what it wasn't. Well, it's not it's not this. It's not this. Okay. Well, explain explain tell me what it is and explain the coincidence.

SPEAKER_00: 14:22

Right. That's all.

SPEAKER_03: 14:24

You can explain it away. You can explain it. I'll and don't tell me they're diagnosing him better.

SPEAKER_00: 14:28

Right. And for you, when you you know, going back to when your son got diagnosed, was there anybody there to explain to you about it?

SPEAKER_03: 14:37

No, we're literally the had the the head of the curve. It's like he's yeah. So it was there was they were nice people. Uh they were we then when you read the book, I read a whole this whole chapter on my angels. The people that came in our lives and did the best they could with the knowledge they had. Much like we do. Sure. We did the best we could with the with the knowledge we had, and the knowledge we had was, you know, was was combo be what you could um what you could what you could get from a practitioner or a doctor. But we always went once we started to go natural almost immediately, you know, to get him to get him into other things. But you know, it's all in your perception too. I mean, I we had so many people that were practitioners that were so appalled that Robert Kennedy Jr. would call their kid, you know, we call talked about these kids profound with profound autism that they'll they'll never pay taxes, they might never marry, they might never can hold a job. Well, no true words are spoken. Right? We hope we still go, we still we're positive, we're we're still moving forward, but that's but these people got all up in arms. It was like, no, if you if you have the lived experience, that's a reality that's a harsh reality that we live with. You know, it's like how is this, you know, you know, how are we gonna how's this gonna how is this gonna work forever? Because I'm 67 years old. You know? So yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 15:58

What were some lessons that you learned along the way in with both you and your wife helping with your son and helping in finding ways to help manage symptomology, to help with his growth and you know, moving at the pace where he was at.

SPEAKER_03: 16:17

Well, there are certain things, certain things that I can remember. First, when we changed his diet, he finally slept. I mean you're talking about years without sleeping, right? And then then that was that was one that was that was one thing because he was we got him off casein and gluten.

SPEAKER_00: 16:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 16:33

Okay. And then like within seemed like overnight things changed.

SPEAKER_01: 16:38

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03: 16:39

Now, I'm the seventh of eight of a negative Irish Catholic family. Okay. You think what you think I'm buying into this? It's very it was, you know, it's a it was a learning experience to get over that and you know, and just go, okay, this is the way we gotta go. Because especially whereas it's non-invasive. Now, it was troubling around the house because we had a, you know, we got two other kids that like cookies and, you know, bagels or whatever it is, and Craig couldn't have them. So it was it was hard. So that so but that was one. The second thing is when we found we found sensory integration. And so where he could regulate himself, or the teacher could regulate him. So we want to it's where we started our foundation was when the school, when we talked talked to the school about it, and they said, Oh wow, that'd be great to have here. They didn't have a budget for it. So we started the organization, we went out and raised the money, and we put the first of its kind uh sensory integration equipment in the in the school. So that would be things like a swing and balls, so kids would just roll around in a pit of balls because it regulated, or they had the the body sock where they just loved that. But ironically enough, they didn't like to be hugged. He didn't like to be hugged, but he loved the body sock. So sense of you know getting himself regulated. So that was that was that was that was huge. We had we had interventions like cranial sacral therapy. Our angel um Darlene Doreen Almida. This woman had hands, healing hands. Craig would just melt in her hands to just see him so comfortable and so, you know, just so happy, you know, and just not flapping around and chinning. She could regulate him. So all that stuff started to go away, you know. So that those are the So it was remaining open to to things, really. I think if I if I'm if I if you're reading me here, we were open to new things that weren't that again that wouldn't that weren't drugs, weren't shots, weren't it? But they were and we did do a few of those things too. But um forget exactly what the Dr. Bowie thing was. But the um But yeah, so it was but my mainly it was the it was the uh in the all that stuff is passed around by parents. Hey, have you tried this? So it's like this network underneath the rest of the world. Do you know what I'm saying? You know, it's that's why, you know, when you want to really um hear about some of these things, you gotta get on getting it into one of these substacks where these people write about it and they do research and they write on it. And um, you know, there's one there's a study out there, there's a movie out there now for for all your listeners uh called The Inconvenient Study. Interesting thing that for everybody to watch. And you can get it right online, it's free. And then so that was so that was those were all good things there. Um he did very well through uh I would suggest also the way that we operated within the schools and the way that we participated and collaborated.

SPEAKER_01: 19:35

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03: 19:36

That was a lot better for our head than fighting all the time.

SPEAKER_01: 19:39

Sure.

SPEAKER_03: 19:39

So we helped provide solutions as opposed to just you, you, you need to be doing this. Now, you they could could they have done better? Yeah, possibly. I don't know. But uh but everybody's got a budget, right? And you're you have budget constraints and you know, then if if you if if you fight for yours, does that take away from someone else? I don't know. You know, so it's uh so those are so those are the things you learn along the way. You know, it's just and then it's just b then for me, for a it's just basic people skills, which we've been doing forever. Back to, as you pointed out, my book, Bartending, this is how I propelled my sales career, all the stuff I learned there. So doesn't mean we didn't have some issues, didn't mean that we, you know, we had our our share of bad IA IEP meetings. We did. They're not they're not fun. And it's kind of a humiliating experience, to be honest with you. It's one that could go as far as I'm concerned.

SPEAKER_00: 20:31

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 20:32

But um because I mean who's who's picking the goals? The people that gotta that have the the purse string. So this is what we want, but we can only we can only afford this. Okay. What do you do? And then you're holding there with a prescription from children's hospital in Boston. Well, this is what they say we should have. So And in the end, God's honest truth, um, as far as like the speech.

SPEAKER_01: 20:53

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03: 20:54

Yeah, when you're when when you're a non speaker, you can give you can give these kids speech and language so the cows come home.

SPEAKER_01: 21:00

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03: 21:01

They're never gonna speak. They've got a praxia, which affects which which is a s which is what a stroke victim might have. So it affects their brain. They're not firing their brain is not firing um signals down to their fine fine motor skills. Now I am no, you know, doctor or anything, but this is just what what what my my assessment of it is, and what happens is that your your your fine motor skills like your your lips, your tongue don't won't work right. And they're not getting the signals. But what they do have is they've got gross motor skills and they can point. So that's the whole premise behind. So the greatest thing I would say I I would suggest our greatest discovery came to us by accident, and that is but we remained open, which is which is the big thing to listening to something. So this uh spelling to communicate has been, I wish we again, for anybody that's out there with a 10-year-old boy or girl that's not speaking, go buy underestimated the book, and then go find yourself a ner and wal and watch Spellers the movie on YouTube free. And then uh go find yourself a practitioner and get communicating with your kid because you're gonna hear things that you're gonna be very happy about, that they love you, that they love their family, that they know people, they know everybody, and they know everything. You think this kid, he knows everything. So the whole thing about spelling to communicate is you read um age-appropriate lessons, and then you ask them questions that are within that, you know, that that they prescribe to ask. Uh, and then you might ask some open questions. And one of the one of the um one of the stories I read and was a uh story, a lesson on uh cells. So what's in the body of the the the lesson is molecules, DNA, et cetera, et cetera, right? And then I asked the questions and I looked at the woman that was working with me at the time. She's our lead practitioner, Beth, again, one of our angels. And uh I said, Beth, what do you think? And I asked him, she goes, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01: 22:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 22:57

Craig, what does the acronym DNA stand for? Now we've heard nothing from deoxyribic nucleic acid. How does he know that? How does he know it? Another another story, another lesson, and there was a picture of uh there's a picture, and the picture really didn't have anything to do with the story because the the guy I'm about to tell you was in the pictures had nothing to do with the story of the lesson. So again, same thing. I read the lesson, did the questions, looked to Beth. What do you think? Can I ask him? Can I ask him? She goes, sure. Craig, who's that in the picture? Muhammad Ali.

SPEAKER_00: 23:28

So he was able to then point at and communicate that way.

SPEAKER_03: 23:32

Well, he's spelling it, he's spelling it on the board.

SPEAKER_00: 23:34

He's spelling it on the board.

SPEAKER_03: 23:35

On the 26-letter board. And he will eventually type. It'll be a typing situation. But it's he uh he spelled out Muhammad Ali. I have no idea how he knows who Muhammad Ali is. But it gets a little better here, sign. I asked him, Craig, what's his real name? Now, he wasn't even born when Muhammad when Cassius Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali.

SPEAKER_00: 23:55

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 23:56

But he knew who it was, Cassius Clay.

SPEAKER_00: 23:58

And this just goes to show you that you can never judge a book by its cover. Because even though, yes, somebody may not be speaking, but they know a lot more than what you will ever, you know, someone will ever give them credit for, right? Because don't think that just because someone can't speak that they don't know anything, that they're intel you know, that they're relegated completely with IQ or something like that. Because honestly, you know, what you're describing is a genius here.

SPEAKER_01: 24:29

Oh.

SPEAKER_00: 24:29

And everyone's way. And you know what? He's a genius. And I'll tell you this, it's, you know, and this is a very powerful example and lesson you've given here.

SPEAKER_03: 24:38

So on Thursday, and I think Lori's gone, she's gone up there now. On Thursday, he he spells for the friend. So now he has friends. I mean, everybody loves Craig and everybody's, but now he's got his own peer group, right? I mean, he and Lori and Lori and my daughter Amanda brought him down to um Virginia this year for their big the big spelling conference. He sat there at the um at the uh lectures and just listened. And then but this guy Dylan, he texts with or he zooms with every um every week. Let me just find it real quick so I can read it to you properly. Here it is. Okay. So this is uh this is kind of this is uh the transcript that we get from Beth. Like she'll uh whenever she does does work with him, she'll give us the transcript. So here it is. Hi Dylan, so good to see you. How are you? Dylan, I am fine, glad to see you. Craig, you live in Maryland with your family, correct? Yes. Who do you live with? I live with Roland, and I'm so happy, but I'd rather be living with nonspeakers. So now he's telling us he wants that he wants them to be in a group home with other nonspeakers so that they all can communicate the way they communicate. They can sit and just be and be communicating. So who is Roland? Dylan says, Who is Roland? Craig. He does some work taking care of people like me. It's right, lovely and sad. Craig, what is your ideal living situation, Dylan? I hope to live with a speller. Craig, I hope to too. Okay, here comes the philosophy. You ready? This is Craig. Will there be a time when the world steps into the one truth that is love? Dylan. I hope so. I hope so someday. I think everyone has to try harder to find the good in people. Craig, so do I. Dylan, you have to be less judgmental. Anything you think would help here, Craig. Here it comes. Here's another one. The reality of intelligence will spring a momentous news new story into many people's conscience. That is awesome, Dylan says. Craig, you either stand solidly with the solidly together or let the non-speakers state their own truth. Now, if he was sitting right here, you'd go, really?

unknown: 26:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 26:43

Um, Dylan, I concur. Craig, thanks so much. Seems like time to say goodbye. Hate to go, brother. Dylan, I will see you next week, Craig. See you soon.

SPEAKER_00: 26:53

This pulls up the heartstrings.

SPEAKER_03: 26:55

But that's what they're capable of. So if we stop focusing on nonsense and look for solutions and stop fighting, we might come up with more of this stuff. You know? I mean, look at all the stuff. I mean, there's things that that are going technologically that uh Elon Musk is doing through Tesla and Neuro and Neurolink. I mean, Tesla's gonna Tesla's working on robots that'll take care of these people, right? That solves a huge problem. Right? Then there's then it's geared, you know, right now it's geared towards the elderly, but it's it's it's applicable to to our guys. And then uh Neuralink is putting uh putting links, uh putting chips into paraplegics' brains. And then from what I understand, they're they're uh they're moving things with their brain. Like they can so is there one they're gonna be able to put in put in these guys' heads so they can speak? Because he does. He states that he wants to speak with his mouth when he spells it anyway. So yeah. Oh, that's the uh So that's the big one. The I would say that's the biggest life change we've ever had. When your son is 31 years old and it's the first time you said, I love dad, I love Cam. I'm proud of who's who's my hero? Mandy is my hero. That's his sister. I love mom. So you know he feels this way. But you you you we don't get it from him directly because you know he doesn't, you know, he he still he participates more now, but not like, you know, a typically developing person would, you know, at a at a holiday or whatnot. But he wants to be here. But he also interesting, sir, he doesn't want to live with us. He actually might my uh the uh one of his practitioners had a uh Christmas card, said, We want Craig, I want to I want to write write a Christmas card to Roland and Evelyn so you can um um you know just to Merry Christmas, she goes, he goes, Dear, dear Roland Evelyn, thank you so much for taking care of me. That way I don't have to live with my parents.

SPEAKER_00: 28:44

And what was it like for you when he was 31 to have him express, I love dad, Mandy's my hero.

SPEAKER_03: 28:52

Well, it's tears, it's Tears City. Oh, it's just like, yeah, it's it's a tears of of joy, you know. It's like, oh my goodness, after all these after all these years, you know, you knew I always knew there was something in there. I always knew that he was comfortable with us. I always knew but he was, you know, but I don't know, I didn't know what emotions he had. He has them all. Has them all. You know, we get to know when he's sick. We never knew when he was sick. We never knew when he didn't want to do something, or then he would get a little frustrated. No, okay, we gotta try this, you gotta do this work. So now if he says, you know, if Lori wants to do some work with him or, you know, do some spelling with him, he go he he'll he might just say, I'm tired, I need a nap. So guess what? Go take a nap, buddy. We don't have to do this now. We'll get back at it later. So we get to we he gets to do things on his own time. Just his own time. It's um so the whole thing's wonderful. So I think if you're if you're if your listeners are out there, I think the whole thing is always be proactive, always be positive, always be pro proactive, be collaborative. You know, you get some gifts, even though you're in this thing and it's hard, and we all know it, and it's there's sleepless nights and there's worry for the future, and all those things. Find those little gems that that brighten your day. Like anything that he says on that on that board. I just want to know what what what what did he say today? What's going on? What's he feeling? And um, so we can we can always find joy in that and happiness in it. So, and then that gives us that keeps us in a better place to continue to work to find things that will help him. And those and those like him. And I think this book is going to be one of those things. That's why we're gonna we speak on it. We're we do a lot of we and we want to do more of that coming up this year. You know, we want to be out there talking to parents and and corporations and whatnot and telling them the story about these types of things that are so helpful that that that are such a lifeline because there's still people that turn that that turn up uh you know as successful as this spellers thing is, and every everybody feels the same way. Again, we're all in these groups, you know, again, these kind of you know, under the radar groups, you know, which you know that uh that we all feel the same way. Everybody's coming up with the same s same um revelations. And they're all everybody's into these telepathy tapes. So it's like I met a woman at a at a counter at a at a breakfast place that I that I go to that I frequent, and she goes, I'm listening to this podcast. I said the telepathy tapes, right? She goes, Yeah, just blown away. Because you can't think about it.

SPEAKER_00: 31:25

Um I work with the medium.

SPEAKER_03: 31:28

Maybe he's working out.

SPEAKER_00: 31:29

So adorable. Yeah, no, he no, there's uh a medium that I talked to, and she was telling me because she was actually asked to do a reading because there are many people with autism that do equine therapy, and she was asked to go do a reading for uh the to communicate with the horses and the people who are non-speaking with autism. And uh she told me about the podcast of telepathy tapes, and she was blown away by it. And that definitely inspired also the kind of work that she continues to do with readings and things, but you know, just to even venture out into those communities to do readings for like animals, equine therapy, people with profound autism, having the those therapies done and being able to do readings and administer them there.

SPEAKER_03: 32:23

Yeah. Oh, by the way, he loved horseback riding.

SPEAKER_00: 32:25

Horses are majestic.

SPEAKER_03: 32:27

I haven't done it in years, but it was one of those things was like a regular thing we did every week. So I was one of those good memories. You'd take him down, he'd get on the horse and just plod around him. But I think this this thing here, I mean, that all that all regulated him, but this thing here, it it lessens the frustration. So we've we've we've uh we promoted a couple of couple of showings of the movie, Spellers, the movie. Um and we I can't bear the thought of another 10-year-old boy or girl trapped in their mind own mind. You know, that they could they've got so much to say as you heard. You know, I'm reading right off of the transcript.

SPEAKER_00: 33:01

Yes, and everybody has a right to express themselves and what they want people to hear from them and how they want to be. Everybody wants to feel like they matter. And I think the biggest way we can support somebody in feeling like they matter is to actually allow them to be present and to express themselves. And and most importantly, for us to listen.

SPEAKER_03: 33:25

Correct. So it makes him happy when, you know, instead of doing this, he wants to do that, and we go do that. That's l I mean, you're gonna listen to them, you know. Right downstairs, if I was down down in our basement, Lori's got in, you know, those poster boards, poster, you know, tear sheets that you get on one of those easelback post-it note type things, all of his goals, his stated goals. We didn't say you should want to do that. No, no, no. Just like, what do you want to do? He wants to get his GED, he wants to go to college, he wants to teach. So, you know, so there's he wants us, you know, he wants to help, he wants to help others. So whatever we can do to foster that, we will do it.

SPEAKER_00: 34:00

And that's such a beautiful thing. Your story, what you've shared today, you know, it's very eye-opening, you know, just for your journey, for people to get a understanding of your journey and also just the milestones that were across and just how intuitive and intellectual your son is. It's just been very inspiring.

SPEAKER_03: 34:21

Inspires us every day.

SPEAKER_00: 34:23

Yes. Where can we learn more about your book and when is it supposed to release?

SPEAKER_03: 34:26

And so you'll see when it does release, uh, I'm hoping by uh by March.

SPEAKER_00: 34:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 34:32

Uh which is kind of an anniversary of Barb Tips uh that was released. And um so um you'll find it on positive activity.net. And then they people can learn all about us and our programs. And there's a lot of good blog posts on there that that are that are you know, I think the what I'd say is everything that you'll read on there, we lived. We didn't make it up. Might have read about it somewhere else, but we put it in in practice, and this is our results. So that you know, the results of how we how we how we take this guy here and write every day three things you're grateful for. Changes your mind right out of the gate.

SPEAKER_00: 35:03

Sure.

SPEAKER_03: 35:04

Just say you get off of that whatever you oh okay, yeah, that was pretty good, yes. Oh, that was good. You know. And it could be something as simple as the coffee is warm, enough to be crazy. So it's uh and then um so those types of things. And they can download the little starter starter uh kit that Lori has on there for free. So it's just about getting the things, the the practices to do daily to get your mindset right. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00: 35:26

Gratitude is definitely very important. It actually studies have shown that people who practice gratitude, it changes how your brain is wired. It rewires it. Like so people who have, for example, depression, right? It helps with taking that edge off of the depression when you focus on the gratitude. And also the more you practice gratitude, the more you can manifest other things in your life.

SPEAKER_03: 35:49

Be humble and kind.

SPEAKER_00: 35:50

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03: 35:51

Do something nice to somebody today. Something simple. Not have to be grandiose. Hold the door, let somebody go in traffic. Sure. And no, nobody bats a thousand. Right? You know, it's like, you know, so if you if it's you know, if you miss as a matter of fact, it's a funny story. I um uh let's see, right before a storm, well, a perceived storm. It's always amazing how they make a big deal out of these storms, and that's barely anything. You know, a lawyer says, Can you get me gas? I said, sure, I forgot that it was a storm coming. So I was um I was um I went to the gas station and the place was packed. So I'm waiting to get get get a um get a spot and they're too deep in the uh in each in each bay. And I'm sitting, this guy's just waiting, going forever to leave. He's done. You know, his car's going, you know it's like, dude, come on, let's go, right? In my head. So it so it becomes a little annoying, right? And now I go to pull in and the other guy pulls up and he's giving me the I don't know what and then I look behind him. Well, his his pump was was not in service. I saw a yellow, you know, the yellow thing on I don't know if you've ever seen that when you get gas. If they put a yellow thing on it, it's not operable. I I so I rolled down the list, sorry man, I didn't see the the yellow thing, but it was like, you know, then he smiled at me and that was the end of it. So then he left, and then I went to pull, I went to pull in. So I pulled in and got gas, and then I was I was heading out, and a woman was pulling in. And for a moment there, she went to back up. And I said, No, no, no, you come this way, I'll back up. My attitude changed dramatically from being annoyed with the process to just saying, you know what? You go first, you go, I'll back up and go move around. And she was very appreciative.

SPEAKER_00: 37:38

And you know what? And when you do something kind for someone else, that in and of itself is a mood booster because you're putting good out there. And it's just like karma, you know, you put good out there, good comes back. Whatever energy you put out in the world, it comes back. You know, and um, you know, and talking about kindness, you know, I run with autism speaks. I've run 14 marathons. One of my favorite quotes is if you had a choice between being kind or being right, choose kind.

SPEAKER_01: 38:11

Being right is overrated.

SPEAKER_00: 38:14

Oh, and that's and and who and once again, right? What's right or wrong, once again, it comes down to what is a person's perception. What are those what's their worldview, right? Those things. So So currently, right now, you know, as we're wrapping up a little bit, now is your son still following the gluten-free diet? Is he still Oh yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 38:38

Or he makes them all those like little treats and all that stuff. And um, you know, does he slip off every once in a while? Shim. You know, it's like you can't, you know. But uh but I think he knows it makes him feel better when he does it, when he's not. I mean, I don't know, you know, if I eat if I eat uh chunk chip cookie, I'm like I'm toxic because I never have I very rarely have it.

SPEAKER_01: 39:00

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 39:01

It feels good when I'm biting. Oh boy, that tastes really good, and all of a sudden I feel like crap. So I go, maybe I shouldn't have done that.

SPEAKER_00: 39:06

Yeah. Well, you know, I was actually listening to this lecture, you know, where they talk about it was for autism certification specialty. So I'm a therapist by trade and profession. And um, I was doing my continuing ed for my licensure, as we have our requirements to upkeep our license. And it talked about the imbalance of the microbiota, which is a bacteria in your stomach, that is commonly seen with people on the autism spectrum, and that's why certain diets will work better for them to help with their gut health.

SPEAKER_03: 39:39

That's what we're doing.

SPEAKER_00: 39:40

Yep.

SPEAKER_03: 39:41

It happened though.

SPEAKER_00: 39:42

That's one thing we're I'm working on too is learning where this is all coming from. And but then also, you know, too, continuing with just advocating and things. Neil, what is one way we can support you?

SPEAKER_03: 39:55

Oh, I think just I think the thing to do going forward is as soon as this uh maybe we'll uh I'll send I'll let you know when the book is available.

SPEAKER_00: 40:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 40:03

And then we'll do we'll do another one of these and we'll go through it. How's that?

SPEAKER_00: 40:08

Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, Neil, I want to thank you so much for being here. Um Thank you. And where can people find you if people want to reach out to you?

SPEAKER_03: 40:18

Positiveactivity.net. It's got it all there.

SPEAKER_00: 40:21

Okay. Excellent. Well, this wraps up today's episode. Thank you all for tuning in. Remember to rate, review, subscribe, and share with your family and friends. I'm looking forward to being back with another episode for you all. Thank you very much for listening.