Episode 18: Helping Your Autistic Child Thrive

In this episode, Chris welcomes Paula Leslie—an experienced counselor, parent coach, and therapeutic placement specialist with over 30 years in the mental health field and a parent of a child with autism. Paula shares her personal and
professional journey, reflecting on the early signs of autism, the challenges of navigating diagnoses, and how to advocate effectively for meaningful support. Together, they explore what it means to lean into a child’s strengths while addressing their struggles, the importance of setting clear, collaborative goals with professionals, and why embracing the hard moments is essential for growth. With compassion and wisdom, Paula offers insight—and hope—into the evolving landscape of autism support and treatment.

Links:
Autism Learning Lab: https://www.autismlearninglab.com/
Email: chris@autismlearninglab.com

Quotes:
[8:38-9:05] Chris: “You're saying, all right, there is strength here and there's weakness here, but how can we really lean into these strengths while bolstering these weaknesses? Because just because just because he's not reading at third grade doesn't mean he shouldn't be learning. He absolutely should be. But how
can we give him this information, this content, in a way that he is accessible to him? You're identifying a number of strengths here, too, which I think so often we get stuck on kids weaknesses when we're talking about an autistic person growing up.”

[12:25-13:04] Paula: “If you help a chick out of an egg, it doesn't develop right. There's something about pecking itself out that needs to happen and the idea that iron hardens in fire. And that if you don't go through challenging things, then you never become what you're supposed to become. And so I think it's really hard as
a parent to watch your child struggle and not wanna come in and remove the struggle, remove the pain. And it's not possible. There are going to be struggles and this is true for all children, but when you have a child in a spectrum, it's different. And the natural instinct to step in and protect is so strong.

[13:07-13:28] Paula: “A lot of the work that I do with parents is, first, let's understand your child and what all these numbers and what all this testing means, how to translate that into what the expectations can be in your home and outside of your home and how to build structure that really helps your child thrive.”