Category: Articles
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Why Anger Shows Up in Autistic Teens (And What It May Be Telling You)
Some of the biggest arguments my son and I had during his teen years happened in the car. It was usually just the two of us, driving somewhere — school, the store, an appointment. Something about sitting side by side made it easier for conversations to start. And somehow those conversations often turned into the…
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The Cost of Performing: Understanding Anxiety in Autistic Teens
He slept.Every afternoon after school, he slept.Not the quick kind of nap teenagers take when they’ve stayed up too late. This was something heavier. He would come home, drop his backpack, disappear into his room, and sleep for hours. And when he woke up, he didn’t look rested. He looked flat. Drained. Like he had…
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Why Autistic Teens Hold It Together at School But Fall Apart at Home (And What It Really Means)
My son has always taken very long showers. In middle school and high school, I used to knock on the bathroom door and ask if he was almost done. I worried about the hot water running out. I worried about the humidity. I worried about mold. Years later, he told me that sometimes he would…
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Why Consequences Don’t Work the Same Way for Autistic Teens (and What Helps Instead)
When my son was a teenager, he started locking his bedroom door. On the surface, it felt normal. Teenagers want privacy. I understood that. I was also parenting alone at the time. Every decision felt heavier because there wasn’t another adult to check my instincts against. What worried me wasn’t the lock itself. It was…
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Autistic Teen Meltdowns: What Actually Helps in the Moment
Understanding Why Meltdowns Happen (and How to Respond Without Escalating) My son loved to build Legos, well into his teens. For this, he had incredible patience, could go page by page following the directions to build the most intricate, complex structures. But I swear, the Lego Company had it out for me. Inevitably, in each…
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Sensory Tools That Actually Help Autistic Teens (and Which Ones Don’t)
He is always moving. He walks fast — almost at a run — down the hallway. In the classroom he hops from spot to spot, arms moving, vocalizing, scripting lines from his favorite shows. His body rarely looks still. If you didn’t understand what you were seeing, you might call it distraction. Or defiance. Or…