Let Them Lead: The Child-Led Autism Podcast

Join us inside The Child-Led Collective!
If you've ever felt that nagging feeling in a session like, "okay, but we've been working on requesting for a really long time and I don't know what to do next," this episode is going to feel like a deep exhale.
Requesting tends to get a bit of a bad rep, and you know what, sometimes for good reason. Not because helping a child ask for what they want or need is wrong, but because so many of us were taught to start there and then just... stay there. For years. And in the meantime, our students' communication functions stay narrow when they could be expanding in beautiful, meaningful, connected ways.
In this episode, you'll get a full breakdown of the different kinds of requesting we can support, why each one matters, and how to start building these into your day without overhauling your whole approach. Plus, the gentle case for why "he might ask for the playground all day" isn't a good enough reason to skip teaching a skill.
What you'll hear inside this episode
Why requesting is a great place to start, and a not-so-great place to stay

How traditional requesting work can accidentally turn communication into a transaction

The 10+ different kinds of requests you can support (and how to know where your student is with each one)

A real story about a little girl who couldn't open her lunch and what it taught me about requesting help

How requesting people (yes, people) can transform a child's connection with their family

How to honor a child's "I'm all done" without throwing safety out the window

Why measuring a child against their own previous skills is the most honest way to see progress

Why this episode matters
So many of our autistic students walk around with "I want" essentially baked into their communication. And not because they actually mean "I want" every time, but because that's what we've modeled, taught, and reinforced for years.
When we expand the purposes for which a child can communicate, we're not just adding more vocabulary to a device or more goals to a paper. We're giving them more access to their world. To their people. To their wants and needs and preferences and limits. That is what child-led speech therapy looks like in practice.
The kinds of requests we walk through in this episode
Requesting favorite things

Requesting things they need (the spoon for the yogurt situation)

Requesting places they want to go

Requesting actions (and directing actions)

Requesting people they want to see

Requesting help

Requesting something different

Requesting more

Requesting a break

Requesting to be all done

A few things to sit with after you listen
Which of these requests does your student already have reliable access to?

Which one feels the most overlooked on your caseload right now?

If your student suddenly had a way to request a person, who would they ask for first?

Where might "I want" be doing more work in your student's communication than it should?

A moment from this episode you'll probably remember
There's a story in this episode about a hyperlexic student riding in the car with his mom. He says "Chick-fil-A" from the back seat for the first time ever. She does what any of us would do. She makes a sharp turn into the parking lot. He gets his food. He's happy.
That's the whole point of this work. Not the perfect request. Not the polished sentence. Just a child finally having a way to tell the people who love him where he wants to go.
Resources mentioned
The communication functions checklist for requesting (available inside The Child-Led Collective)

Season 1 episodes on supporting early gestalt language processors

Keep going with us inside The Collective
If this episode helped you see requesting differently, you're going to feel right at home inside The Child-Led Collective. The checklist I'm reading from in this episode is one of many tools members have access to, along with implementation videos, monthly trainings, a community of professionals doing this work alongside you, and ongoing coaching from me.
You can join us at jointhechildledcollective.com.
This is the start of a series
I'm planning to break down communication functions one by one across upcoming episodes. If this format was helpful, send me a DM, send me an email, or leave a review and let me know. Your feedback shapes where we go next.
Stay connected
Subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss the next episode in this series

Leave a review if this one helped you

Share it with a teammate who is feeling stuck on requesting

Join The Child-Led Collective: jointhechildledcollective.com
 
One IEP meeting a year. That's it. And somehow we're supposed to build a real relationship with a family in 60 minutes (or, as I recently heard, 25...which, no).
This episode is about what happens in between those meetings, because that stretch of time is where the relationship either grows or goes flat. I'm sharing the system I've been using for nearly 10 years to stay connected with the families I support, including the tool I found out about from Rachel Madel and have never stopped using, and the six principles that guide every single update I send home. This is one of those things that sounds like more work but actually ends up being less, because when families are genuinely in the loop, everything else gets easier.
I also want to talk about something that still makes me a little fired up: what happens when teams judge families for not showing up, not following through, or not seeming engaged, without ever actually knowing what that family's life looks like. The only reason I knew what was really going on with one of my student's families was because I had built a relationship outside of that one annual meeting. And it made all the difference.
What You'll Learn:
Why IEP meetings alone are not enough to build the kind of family partnership that actually supports progress

The story of what happened when a team started judging a parent who didn't show up, and why I was the only one who knew the full picture

The tool I've used for nearly 10 years to send weekly updates to families (without spending hours on it)

How to reach families who aren't checking email, using a QR code and a piece of paper

The six principles behind my Caregiver Collaboration System, including why "no homework" is one of them

Why families not following through is almost never about buy-in, and what's actually getting in the way

What to say in a two-minute video when you have no idea where to start

How to frame a hard session for a family without adding guilt or making them feel like something went wrong

Why one mom cried watching a Loom update I barely thought twice about sending

Resources Mentioned:
Loom (free video recording tool): https://www.loom.com

Join The Child-Led Collective: jointhechildledcollective.com

Have you ever had a great speech session with a child... and then watched the whole thing fall apart the second it was time to go back to class? Same. And for a long time, I felt like I was doing something wrong. Today we're talking about why transitions are so much harder than we treat them, and what to do about it without abandoning your child-led values.
Episode Summary
A conversation came up recently inside The Child-Led Collective about this exact thing... a clinician dreading the walk back to the classroom because she knew it wasn't going to go well. And I get it. I've been there too.
In this episode, I'm pulling back the curtain on what's actually happening when an autistic child struggles with transitions. Spoiler... it's not a behavior issue. It's a nervous system shift. And once you start seeing it that way, the whole game changes.
I'm sharing the real strategies I've used over the years in school, clinic, and private practice settings... including the ones that worked beautifully and the ones that backfired. Because not every kid responds to a timer. Not every kid needs a transition object. And the answer is almost never "rip the bandaid off and force them to go."
What You'll Learn
Why transitions aren't one isolated skill kids need to be taught... they're a nervous system shift kids need support through

The honest reason your child-led session might be making the transition back to class harder (and why that's not a reason to make your sessions less child-led)

How to tell when a tool like a visual timer is actually helping versus quietly cranking up a child's anxiety

The clinical nuance behind transition objects... when they work, when they don't, and the systems you can put in place so the classroom team is on board

What to do when you're stuck between honoring the child's nervous system and racing to your next session

How to build regulation into the end of your session so the transition doesn't catch anyone off guard

The schedule shift I'd make every single day of the week to save a kid from a stressful transition

Why calling down to the classroom for backup feels so loaded... and how to reframe that whole dynamic with your support staff

Your Next Steps
Join The Child-Led Collective: https://jointhechildledcollective.com

REGISTER FOR THE FREE DREAM TEAM WORKSHOP HERE!
Ever walked into a classroom and felt the tension before anyone even said hello? Yeah, me too. And if you've ever wondered how to actually shift that energy (without adding one more thing to your already-overflowing plate), this episode is for you.
Tomorrow night, April 22nd, 2026, from 6 to 8 PM Eastern, I'm hosting a free live workshop called Building the Dream Team. It's all about how to support your paraprofessionals, one-to-one aides, and everyone on your student's support team so you can stop feeling like you're carrying communication in a silo.
In this quick bonus episode, I'm giving you a bird's eye view of what we're going to cover. We'll talk about why those tense classrooms feel the way they do (spoiler: it's usually trickling down from the top), why blaming the paras never works, and what happens when we start leading with relationship first. I'm not going to ask you to run a three-hour training. I'm going to show you how minutes a week, done well, can completely change the vibe in a classroom and the progress your students make.
If you've ever thought, "I wish the team would just model on the device," or "I feel like I'm the only one supporting this kid's communication," you already know why this matters. Come hang out with me live tomorrow. There won't be a replay.
What You'll Learn:
Why the tension in a classroom usually has nothing to do with you (and everything to do with what's happening above and below everyone's pay grade)

The trickle-down effect that's shaping how your paras and one-to-ones show up every day

Why "lazy" isn't a thing... and what's actually going on when someone isn't following through

How to build collaborative relationships with your support team in minutes a week, not hours

What it looks like to chip away at a tense classroom instead of joining in on the bad vibes

Why Maslow was right... your paras can't learn new strategies if their basic needs aren't being met either

A peek at the mindset shift that makes the whole collaboration thing feel less like a chore and more like actual teamwork

What you can expect at the live Building the Dream Team workshop tomorrow night

Resources Mentioned:
Building the Dream Team Live Workshop (April 22nd, 2026, 6-8 PM ET): Register here

Your Next Steps:
Join The Child-Led Collective

Connect on Social

I almost didn't talk about this topic because I can barely say the word. Seriously, it took me four tries to get "productivity" out of my mouth without cracking up. But the concept is something I've been circling for years, and I finally got it out at a recent workshop... and I need you to hear it.
This episode is about what we were taught makes a therapy session successful and how that definition has been quietly costing us, costing the kids we work with, and costing our confidence. I'm going back to my early career, penny token boards and all (yes, really), to talk about the moment I realized I had the completely wrong measuring stick. And I want to give you a new one.
If you've ever ended a session feeling like you did nothing, or sat through someone else's side-eye because things were a little slower that day, this one is for you. We're talking about why the "get as much data as possible" model breaks down for autistic kids, what actually constitutes meaningful progress in child-led practice, and how you can walk out of any session knowing that what you did mattered, even if you can't prove it with a plus or minus on a data sheet.
What You'll Learn:
Why the traditional "more trials equals more progress" model was never built with autistic kids in mind

The story of the binder, the penny token boards, and why I thought I was the worst therapist alive (I wasn't)

How we got to a place where we confused documenting progress with actual progress

The difference between a session that looks productive and one that actually is

Three questions to ask yourself at the end of every session before the guilt creeps in

Why following a child's lead takes more clinical thinking, not less

What to do with a session where you answered "no" to all three questions

How the systems around us keep reinforcing the wrong definition of productive, and what we can do about it

Why slower progress in child-led practice is not a failure

Your Next Steps:
Join The Child-Led Collective: jointhechildledcollective.com

Follow Nicole on Instagram: instagram.com/thechildledslp

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Did you enjoy this episode?! Leave a review, they make my whole day! - Nicole