Let Them Lead: The Child-Led Autism Podcast

REGISTER FOR GOALS WEEK!!
You read the goal out loud. The parent nods. "Yep, that sounds good." And on to the next one. 
But were they agreeing... or did nobody ever tell them they get a say?
In this episode Nicole looks at a question most of us spend almost no time on: who actually decides what we work on? She shares a small study of occupational therapists that held up an uncomfortable mirror, a story about a script she couldn't decode (and a mom who could), and an admission about parent coaching that a lot of us will recognize. Then she gets practical about bringing families in before the goal is written, and what to do when the questionnaire never comes back.

JOIN THE WAITLIST FOR DITCH DOCUMENTATION DREAD BOOTCAMP HERE!
It is eight o'clock at night, you have multiple IEPs due, and you are somewhere on page five of Google searching communication goals for autistic students. Everything coming up is either the exact kind of goal you are trying to get away from, or it is so vague you already know it will never fit.
Rumor has it we have all been here.
This episode is Nicole being honest about something that brought her shame for years: she used to write goals she did not believe in, and goals she sometimes did not even understand. She traces where that came from, why the format most of us use has no clear origin, and what has to happen before you can write a goal worth writing.
 
Fair warning, she gets a little fired up about 80% accuracy. She always does.
 
WHAT YOU'LL HEAR INSIDE THIS EPISODE
 
- The confession she says is hard to make out loud, and why she is making it anyway
- The goal with four competing numbers in it, and what it was actually measuring
- Why she overthought goals until she was right back at square one, and what that actually came from
- What her first job taught her about writing goals you are allowed to change
- The evaluation tools that were never built to show how an autistic child communicates
- What grad school actually covered, and the one thing it never covered at all
- How most of us really learned to write goals, and why that should worry us
- What the research says about goals that are not appropriate for the child
- Why communication functions grow together instead of stacking on each other
- The scissors example, and why communication is not a task
- Who decides when a child gets to communicate, and why "opportunities" answers that question badly
- The bubbles, the lid going back on, and asking again and again for the data
- Why 80% accuracy still annoys her, thirteen years in
- What she is teaching at the live bootcamp in October

There's a version of this job where you never say "I don't know." Where you excuse yourself, look it up on your phone, and come back like you had it the whole time.
A professor I admired (and still do, genuinely) told my grad school class to do exactly that before our first practicums. At the time I thought, well, if that's what I have to do, I guess I'll do it. Thirteen years later, I think it's the worst advice I've ever heard.
This came to me on a whim while I was working on something else. No script, no notes. Just me thinking out loud about why perfectionism runs through our whole field.
A lot of us have been taught that we can't be anything less than perfect. So we cling to control, because we don't want anyone to know what we don't know.
And then we don't try. We don't take the one small step toward child-led speech therapy, because we can't do the whole thing perfectly yet.
I get into the pickleball invitation I turned down, the day I read a post about research and landed back in grad school shame, and what trying to be a perfect clinician cost me.
This one is as much for me as it is for you.
TIMESTAMPS
Part one
04:07 No script, no notes, and the podcast I was listening to in the car that started all of this
06:31 Perfectionism as a coping mechanism, and where imposter syndrome fits
08:56 The all or nothing mentality, and what it costs us as a field
11:18 The advice my grad school professor gave us right before our first practicums
15:59 The pickleball invitation, and why I won't do something I might be bad at
20:49 Thirteen years later: what trying to be a perfect clinician actually cost me
Part two (the recording picks back up here, four days later, after my kids came barging in)
02:27 The post about research, the shame that followed, and the kind of content creator I want to be
11:48 What I will and won't go back and learn, and why I'm okay drawing that line
CALL TO ACTION
If this one landed for you, would you leave a review wherever you listen? It would mean the world to me!

We're back, friends! In this episode, Nicole Casey explores the Communication Bill of Rights, focusing on rights five through eight, and discusses how supporting autistic children requires team effort and consistent application across settings. 
Keywords: Communication Rights, Autism Support, AAC, Inclusive Education, Neuroaffirming Practices
Takeaways:
Supporting rights five through eight often requires team effort and ongoing communication.
Consistent use of AAC devices across settings is crucial for participation.
Honoring a child's right to refuse or ask for things builds trust and safety.
Proactively communicating about routines and objects helps reduce dysregulation.
Supporting social interactions and relationships enhances quality of life.

GET YOUR FREE TICKET TO THE CHILD-LED AUTISM SUMMIT HERE!! HAPPENING AUGUST 10-13 ONLINE. 40+ NEUROAFFIRMING PRESENTERS, AUTISTIC ADULTS, AND AAC USERS. DON'T MISS IT!
Episode summary
A few years ago, Nicole worked with a little boy who loved the Charmin Ultra Soft commercial and Downy Unstoppables, and instead of treating those interests as rewards to earn, she let them lead the session. What started as sitting at the computer watching videos grew into expanded language, a homemade book, and one of the purest pictures of inclusion she has ever seen. This episode is about why deep interests are not a distraction from the work. They are the work.
Key topics with approximate timestamps
05:30 Why this episode is about using deep interests to build communication, not dangling them as a carrot.

06:00 Meet the child: a deep love of the Charmin Ultra Soft commercial and Downy Unstoppables.

07:47 We do not get to decide if a child's interest is cool enough or normal enough.

08:30 Working with a gestalt language processor, modeling language and following his lead at the computer.

10:07 The routine that kept growing, and why only offering a few adult-chosen options misses the magic.

11:30 Two years later: descriptive words, longer sentences, and a mom who celebrated every interest.

12:33 Why we do this for neurotypical kids (hello, monster truck era) but not always for autistic kids.

14:55 The first time he said "go down," and why we have been conditioned to call sessions like this lazy.

16:00 Printing pictures and making a simple book he could call his own.

18:00 The book becomes his bedtime story, read aloud to his brothers.

19:18 He carries the book to school and cannot wait to show his teacher.

20:00 The Target text: a video of him reading his book to his whole class.

21:30 The most real picture of inclusion, centering the autistic child, not our systems.

23:00 Stop overcomplicating it: let the interest lead, hold your boundaries, trust the process.

23:54 Deep interests at the Child-Led Autism Summit and how to join.

Resources and links mentioned
The Child-Led Autism Summit, a free virtual event for SLPs, OTs, teachers, and autism support professionals. Get on the wait list or register at childled.org.

YouTube and Google Images as tools for finding a child's preferred videos and pictures.

Blank story books (a dollar store find) for making a child-authored book.

The Child-Led Collective: childled.org/collective.

About Nicole
Nicole Casey is a speech-language pathologist and the voice behind The Child-Led SLP. She helps SLPs, OTs, special educators, and autism support professionals move from compliance-based habits to child-led, neuroaffirming practice through real-world frameworks, ready-to-use resources, and a community that gets it. She teaches from what she has learned in real sessions with real kids, and she believes connection is the prerequisite for progress, not something a child earns after they comply.