What Happens After the Restraint? The Part We Rarely Talk About
I have spent a lot of time thinking about what happens before a restraint. What happened in the minutes leading up to it? What did the student signal? What changed... Read more.
What Happens Before the Restraint? The 10 Minutes We Keep Ignoring
When a student is placed in a restraint or secluded, the incident report often begins at the moment the crisis becomes impossible for adults to ignore. The student... Read more.
Behavior Is Not the Brain: Why My Childhood Made Me Question Behaviorism
When people hear me criticize behaviorism, they often assume I've never taken the time to understand it. They tell me to read B.F. Skinner. They recommend Israel... Read more.
My Students Understand. Why Don’t Some Adults Get It?
Of those things people recognize me by at this point, yesterday one of my 4th graders pointed at it and asked, “What do ALL those words mean?” Not just one—every... Read more.
Autism Acceptance Month Is Not a Celebration—It’s a Reckoning
Every April, the world turns its attention to autism. The posts go up, the slogans circulate, and suddenly everyone is talking about “awareness” again. But if... Read more.
What Happened Before That Moment?
Sometimes a small sign says a lot about how we think about children. Today I walked past a table with a sign that said: “All emotions are okay, but not all child... Read more.
An Invisible Storm: Why Extreme Weather Is Quietly Overloading Our Kids’ Nervous Systems
If you’ve ever stood in a classroom on a day when a massive storm is brewing, you know the feeling. There’s a kind of static in the air. Kids are vibrating at... Read more.
The Illusion of “Play-Based ABA”: The Gentle Mask of Control
One of the newest rebrands of Applied Behavior Analysis is “play-based ABA.” At first glance, it looks comforting to parents and teachers who may have heard... Read more.
Why ABA Can Never Be Trauma-Informed: Not now. Not ever.
Lately, I've seen more and more programs advertising something they call "trauma-informed ABA." On the surface, it sounds hopeful. After all, who wouldn't want therapies... Read more.
Choice Doesn’t Fix It: Why PBIS Still Harms Kids
When I was a little girl, I didn't speak until I was four years old. I remember the way adults looked at me—like I was broken, like my silence defined me. They... Read more.