TPP 507: A Conversation with Dr. Destiny Huff About Neuroaffirming Advocacy in School
episode
Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
39 min
1 speaker
6 chapters
transcribed 2 hours ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What inspired Dr. Destiny Huff to become a neuro‑affirming advocate?
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I'm Debbie Reber, and this is Full Tilt Parenting. Today's episode is about how to advocate for our kids in school in a way that is truly aligned with who they are. I'm bringing on to the show Dr. Destiny Huff. She's a late diagnosed autistic and ADHD therapist, non-attorney special education advocate, and the founder of Destiny Huff Consulting, where she supports families and schools in implementing neuroaffirming practices. She's also the parent of two neurodivergent children in public school special education, so she brings both lived and professional experience to this work with a special focus on challenging deficit-based narratives and addressing the intersections of race, disability, and trauma.
In this episode, we're going to explore the limitations and pitfalls of traditional IEP processes, what a genuinely neurodiversity-affirming approach looks like in practice, and how families can build more effective, collaborative relationships with schools. Destiny is really the educational consultant that we all need in our lives. She's going to share big picture reframes and practical strategies, offer an honest look at how to navigate systems that weren't designed with our kids in mind, while still holding on to possibility and meaningful change. If you've got a kid working their way through the public school system, you're going to get a lot out of this episode. Here's Dr. Destiny Huff on neuro affirming advocacy.
Hey, Dr. Huff, welcome to the podcast.
Hi, thank you for having me.
I'm happy you're joining me. I learned about your work through some members of my community. I put a note out to everyone. I was like, who do you want to hear from? And your name came up multiple times. So I dove into your work, checked out your new book, and I was very excited that you accepted my invitation to join me. So I have already read your formal bio. So listeners have heard your credentials. But I always like us to kind of tell me a little bit about their personal why and the work that you're doing in this space that you're in, how you came to be doing that.
Yeah, so I am late diagnosed autistic in ADHD and I'm a mental health therapist, certified trauma therapist for children and adolescents, as well as a non-attorney special education advocate. and mother of two neurodivergent learners. And I actually got into the advocacy space and the disability space when my oldest son entered into the public school system undiagnosed in the state of Louisiana. And so my husband was active duty military at the time. I was working with, as I call them, the littles. So I was going into the child development centers and supporting staff and working with learners. I had a preconceived idea and a stereotypical view of what autism looked like. And so my son had and all his milestones.
He'd been trying to read since he was two. And I looked for support for him as he was going to the school system because I've worked in the school settings, a mother and sister educators. And I was like, you know, hey, I want to meet with the counselor and this person and that person so we can come up with a plan because he's got some perfectionistic thinking. And looking back, it was every time we transitioned to a new center because again, we're military. So every two to three years we were moving was we'd have a little bit of hiccups. Then they build a relationship with him. We worked together with the teacher and we were good. But it started off with a lot of phone calls, write-ups, all these things.
And then they suspended him three times in two weeks back to back. So he'd return and get suspended. And they were trying to label him as something he wasn't.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What inspired Dr. Destiny Huff to become a neuro‑affirming advocate?
0:00–11:50
2
How did Dr. Huff’s own school‑system experiences shape her view of IEPs?
11:50–22:35
3
What makes an IEP “horrible” and how can families recognize it?
22:35–28:12
4
What does a truly neuro‑affirming IEP look like in practice?
28:12–33:07
5
Why are under‑funding and lack of training major barriers for neurodivergent students?
33:07–38:10
6
How can parents collect and use home data to strengthen their advocacy?
38:10–39:30
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
TPP 266a: A Conversation with Poet and Advocate LeDerick Horne
TPP 522: A Whole Child Approach to ADHD with Phil Boucher, M.D.
TPP 091a: A Conversation With Steve Silberman About His Book “Neurotribes”
TPP 521: A Conversation with Dr. Peter Gray About Restoring Childhood
TPP 253a: Advocate and Author Jonathan Mooney on Why Normal Sucks
TPP 520: Dr. Özgür Bolat on Why Rewards Backfire and the Real Science of Motivating Kids