Ep. 22: Using Strengths-Based Language to Build Positive Self-Identity
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What is the purpose of using strengths‑based language with autistic children?
What's up everyone and welcome to Making the Shift.
We're an SLP couple from California with three boys and a passion for finding better ways to support autistic kids.
I'm Chris. You might know me as speech dude. I'm a Neurodivergent High School SLP and the creator of the Dynamic Assessment of Social Emotional Learning, and I specialize in crafting neurodiversity affirming IEPs through my online course.
And I'm Jesse, a sensory integration trained SLP, owner of a top-rated clinic in Los Angeles, and the creator of the Inside Out Sensory Communication Programs for Parents and Therapists. Join us weekly to learn neurodiversity affirming ways to support social, emotional development, and regulation in autistic kids.
Are you ready to make the shift?
Let's do it. Hello everyone! We hope you're doing well. You can see all the toys behind us. We are in some construction at our office and my room is the catch all for every single toy, basically.
They're all here. Yeah.
So we are so excited. We have an exciting week ahead. We just What we just presented that was last week, last end of last week. We just presented last week for Kansas. Which is really fun. And then we fly out this week to Colorado to present at the Colorado Speech Association.
We are all over the US. This is great. I've never been out to the Denver area other than the airport. So this will be a good experience I can Stop off at Some fancy uh some dining out there. I was
like, Do you know the Denver Staples was they've got going?
They've definitely got an olive garden.
There we go.
Every big city has an olive garden.
I gotta
get the the breadsticks.
Thank you, they're great. Awesome. So we're really excited about tonight's topic. I say that every week. I should stop saying that.
Well, we are always excited about everyday's topics. And the reason is is because when any topic comes up, doesn't matter if it's related to Um our line of work. or if it's related to the news or if the topic is about sports with the kids, we enjoy topics because we can take a deficits based language topic and switch it to a strengths based topic and that's why we enjoy them.
Nice.
You like how I did that?
That was good.
Yeah. We're able to say, you know what? The news sure did portray this situation to be the worst situation in the world. And then we will end up being able to try to look through some of the mud and uh put our heads above that to see maybe some of the growth that can come from some of these things. So
Yeah, and tonight we really wanted to talk about a strengths-based approach and what that means and how we can make some seemingly insignificant changes to even the words we are saying, which can make a huge difference in the approaches we use, the way that we treat our kids, the way our kids feel about themselves. It's just so important. And First of all, I think there's confusion, maybe about what a strengths based approach means. Let's talk about what it means.
Yeah, so We historically and still current day have documents set up that provide language that's built on deficits based. So the IEP reports, assessments, observation forms are really heavily weighted on saying, hey. What are these kids' deficits? What are what are the kids the child's ch um things that they cannot do. But
challenges. Not even challenges.
It's really just basically deficits. And the reason it's framed as deficits is because they're comparing Um
How do traditional deficit‑based reports limit a child’s self‑identity?
Da abilities to a neurotypical developmental norm and neurotypical social norms. And so what might seem like deficits on the outside are in reality differences. And we've talked about that in episodes past. So I think that's one of the things that um we really need to try to change and make the shift of our mindset. Is You know, not viewing Um and using language that comes as a deficit based Language approach.
And you're even bringing up a the bigger picture. idea of not comparing where kids should be to the neurotypical norm.
Right, exactly.
Yeah. So what is a strength based approach exactly?
Well Let's talk about a deficit base because it's very common to hear deficits.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the purpose of using strengths‑based language with autistic children?
0:08–4:18
2
How do traditional deficit‑based reports limit a child’s self‑identity?
4:18–8:05
3
What exactly does a strengths‑based approach look like in practice?
8:05–12:30
4
How can we rewrite common deficit statements into strengths‑focused language?
12:30–15:49
5
What are concrete examples of strengths‑based descriptions for a student?
15:49–19:20
6
How does the Bruno character illustrate a strengths‑based narrative?
19:20–23:19
7
Why is it important to involve parents and teams as coaches in this process?
23:19–24:07
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The NeuroAffirm Podcast
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Ep. 124 Building Rapport Isn’t Enough...How Therapists Become Part of the Intervention
Ep. 123 Not Seeing Progress in Speech Therapy? Start Here.
Ep. 122 Screen Time Considerations for Autistic Kids
Ep. 121 The Biggest Sensory Mistakes SLPs Make
Ep. 120 Why Anxiety is So Common in Autism (And What Actually Helps)