Autism and Developmental Support through Floortime Therapy

💡 What is interoception?

Interoception is a body sense that is important but lesser known. It helps us notice and understand signals inside our own bodies - like feeling hungry, thirsty, tired, needing the toileting, and even pain.

This sense helps us keep our body in balance, manage our emotions, and feel connected to ourselves and the people around us.

📚 Research shows that Autistic people experience interoception differences more often than non-autistic people (Zachary et al., 2023). Just like our other senses, Autistic people may be extra-sensitive (hyper-) or less sensitive (hypo-) to what is happening inside our body.

This means we may find it hard to notice body signals, feel body signals too strongly, or mix them up with emotions — for example, not being sure if we’re feeling uncomfortable because we’re hungry or because we’re anxious.

These differences can affect many parts of daily life, and have a big impact on our physical health, emotional wellbeing, and how we connect with others.

Read more on our webiste at https://reframingautism.org.au/interoception-knowing-yourself-inside-and-out/



[ID: Against a magenta background with the Reframing Autism logo in the top left corner and the knotwork logo located in the lower right corner is an infographic titled, 'How Interoception Varies in Autistic Individuals'. Beneath are white text boxes with six points which state: Challenges in recognising basic needs; e.g., hunger, thirst or needing to use the bathroom, Emotional regulation - Difficulty in connecting internal physical sensations with emotions, Challenges with reflecting on one’s thoughts and feelings (Introspection), Heightened or diminished experiences of pain, Difficulty in identifying and describing emotions (Alexithymia), Interoception differences can make it harder for Autistic individuals to pick up on social cues.]

✴️ Spellfire & Reflection: What “High Functioning” and “Low Functioning” Actually Mean

The terms “high functioning” and “low functioning” are widely used to describe neurodivergent people, but they’re deeply misleading. These labels don’t reflect internal experience—they reflect external convenience.

They were never designed to understand someone’s nervous system or inner world.
They were designed to determine how easy someone is to manage, educate, employ, or ignore.

⸻

🧠 What “High Functioning” Usually Means

When someone is described as “high functioning,” it often means:

• They’re able to suppress their needs
• They can pass as neurotypical in certain environments
• They don’t visibly disrupt systems or structures

But it doesn’t mean they are:
• Resourced
• Regulated
• Emotionally integrated
• Supported in their full expression

In fact, high functioning often looks like:

😶 Silencing parts of the self
🌀 Dissociating from sensory overload
🪞 Masking in order to be acceptable
🧨 Operating on the edge of burnout

Many who are labeled “high functioning” are simply performing wellness while suffering in silence.

⸻

🕳️ What “Low Functioning” Is Actually Signaling

On the other hand, “low functioning” is typically used to describe someone whose needs are more visible or less convenient to the system.

It doesn’t mean they’re incapable.
It means their divergence is undeniable.

The label “low functioning” is typically used when a person’s needs can’t be ignored. It often refers to those who:

• Are non-speaking or unreliably speaking
• Regulate through stimming, movement, or withdrawal
• Communicate differently—through AAC, gestures, scripts, or not at all
• Challenge norms simply by existing as they are

This particular constellation of divergent traits does not reflect a lack of capacity or intelligence. On the contrary, letterboard communication and lived experience have actually revealed PROFOUND intelligence in this once profoundly underestimated population of divergents.
Their truth is simply harder for others to receive—and their intelligence doesn’t conform to what the world has been taught to recognize.

Sometimes, what gets labeled “low functioning” is a nervous system responding with deep wisdom—shutting down, disconnecting, or expressing pain in ways others don’t understand. It’s not a refusal to comply—it’s often an inability to, or a sign that compliance would require the abandonment of self. The issue isn’t a lack of function. It’s a lack of support for the truth that’s being expressed.

⸻

🌱 Breakdown as Intelligence

What gets labeled “low functioning” is sometimes what finally surfaces when a neurodivergent person stops masking—when they stop forcing themselves to meet expectations that never matched their internal reality. It’s the moment everything false begins to fall away.

It’s the nervous system saying:

“I can’t keep surviving like this. I need to return to something real.”

⸻

🔄 Shifting the Lens

Instead of asking whether someone is high or low functioning, ask:
• Are they surviving, or are they safe?
• Are they regulated, or just compliant?
• Are they present in their body, or performing a role?
• Are they being supported to cohere, or being judged for collapsing?

And most importantly:
• What system are they being expected to “function” within?
• Who defines that functioning—and who benefits?

Because when someone can no longer function in a world that never made space for their nervous system…

That’s not dysfunction.
That’s resistance.
That’s wisdom.

❤️

With ICDL - Home of DIRFloortime – I just got recognized as one of their top fans! 🎉

This is an excellent article written by Steven May of The Spellers Community

Two Controllers: Understanding Apraxia and the Brain-Body Disconnect for Parents of Nonspeaking and Unreliably Speaking Autistics

The Two Controllers

Imagine this:
Your child’s body is being controlled by two entirely separate systems—two “controllers.”

The first controller is their true self, THEM. This is who your child really is—the inner intelligence, the emotional being, the compassionate and curious spirit that sees you, understands the world, and is actively trying to connect, continuously. This is the version of your child that you sense in quiet moments when your own mind is clearest,
distracted from the daily grind and open. This IS who they are.

The second controller is the Apraxic Controller—and this is not your child.
It is their nervous system, functioning in a disorganized, disconnected way. It operates their body without their permission. The Apraxic Controller affects everything: movement, speech, facial expression, posture, sounds, responses. It causes the body to act in ways that do not match their inner thoughts or intentions. IT IS NOT THEM!

Spellers across the world—once they gain reliable communication—describe this dynamic again and again:

“My body doesn’t listen to me.”
“I scream when I want to be quiet.”
“It looks like I’m not paying attention, but I hear everything.”
“My face lies.”
“It’s like watching someone else drive my body.”

This is not a behavioral issue. This is not lack of intelligence, nor a lack of desire to connect. This is a neurological movement disorder—apraxia—where the brain’s messages to the body are scrambled, delayed, or blocked entirely. REMEMBER - This is NOT them.

This is why spelling becomes a lifeline. Through the structured support of a spelling board, your child finally gains access to an alternate route—a way to bypass the Apraxic Controller and communicate directly from their true self to you.

As you journey together, you will begin to see it clearly:
Your child is in there. They always were.
But the Apraxic Controller is fighting for control, every step of the way.

Flipping the Lens: From Outside-In to Inside-Out

As parents, carers, and professionals, we are often trained—formally or unconsciously—to look from the outside in.

We interpret behavior. We expect responses. We rely on expressions, gestures, or spoken words to signal engagement, interest, or intelligence.
And when those things aren’t present, we’re taught to assume lack: lack of attention, lack of understanding, lack of readiness. That’s simply 100% not true, it’s the opposite and WE are the error.

Here’s the truth:
These expectations are built on neurotypical standards, not autistic experience.

Presuming competence means changing our lens.
It is the shift from:

“Why are they doing that?”
to
“What are they experiencing moments ago and right now?”

This new lens asks us to:
• See behaviors as adaptive, not disruptive
• Understand that movement and expression may not align with intention
• Regulate ourselves first, before we respond
• Remove or reduce sensory overstimulation in the environment
• Be open to alternative forms of communication that begin with spelling, not speaking
• Replace demand with curiosity, flexibility, and deep trust

When we do this, we stop demanding that our child meet our social norms, and begin the work of meeting them where they are—with clarity, respect, and love.

The Golden Keys to Open Communication

There are three essential elements—call them your golden keys—for supporting your child’s communication journey:
• Presume Competence – Assume that your child is understanding everything, even when their body says otherwise. Hold this belief especially when it’s hardest.
• Belief – Your unwavering belief in your child’s intelligence and capability is not a nicety—it’s a necessity. It is the soil in which open communication grows.
• Love – Love regulates. Love anchors. Love softens frustration, fear, and resistance—yours and theirs. It is the single most powerful tool you carry.

As spelling becomes part of your shared world, expect surprises. Expect resistance. Expect joy. Expect setbacks, and expect miracles.

And always stay watchful and fully aware for the Apraxic Controller—not because your child is broken, but because their Apraxic Controller hijacks their body and works totally against their will.

Your role is not to fix them.
Your role is to see them.
To believe in them.
To walk beside them—no matter how uneven the path.

Step by step, letter by letter, connection by connection…
Communication will open.
And the person you’ve always known was inside will come shining through.

❤️

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/172eYGW7i6/?mibextid=wwXIfr

“Your regulation helps shape mine.” ❤️

Beautiful explanation of how each individual experiences autism 👍. Refrain from judging what you don't understand. . . . . #autismfamilysupport #autismawareness #autismparents #autismwarrior #asdfamily #proudautismmom #AutismAcceptance

The Kinds of Things That Happen....When You Are Raising Neurodivergent Kids:
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1) The school calls. They have lost your 6 year old!

You ask the office where his classmates are.

Everyone else is in art class. 🎨

You sigh and tell them your son is probably in his homeroom. He never left it.

Kiddo didn't line up because nobody called him SPECIFICALLY by name. 🔕

He is sitting in the dark (while his Kindergarten teacher is on break) waiting politely, for an invitation.
_______________________

2) Your child asks if he can invite a friend to play and have dinner.

How exciting! He finally has a friend! 😊

You prepare for a fellow 9 year old to build Lego and decorate cupcakes. You even break out the Bubble machine.

When a 37 year old, motorcycle riding, butch le***an shows up, to share her taxidermy collection, you are a bit surprised...
but blame yourself.

After all, you didn't ask how old the friend was. 🧑‍🦳

Apparently she is the custodian at the library.

And...now they are building Lego, together. 🤷‍♀️
___________________________

3) There is screaming at the zoo.

You turn and see your daughter levitating, 5 feet off the ground, as a tall man grabs at her ankles.

A zookeeper had offered her a carrot, to feed to the giraffe. 🥕

The zookeeper had not SPECIFICALLY told her to let GO of the carrot,
once it was grasped by the giraffe's powerful tongue.

Apparently, a Midwestern American carrot can support the weight of a 58 pound child! 👧
_________________________

4) You go over the script with your child. 📜

After they open a Christmas present, they are supposed to say, "It's perfect. Thank you so much, for thinking of me."

You didn't realize that a couple of the gift tags had fallen off,
and that Grandpa had done his best to guess which presents they belonged to. 🎁

Your 4 year old daughter opens a bag with a men's shaver and a bottle of Jack Daniel's. 🍾

She holds them up and says, "These are perfect. Thank you for thinking of me!"

You try to laugh it off, but people are unhappy when after dinner, they discover she has shaved the dog.

The dog isn't hurt. It just looks....really surprised. 🐶
____________________

5) You told your child they could be anything they wanted, for Halloween...

if they would just participate, by dressing up!

You regret that now.

Because the store doesn't sell a wearable model of The Titanic in size 10. 🛳

And kiddo keeps telling you that the cardboard model you got off Pinterest and spent 17 hours making--

is historically inaccurate.
_____________________

6) The school calls again. Your son set a chipmunk loose, in the classroom. 🐿

You point out that your 2nd grade child shouldn't have been unsupervised long enough,
to engineer, build and repeatedly check a wild animal trap, in the woodsy area, at daily recess.

Your son just points out that chipmunks are the school mascot.
____________________

7) "It's your fault they are so weird," says your undiagnosed parent....

As you watch both grandparent AND grandchild,

set down their Pokemon Go screens,

carefully separate all their foods so they won't touch,

and pace around the room,

taking turns info dumping,

making T-rex arms,

and forgetting to eat as they debate the merits of Discovery vs. The Next Generation.
___________________________

8) "Thank you so much for inviting us! Yeah we really DO have to leave before the piniata and cake.

My 8 year old has a moral objection to eating a cake shaped like a cat or hitting a model of a cat with a stick.

It's going to be upsetting for EVERYONE if she begins calling your child a 'M*rderer.' "
_____________________________

What shenanigans do YOUR Neurodivergent family members get up to?

The layers of connection run so deep, setting up the brain's capabilities for life. Relationships fill 2 essential needs: safety and predictability.