Neurodiversity-Affirming Clinical Application
Presented by Amy L. Donaldson and endever* corbin
This course provides a comprehensive framework for shifting from deficit-based to neurodiversity-affirming clinical practices when supporting autistic people. While traditional models often prioritize normalization and the remediation of perceived deficits, this training emphasizes the importance of cross-community communication, where responsibility for successful interaction is shared between neurotypes. Participants will learn to formulate strengths-based intervention goals that prioritize self-advocacy, autonomy, and quality of life. The curriculum also addresses the critical need for authentic partnership with the autistic community, ensuring that clinical decisions are informed by lived experience and the principle of “nothing about us without us.” This course is designed for speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, and other healthcare providers working in schools, outpatient clinics, or community-based settings who seek to foster more equitable and respectful therapeutic environments.
Learning Outcomes
- Discriminate between the medical model, the social model, and biopsychosocial models of disability as they relate to communication access and agency
- Examine the characteristics of unreliable, intermittent, insufficient, and “expensive” speech in speaking autistic people
- Analyze opportunity and access barriers in a student’s environment using the participation model
- Modify a communication environment to validate multimodal communication, including scripting and refusal
Meet your instructors
Amy L. Donaldson
Amy L. Donaldson, PhD, CCC-SLP, is a professor in the Department of Speech & Hearing Sciences at Portland State University. Using a participatory research framework, she is interested in examining communication choice, access, and agency, as well as social interaction and relationship development in partnership with the…
endever* corbin
endever* corbin (name is lowercase; the star is silent; pronouns are they/them/theirs or xe/xem/xyrs) is a multiply disabled, mostly-nonspeaking Autistic self-advocate. Their multimodal communication methods include a symbol-based AAC device, typing, ASL, letterboards, some mouthwords, and more. As a community research…
Chapters & learning objectives
1. Cross-Community Communication and Social Interaction
This chapter introduces the concept of neurodiversity and examines how communication styles vary across different neurotypes. It highlights the move toward equity-based services where both autistic and non-autistic partners share the responsibility for successful social exchanges. Clinicians must undertand these cultural differences so they can move away from deficit-based frameworks and toward supporting authentic social engagement.
2. Strengths-Based Intervention and Goal Setting
Participants will explore practical strategies for respecting all communication modalities and responding to every communication bid. This chapter provides a four-step guide to writing goals that focus on a person’s functional priorities and environmental modifications rather than fixing a perceived impairment. These strategies are vital for fostering self-determination and ensuring that interventions align with the individual’s own passions and life goals.
3. Partnering With the Autistic Community
This chapter emphasizes the necessity of including autistic perspectives in all levels of clinical practice, research, and leadership. It details how professionals can support communicative agency and learn directly from the lived experiences of the heterogeneous autistic community. Engaging in these authentic partnerships is a foundational step for any clinician committed to neurodiversity-affirming care.
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