A diagnosis can be a really sobering and difficult thing. Whether your child has been recently diagnosed with autism, ADHD, or some other developmental difference, you may have left the appointment with more questions than answers. It’s important to surround yourself with a support system, as well as seek out affirming learning resources that can teach you how to best help your child. We’ve compiled a mega list of our favorite writers, courses, websites, and more.

Parent courses:

HAVEN Bridge is a neurodiversity-affirming course. They also have additional courses available, which range in price.
Kristy Forbes offers parenting courses for neurodiverse families.
Onward & Upward Psychology has courses, printables, workshops, books, and more for families of children with developmental differences.
Reframing Autism also has a workshop called “Neurodiversity, Autism and the joy of parenting differently wired children“ for a reasonable fee.
Circle of Security is an international, research-based program for parents and professionals. It will teach you how to form a secure attachment with your child. Research shows that secure attachment can overcome some challenges that children with developmental differences deal with, like aggressive behaviors. In a study, parents of special needs kids who used Circle of Security had wonderful family outcomes.

Websites, articles, and more:

Our lists of the best podcasts, blogs, and movies .
We debunked 15 common myths about autism, which is a great place to start if your child was recently diagnosed.
Our co-founder, Marissa, created a wonderful article that explains neurodiversity.

Some additional websites we like are:

Autisticrealms.com A blog about education, mental health, and parent advocacy created by an autistic mom and educator who also has neurodivergent children.
Understood.org Provides a huge selection of easy-to-read articles all about thinking and learning differences, that explain everything from sensory processing, navigating IEPs, to ADHD and more!
Harkla Is a fantastic resource for not only products that your child will likely love, but tons of information created by occupational therapists that explain sensory seeking and avoidance, how to create a sensory diet for your child, as well as how all our senses work (we have more than 5)!
Beaming Health – that’s us! We create a ton of content, both on our website and social media, to educate, support, and inspire special needs parents like you.

Autistic voices:

ASAN (The Autistic Self-Advocacy Network) is run by autistic people. ASAN aims to educate everyone about autism and lobby for changes in many areas of life and public policy. Check out their "Start Here" guide for new parents and intervention and ethics guide is a great way to learn about red and green flags in any services your child may be receiving.
Autisticnotweird.com is written by Chris Bonello, an autistic man who writes about a ton of topics that you may find helpful while raising an autistic child.
Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism is another great blog.
Kylene, AKA The Autistic Mama runs a blog and offers courses for parents of autistic children.

Books:

The Autistic Brain by Temple Grandin, who is an autistic woman and veterinary doctor, is a fascinating read that explores the history of autism, her own experiences as an autistic woman, plus the science and neurology of the autistic brain.
The Autism Handbook is a resource for parents and educators created by a neurodivergent speech therapist. The handbook covers a ton of topics and information explaining autism, how to best support your child, evaluations, dealing with the education system, and more!
We’ve got a list of the books every autism parent should read in our Learning Center.

Social media accounts:

In addition to our list of the best social media accounts to follow, we also love:

@autism_happy_place, an autistic artist who makes fun, shareable illustrations that explain different aspects of being autistic.
@neurowild_, an autistic SLP (speech language pathologist), advocate, and mom who creates fantastic illustrations and videos on all things neurodivergence, education, neurodiversity, and parenting.
@speechdude, an in-school speech therapist and ADHDer who tackles education and neurodiversity with humor and knowledge.
@understoodorg has informative reels and posts on education, thinking, and learning differences!
@harkla_family is the account to follow for fun reels and info on satisfying your child’s sensory needs!
@mrsspeechiep is a neurodivergent speech therapist and disability advocate. She spills all the tea for navigating IEPs, neurodiversity, and raising your child in a way that meets their needs. She’s even the creator of The Autism Handbook we mentioned in a previous section!

@kaelynnvp, an autistic therapist, advocate, and someone you may recognize from Netflix’s show Love on the Spectrum (which is on our list of shows to watch!) Kaelynn breaks down autism-related topics in such an easy to understand, fun, and kind way.

Christian Vinceneux is a neurodivergent parenting coach who offers loads of free tips and techniques on his LinkedIn, YouTube channel, and Facebook accounts! There are some really great parenting coaches out there for neurodiverse families, but we’ve worked with Christian on projects before and trust his content.

P.S. Even though we’ve only linked to one platform for each account, these creators are also on other social media platforms, so don’t stress if you don’t use the ones we’ve linked here.

A friendly reminder…

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, you’re not alone. Take your time, learn at your own pace, and be patient with yourself. There’s a lot to learn, but you don’t have to learn it all at once. You won’t always get it right, but the great thing about learning is that when we know better, we can do better! This list of neurodiversity-affirming (and mostly free) resources will be right here waiting for you when you’re ready to dive in. Consider bookmarking this page on your browser to come back to as needed.

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