Many autistic children develop sophisticated masking strategies that hide their traits, making diagnosis challenging but support even more crucial.

Learn how to understand and support the unique social communication patterns of autistic children while building authentic connections.

When four-year-old Marcus covers his ears and melts down in the grocery store, it's not a behavioral problem. When his sister Emma seeks out tight hugs and crashes into furniture throughout the day, she's not being destructive. Both children are autistic, and their behaviors reflect the profound ways that sensory processing differences affect how they experience and navigate the world.

When your autistic child refuses to do something one day that they willingly did the day prior, or they melt down over simple tasks they've done many times before, it's easy to feel frustrated and wonder if they're just being defiant.