In this podcourse episode, we feature Staci Neustadt of Making Sense of Autism to discuss Staci’s framework and tools—the Strengths, Stressors, and Supports Profile and a Soft Skills Assessment—which use a holistic, criterion-referenced approach emphasizing how autistic individuals learn, their strengths and emerging strengths, barriers, triggers, and “unready” skills rather than deficit language.

Staci shares clinical examples showing how reframing behaviors as communication, supporting regulation, predictability, shared control, and self-advocacy can shift goal writing, motivation, and outcomes, while still allowing standardized testing to be interpreted through a neuro-affirming lens.