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PODCAST

The Autism Little Learners Podcast

You want to help your autistic students or child thrive — but it can feel overwhelming trying to figure out where to start. Whether you"re wondering how to build connection, teach communication, navigate sensory needs, or support your paras… you"re in the right place. Welcome to The Autism Little Learners Podcast, where compassion meets practical strategy. Host Tara Phillips, a speech-language pathologist with over two decades of experience, brings you neurodiversity-affirming insights,

education parenting

All Episodes

01:05:17

#194 Nonspeaking AAC User & Autistic Woman Jordyn...

The Autism Little Learners Podcast ·

2026/09/29

A quick heads up before you listen: Jordyn prepared some answers ahead of time and responded to others in real time, so you'll hear pauses between each question and Jordyn's answer. I challenge you to resist the urge to fast-forward through the wait time. Sitting with that silence is one of the most important skills of a good communication partner — in this episode, and in your classroom. As we get ready to kick off AAC Awareness Month on October 1st, I'm bringing back one of my most meaningful

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18:00

#193: Is It Behavior or a Stress Response? Supporting...

The Autism Little Learners Podcast ·

2026/09/22

When an autistic child is melting down, refusing, running away, or saying "no," what looks like challenging behavior may actually be a stress response or an important form of communication. In this episode, Tara is revisiting the way we think about behavior in autistic preschoolers and asking us to look underneath what we can see on the outside. Instead of starting with "How do I stop this behavior?" we can get curious about what the child's nervous system may be communicating. Are they overwhelmed

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18:16

#191: 5 Must-Have Visual Supports for Autistic...

The Autism Little Learners Podcast ·

2026/09/08

If you're looking for the best visual supports for autistic preschoolers, these five foundational tools can make classroom routines, transitions, communication, and everyday expectations easier to understand. In this episode, Tara is going back to the basics and sharing five of her favorite visual supports for young autistic children. These are the supports she returns to again and again because they are practical, flexible, and easy to use in preschool classrooms, therapy spaces, and at home

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20:42

#190: Regulation Before Expectation: Supporting...

The Autism Little Learners Podcast ·

2026/09/01

Supporting regulation in the classroom starts with understanding what an autistic child's nervous system needs before we focus on expectations, participation, or learning. That's why regulation is the focus of Week 3 of our Back to School Foundations series. By early September, you've probably moved past those first days of school when everyone is learning names, exploring the classroom, and figuring each other out. Your routines are starting to take shape, expectations are increasing, and you may

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17:43

#189: Connection Comes Before Teaching

The Autism Little Learners Podcast ·

2026/08/25

Building a positive connection with autistic students is one of the most important things we can focus on at the beginning of a new school year. That's why I'm making connection the focus of Week 2 of our Back to School Foundations series. There's something about that second week of school, too. The first few days are behind you, the excitement and whirlwind of getting everyone through the door has settled just a little, and you start realizing, I have a whole room full of children I'm still getting

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01:15:10

#187: Autism Is Not A Tragedy with Cari Ebert...

The Autism Little Learners Podcast ·

2026/08/11

"Don't buy him letters." That's what a professional told Cari Ebert when her son Aaron was two. He was "obsessed," they said, and needed to be moved toward more appropriate play. Cari ignored them. Those letters were how Aaron showed joy, and how she connected with him. Nearly two decades later, that same deep interest in letters, numbers, and dates is what landed him a job he loves. That moment is the heart of today's episode, because it's exactly what happens when we treat autism as a

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48:16

#186: It's Not Defiance, It's PDA (with Casey...

The Autism Little Learners Podcast ·

2026/08/04

The one who melts down at the smallest request, who seems to dig in the moment you say "do this."...you know this child. In this episode I sit down with Casey Ehrlich, PhD — social scientist, founder of At Peace Parents, and a leader in the first peer-reviewed PDA research in the United States — to talk about PDA: what it is, why it's a nervous system response rather than defiance, and what actually helps. PDA isn't defiance. It's a survival-level drive for autonomy — and once you see that, you

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12:00

#184: It Started in the Hardest Year of My Life:...

The Autism Little Learners Podcast ·

2026/07/21

Teaching autistic preschoolers can feel lonely. This is the episode where I pull back the curtain on the membership that became the opposite of that island — where it came from, what's inside, and the community that surprised me most. Teaching young autistic children can feel like being on an island. The membership is the opposite of that. I'll tell you how it began in grief, after I lost my dad in 2019, and grew into a genuine passion for helping educators and parents feel less overwhelmed and

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13:49

#183 Presuming Competence in the Preschool Classroom

The Autism Little Learners Podcast ·

2026/07/14

My non-speaking three-year-old student told me "This is boring" on his AAC device. That moment changed everything for me, because that is communication, and that is competence. It's exactly what today's episode is about: presuming competence, an idea that quietly shapes everything else we do with young autistic children. Because so often, the ability was there all along. What was missing wasn't the child's capacity. It was the tools, and an adult willing to believe there was something worth saying

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47:23

#182 Emotional Intelligence in the Classroom with NYT...

The Autism Little Learners Podcast ·

2026/07/07

What if defiance is really dysregulation? In this episode I sit down with Alyssa Blask Campbell — New York Times bestselling author of Tiny Humans, Big Emotions, founder of Seed & Sow, and co-creator of the Collaborative Emotion Processing method — to talk about emotional intelligence, unique nervous systems, and why the behavior we find hardest is so often a child asking for support. When we see challenging behavior, we're usually looking at a nervous system that needs support — not a child who

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01:05:17

#181: Every Non-Speaking Child Should Have Access To...

The Autism Little Learners Podcast ·

2026/06/30

Imagine understanding every word around you while the adults talk over you like you're not even there — and not having a reliable way to communicate until you're almost 19. That's part of Jordyn Zimmerman's story. Jordyn is an autistic woman who is non-speaking and a full-time AAC user, and in this conversation she shares, from lived experience, what will change how you show up in your classroom. Communication is a basic human right. It is never something a student has to earn, and there are no

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31:31

#180 Preschool Autism Summit: How it came to be & the...

The Autism Little Learners Podcast ·

2026/06/23

He was banging his head on the floor, and Tara remembers the tears sliding down her cheeks and the only words she could find: "How can I help you?" That moment, and dozens of others over 25 years in the classrooms, the real origin story of the Preschool Autism Summit. In this episode, we flip the script. Instead of Tara behind the mic, her teammate Shawna takes over as host and interviews Tara about how the summit actually began, long before it was an annual event with 30 presentations and

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16:35

#179: The 4-Letter Shift That Changes How You See...

The Autism Little Learners Podcast ·

2026/06/16

What if behavior isn't something to stop, but something to listen to? In this episode, we're talking about one of the biggest mindset shifts happening in autism education right now: moving from compliance-based teaching toward connection, regulation, and understanding. Because what often gets labeled as "behavior" in preschool classrooms is actually communication. I'll walk you through what changes when educators stop asking, "How do I stop this behavior?" and start asking, "What is this child

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14:53

#178: What If Too Many Questions Are Quieting Your...

The Autism Little Learners Podcast ·

2026/06/09

In this episode, we're talking about something so many of us were taught to do with the best of intentions, but that can quietly work against us: prompting. Because when nearly every interaction becomes a question, a direction, or a cue, communication can actually shrink instead of grow. I'll walk you through what happens when a child learns that communication only ever shows up after an adult prompts them, and how that can lead to waiting, shorter responses, or disengaging altogether. This

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0:40

#177: Echolalia Is Communication (Not Something to...

The Autism Little Learners Podcast ·

2026/06/02

In this episode, we're talking about echolalia, what it really is, what it's doing, and why so many autistic children communicate this way. For years, many educators and therapists were taught to reduce echolalia or move children "past it." But research, autistic voices, and deeper understanding of gestalt language processing have helped shift that thinking in important ways. Echolalia is not meaningless repetition. It is communication. Today's conversation explores: what echolalia actually is

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17:22

#176: Before Words: Why Symbolic Sounds Matter More...

The Autism Little Learners Podcast ·

2026/05/26

In this episode, we're talking about something that often gets overlooked in early language development: symbolic sounds and exclamatory words. The "vrooooms," "uh-ohs," "wheees," and "mooos" that many children use before traditional words are not meaningless sounds. They are real communication. This conversation explores why these early sounds matter so much, especially for autistic preschoolers, minimally speaking children, and children just beginning their communication journey. We'll talk

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18:11

#175: Incorporating Deep Interests to Transform...

The Autism Little Learners Podcast ·

2026/05/19

In this episode, we bring everything together and move into the how. After exploring what deep interests are and why forcing engagement backfires, we now look at how to actually incorporate a child's deep interests to support meaningful learning. If you've ever planned a thoughtful activity only to watch a child walk away, this conversation will help you shift how you approach teaching. Instead of trying to pull children into activities that don't feel meaningful to them, we explore how to bring

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01:26:40

#174: What Echolalia Is Really Telling You: A...

The Autism Little Learners Podcast ·

2026/05/12

In this encore episode, we're revisiting one of the most meaningful conversations from the early days of the podcast — a wide-ranging chat with speech-language pathologist Nicole Casey about gestalt language processing, echolalia, and what it really takes to support autistic communicators. What if the words a child is repeating aren't random? Gestalt language processing (GLP) is a natural way of acquiring language where children begin with whole strings of intonationally-defined language — often

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18:40

#173: Why Forcing Engagement Backfires (And What to...

The Autism Little Learners Podcast ·

2026/05/05

In this episode, we gently shift how we understand one of the most common challenges in classrooms and therapy spaces: low engagement. When a child walks away, refuses, shuts down, or pushes materials aside, it can feel confusing and frustrating, especially when you're trying to help them learn. But what if disengagement isn't defiance? This episode explores why forcing engagement through prompting, token systems, and increased demands often backfires, especially for autistic children whose nervous

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16:15

#172: What Are Deep Interests? (And Why the Name...

The Autism Little Learners Podcast ·

2026/04/28

In this episode, we explore a powerful shift in how we understand one of the most recognizable traits in autistic children: their deep interests. If you've ever watched a child return to the same topic, object, or activity again and again with intense focus, you may have wondered whether it's something to redirect or expand. But what if the interest isn't the problem? This episode walks through why many educators and autistic adults are moving away from the term "special interests" and toward "deep

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