Episode Details

For families supporting someone with profound autism, unstructured time can sometimes lead to boredom, frustration, agitation, or challenging behavior. In this episode, Mike Carr shares how his family uses structure, visual schedules, communication tools, and meaningful choices to help his son Michael build independence and participate more actively in his daily life.

Mike explains why visual structure isn't simply about keeping someone busy. Everyday activities such as making the bed, doing laundry, walking, shooting hoops, or following a breakfast routine can become opportunities to practice communication, daily living skills, decision-making, and independence.

He also discusses the tools his family uses, including Picto-Selector, TouchChat, and apps such as First Then Visual Schedule HD, Visual Schedule Planner by Good Karma, ChoiceWorks and Lil Planner: Visual Schedule. Mike explains how these supports can help Michael understand what's happening next, make choices, and work more consistently with his support team.

The conversation also connects these everyday skills to a bigger goal: preparing autistic children and adults for respite care, residential care, and greater independence.

Mike's advice is straightforward: start small. Choose one routine, introduce a few meaningful choices, and build on the small successes.

In this episode, you'll learn about:

• Using visual schedules with profound autism
• Reducing uncertainty through predictable routines
• Supporting mostly non-speaking autistic adults
• Building independence through everyday activities
• Using meaningful choices to increase participation
• TouchChat and communication-supported choices
• Visual scheduling tools and apps
• Preparing for respite and residential care
• Building life skills through repeated practice
• Starting small when introducing visual supports

Whether you're a parent, caregiver, family member, or professional supporting someone with profound autism, this episode offers practical ideas you can consider adapting to your own situation.

Learn more about Autism Labs: https://www.autismlabs.com/