Foundation Academics: First Things First

Foundation Academics: What is it?

Here is a podcast I did with Affect Autism, and it’s host, Daria Brown. She is a real leader here in North America, headquartered in Toronto, on the issue of respectful, appropriate, developmental support for people with autism spectrum challenges. I loved talking with her about a concept I came up with about 10 years ago, Foundation Academics. It is my attempt to explain to parents why we need to focus on early developmental levels before we get to reading, writing and arithmetic. It helps to explain that you need to do first things FIRST, and THEN we will get to those more traditional, “secondary academics.” I think this is my first publicly available full explanation of the idea of Foundation Academics, one of the cornerstones of my educational philosophy for folks with developmental challenges like autism spectrum challenges. Enjoy!