Autism Therapies and Specialists

• Feeding Therapy: An occupational therapist or a speech language pathologist teaches children, including those with autism, how to eat or to eat more effectively. This therapy specifically addresses sensory and motor challenges, helping children develop the coordination and skills needed for successful eating.
• Nutritional Support Therapy: Used to treat or prevent malnutrition in children who cannot eat enough food. There are two types of nutritional support therapy: enteral nutrition and parenteral nutrition. Enteral nutrition uses a feeding tube, while parenteral nutrition uses a tube inserted directly into the veins in cases where the digestive tract can’t be used.
• Sensory Integration Therapy: Addresses hypersensitivity or hyposensitivity to stimuli in children, including those with autism, by teaching effective coping strategies for managing sensory input challenges. Utilizing a play-oriented approach, this therapy may include elements like deep pressure, weighted vests, trampolines, swings, and slides to increase a child’s threshold for tolerating sensory-rich environments.

Educational Therapy A professional combines educational and therapeutic approaches for evaluation, individualized intervention, case management, and advocacy on behalf of children and adults with learning disabilities or other learning challenges.

• TEACCH: An educational approach founded on the belief that individuals with autism benefit from consistency and visual learning. It guides teachers in adapting classroom structures to improve academic performance and more.

• AAC: Offers alternative ways to communicate for people with autism, from writing in a notebook to using gestures or pressing buttons on a tablet that speaks for the child. There are two types of ACC: Unaided systems (uses one’s own body) and aided systems (uses a tool or device).
• The Picture Exchange Communication System: A method of communication that involves using pictures, symbols, words or photographs to communicate.
• American Sign Language (ASL): A visual language that uses hand gestures, facial expressions, and body movement for non-verbal communication. This is a form of communication that is beneficial for individuals who are non-speaking, Deaf, or hard of hearing.
• Natural Language Acquisition (NLA): The process in which children learn languages naturally. There are two types of ways to learn a language: Analytical Language Processing (starts with single words and progresses to full sentences) and Gestalt Language Processing (begins with full sentences that they can break apart). Individuals with autism predominantly use Gestalt Language Processing.
• Talk Tools and Oral Placement Therapy (OPT): OPT combines auditory, visual, and tactile stimulation to address oral-motor challenges, such as difficulty with coordinated tongue movement and swallowing. Talk Tools is a type of OPT that uses tools (straws, horns, buttons) to improve muscle strength in the mouth.
• Oral Motor Strengthening: Exercises that improve how the mouth, jaw, lips, cheeks, and tongue work together, helping children coordinate better for sound production and clear speech.
• PROMPT Therapy: A form of therapy for individuals with aphasia, apraxia, autism, cerebral palsy, and more that utilizes visual, auditory, or tactile prompts and responses. This can include pointing to letter stencils and boards, the use of devices, handwriting, and purposeful speech. The four main objectives are cognitive, skill, tolerance, and communication.
• Total Communication: An approach that accepts and encourages individuals that are non-speaking or minimally verbal to use tools to communicate and express themselves. This includes using gestures, body language, sign language, augmented communication devices, lip reading, cued speech, and more.

• Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA): A type of therapy most often used to support individuals with autism that seeks to improve or teach specific behaviors in areas such as social skills, communication, self-care, and academics.
• DIR Floortime: A play-based therapy that seeks to help your child progress through creativity and connection. It is a child-led but still targeted approach where all or most of the child’s senses will be engaged while using their emotional and motor skills.
• Relationship Development Intervention (RDI): Guides parents of children with autism and primary caregivers to adopt new perspectives and behaviors, aiding them in effectively using their time to improve their child’s mental development.
• Play Therapy: A form of therapy that employs play activities to assist children in expressing emotions, enhancing communication, and working through various challenges. Particularly beneficial for children with autism who may engage in solitary play and repetitive actions, this therapy encourages sharing, exploring their environment, taking turns, and interacting with peers.
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): A psychological treatment that helps improve emotional regulation to protect against irrational fears or behaviors due to anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), Autism and other diagnoses.
• Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): An approach that combines cognitive-behavioral techniques with mindfulness strategies, emphasizing the development of skills for emotional regulation, improving social interactions, handling distress and more.

• Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS): A program, available to everyone, designed to teach social skills and how to form relationships in adolescents and young adults with autism, ADHD, anxiety, depression, and more who need social and emotional guidance.
• Social-Adaptive Development and Infant Stimulation Therapy: Offers sensory enrichment as a therapeutic intervention, focused on addressing both cognitive and motor developmental areas for children with suspected developmental delays or delayed milestones, or who are at high risk of delays.
• Social Stories: Short, descriptive narratives that use simple language and visual aids to help individuals understand and navigate social situations and behaviors.
• Social Groups
  • Autism Society LA
  • Autism Society San Francisco Bay Area
  • Autism Society San Diego
  • Ascent Autism
  • Regional Center

• Primary Care Pediatricians: Provides comprehensive healthcare for children, including preventative care, routine check-ups, vaccinations, and addresses any common illnesses or developmental concerns.
• Developmental Pediatricians: Specializing in evaluating and treating infants, children, and young adults with developmental delays, behavioral challenges, and learning disabilities, developmental pediatricians are experts in assessing developmental delays and autism. They can play a central role in your child’s overall care, providing guidance, referrals, and support, and helping coordinate care with your child’s other physicians, therapists, and educators.
• Pediatric Ophthalmologist: An eye doctor who specializes in treating various eye conditions and disorders in children
• Pediatric Audiologist: An audiologist specialized to evaluate and treat children with hearing-related conditions. They can provide hearing tests, diagnosing hearing disorders, and recommend appropriate interventions and treatments.

• Clinical Child Psychologist: Assists and assesses children, including those with autism, with concerns such as missed developmental milestones or issues with feeding and sleeping. They can also help establish effective communication among a child’s providers, as well as help families identify their child’s needs and priorities.
• Developmental Psychologist: Specializes in the study of human growth and development throughout the lifespan. They can evaluate patients to determine if they have developmental disabilities and create treatment plans.
• Educational Psychologist: An educational psychologist is a qualified teacher who is also trained as a psychologist. They often work with parents, teachers, and children to assess the child’s development, find out about any learning problems, recommend therapies and in-classroom tools, or identify a child’s unmet emotional needs. They might work in a school setting or in private practice.
• Pediatric Neuropsychologist: Have training in both clinical psychology and neuropsychology. They focus on the development of the brain and evaluate and help treat children with neurological disorders, brain trauma, autism, ADHD, and more. Pediatric Neuropsychologists also conduct educational assessments regularly in schools.
• Pediatric Psychiatrist: A pediatric psychiatrist specializes in the diagnosis and the treatment of disorders of thinking, feeling, and/or behavior that affect children, adolescents, and their families. This includes evaluating and diagnosing disorders such as ADHD, autism, anxiety, mood disorders, tics/Tourette syndrome, and other mental health issues in addition to prescribing and monitoring medications and providing psychotherapy for the child and/or parents.

• Pediatric Neurologist: Specializes in diagnosing and treating neurological conditions in children that can affect the brain, spinal cord, and nerves.
• Epileptologist: Neurologists who specialize in the research, diagnosis, treatment, and management of epilepsy. Epileptologists will often provide comprehensive care for those with epilepsy, which may begin with a series of tests to ensure the correct diagnosis.

• Neurogeneticist: Specializes in neurogenetic conditions that affect children and adults. They evaluate, diagnose, and provide comprehensive care including genetic counseling and testing for rare neurological disorders. This includes understanding the disorders they diagnose and managing efforts to develop novel treatments.