Non Linear Learning - Rethinking Education for Neurodivergent Learners

Your child isn't choosing to melt down. By the time behavior shows up, the brain has already decided, and the thinking brain is out of the room. Dr. Lisa Riegel explains why schools most often miss this, and what to do instead.
 
Tune in to learn:
 
Why context comes before any behavior plan

Harold and Bob: a simple brain story any child can learn

Why sending a child to the principal keeps the behavior going

What intellectual safety means, and why endless "pre-academic" classrooms fail it

 
About Lisa: Dr. Lisa Riegel is an educator, researcher, and author of NeuroWell and Aspirations to Operations. She has spent two decades helping schools apply brain science.

Why spelled communication is not a guessing game:
 
Dr. Vaish Sarathy speaks with David Kaufer, founder of Communicators for Communication Rights and host of The Lighter Side of the Spectrum, about motor-based typing, the realities of apraxia, and why presumed incompetence blocks education.
 
Access to communication is the foundation for age-appropriate, intellectually rich education.
 
David shares the journey with his son Stone, including school resistance, the harmful use of the message passing test, and how access to supported spelling changed Stone's educational path.
 
They also discuss trauma, regulation, the role of communication partners, and why family persistence matters.
 
4:05 — Why Message passing tests don't work

25:28 — Non-speaking doesn't mean non-thinking

25:55 — Behavior and Non Speakers

26:45 — The Myths!

29:44 — Why AAC on Ipads don't always work for everyone

 
 
"We don't force neurotypical people to pass lie detector tests before they take a test."

We don't make a neurotypical kid prove they can read before we hand them a book. We just teach them to read.
 
But for non-speaking and minimally speaking learners, the rules flip. Sit in the chair first. Imitate first. Get it right four days in a row before we'll believe you got it right the first time. Lisa Mihalich Quinn and Erin Buchanan of Reach Every Voice call this the data trap and they're here to tell you why the data your child's team is collecting might not mean what you think it means.
 
Tune in to this episode to learn:
Why "proficiency is not a prerequisite" - and what your child's team should be giving them access to right now, not after they demonstrate readiness

The real difference between adapting and modifying curriculum, and why modification can quietly cap your child's academic ceiling for years

Why "the data shows" is often a trap that hides more than it reveals - and what questions to ask instead

 

About the guests: Lisa Mihalich Quinn and Erin Buchanan lead Reach Every Voice, a multidisciplinary practice supporting non-speaking learners and learners with communication access needs through in-person and virtual instruction, group programming, and grant-funded initiatives.
 
To kickstart Academic Learning for your non speaking or minimally speaking child (and to learn from Dr. Vaish Sarathy), check out www.studio.com/vaish - an Academic Training App for parents.

You've talked to 10 therapists. Tried 20 strategies. And your child still goes from calm to crisis in 30 seconds - for reasons no-one understands.
Understanding a body requires that we understand the sensory information coming in. And Dr. Dana Johnson - OT, PhD, and founder of the Spellers Center - tells us that there are not 5 but 8 senses.
Dana joins Non Linear Learning for the 3rd time to talk about interoception: the eighth sense, the one almost nobody gets taught, and the one that might explain what's been happening in front of you all along.
Listen along to learn:
Why your child's meltdown appears so sudden

Why self-injury can be the body trying to feel itself, not defiance

Why "tell me how you feel" is an impossible question for someone who's never reliably felt anything to name

Why professionals push back on all of this — and what actually shifts a paradigm



🔗 Dana's YouTube: The Autism Plus Apraxia Doctor
🔗 Dana's Substack

Did you know - you can now have Dr. Vaish Sarathy's teaching and personalized training in your pocket - Sign up for the Non Linear Learning Personalized Coach at www.studio.com/vaish

We talk a lot about what our students can't do. But something that educators have found over the years is that there is a scatter to the skills we see in our students.
The wildly uneven profile that we see could actually be a blessing.
Mark Talaga, counselor, speaker, and founder of the Center for Identity Potential, joins the podcast to talk about asynchronous development in gifted and twice-exceptional learners.
And here's what hit me: we're working the same problem from opposite ends. Where there is a sharp strength, there is often a significant deficit, but the opposite is true as well!
This conversation got under my skin in the best way.
Tune in to this episode to learn: 
 What "asynchrony" actually means in gifted and disabled learners

 Why IQ tests fail kids on both ends of the bell curve

 Why labels are meaningless in education

 Why nurturing a spike / sharp interest (even if it seems "irrelevant") is critical.

You can find Mark Talaga's podcast, Hopelessly Gifted, on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or visit centerforidentitypotential.com.