Where these exercises come from.

Occupational Therapy (OT): heavy work, crossing-midline exercises, and fine motor activities are standard techniques used by licensed OTs. Learn more from the American Occupational Therapy Association →

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA): the routine-building and consistency-based approaches reflect common ABA principles. Learn more from the Behavior Analyst Certification Board →

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): the breathing and grounding techniques come from DBT's distress tolerance skills. Learn more from Behavioral Tech, the DBT training organization founded by Dr. Marsha Linehan →

PEERS®: the social skills sections are informed by PEERS®, a program developed at UCLA with a genuine published research base: Laugeson, E.A., Frankel, F., Gantman, A., Dillon, A.R., & Mogil, C. (2012). Evidence-Based Social Skills Training for Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders: The UCLA PEERS Program. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42(6), 1025–1036. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-011-1339-1 →

Sensory Integration: balance and movement exercises reflect sensory integration theory, widely used in pediatric OT. Learn more from the STAR Institute for Sensory Processing →

Butterfly Hug: the alternating shoulder-tap technique uses bilateral stimulation, originally developed within EMDR therapy for self-soothing between sessions, now widely adapted for general anxiety and emotional regulation. Learn more from EMDRIA, the EMDR International Association →

Autistic burnout & regression: the "When Regression Hits" page draws on the first formal research definition of autistic burnout, developed in partnership with autistic adults: Raymaker, D.M., Teo, A.R., Steckler, N.A., Lentz, B., Scharer, M., Delos Santos, A., Kapp, S.K., Hunter, M., Joyce, A., & Nicolaidis, C. (2020). "Having All of Your Internal Resources Exhausted Beyond Measure and Being Left with No Clean-Up Crew": Defining Autistic Burnout. Autism in Adulthood, 2(2), 132–143. https://doi.org/10.1089/aut.2019.0079 → Additional burnout features (withdrawal, sensory sensitivity, cognitive disruption) are documented in Higgins et al. (2021) and Arnold et al. (2023), with recovery themes synthesized in Ali et al. (2025).

Apraxia & motor planning in autism: the same page's section on why calming instructions don't always translate into movement draws on: Miller, M., Chukoskie, L., Zinni, M., Townsend, J., & Trauner, D. (2014). Dyspraxia, motor function and visual-motor integration in autism. Behavioural Brain Research, 269, 95–102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2014.04.011 → The study found autistic children performed significantly worse than matched peers on tasks requiring planned, sequenced movement, alongside broader differences in motor coordination and eye-movement timing.