January 30, 2023

Tips to Transition Into Monday

January 30, 2023/ Nicole Ezcurra

In general, for autistics and ADHD’ers transitions can result in increased anxiety, stress, and frustration. It is naturally more challenging for neurodiverse individuals to transition from small tasks, such as going from class to class, to larger tasks, such as getting ready for work. This is due to the neural differences in executive functioning skills. More practice, time, processing, and planning are required for the brain to perform such cognitive functions.

January 26, 2023

The Goal is to Build Dopamine (Rather Than “Motivation”)

January 26, 2023/ Nicole Ezcurra

“Feeling Motivated” is simply just a feeling.

And all feelings come and go.

Instead of trying to feel motivated, try to create anticipation into your daily goals, such as making sure you have activities in place that you forward to. Some examples are:

January 24, 2023

Five Ways to Build (and Keep) Rapport

January 24, 2023/ Nicole Ezcurra

Building rapport is one of my favorite things to do with a person. I also think it's one of the most important.

When working with autistic individuals and people with ADHD, depression, chronic illness, anxiety, etc. building rapport building is that much important. Almost all of my students come to me with past experiences of judgement, bullying, and isolation.

Sometimes, it takes months to truly build that rapport. And sometimes it takes years.

November 22, 2022

Five Tips to Shape New Behavior

November 22, 2022/ Nicole Ezcurra

All behavior is learned through reinforcement. Reinforcement is when we receive something that is motivating enough that encourages us to do a behavior again in order to reach that reinforcer again. For example, if you hate to run but your dog escaped, I bet you will start to run. The reinforcer (catching your dog!) outweighed the effort required to run. If you do end up catching your dog, you’ll most likely run the next time your dog escapes too, because you’ve now learned that running was successful to getting your reinforcer.