Lisa Galley Parenting Your Autistic Child

What happens when conventional parenting advice simply does not work for your Autistic child? In this episode of **The Unfiltered Autistic Podcast**, Amanda McGuinness is joined by **Lisa Galley**, Autism consultant, author, speaker, former Speech and Language Therapist and founder of the Autism Parenting Revolution community. Lisa is also the parent of three Autistic children, now adults, bringing together decades of parenting experience with her professional background supporting Autistic children and families. At the heart of this conversation is Lisa’s powerful **Permission to Parent Differently** approach and her new book, *Parenting Your Autistic Child: Permission to Do It Differently*. Amanda and Lisa explore what it can mean to raise an Autistic child in a world where much of the parenting advice families receive has been developed around neurotypical expectations. They discuss the pressure parents can experience to follow conventional approaches, even when their instincts and their child’s responses are telling them that something different is needed. The conversation explores: • parenting Autistic children differently from neurotypical expectations • nervous system regulation, connection and felt safety • trusting your instincts as a parent • matching expectations to an Autistic child’s capacity • letting go of parental guilt, shame and comparison • parental burnout and protecting your own nervous system • maintaining your identity while parenting an Autistic child • screen time, food and other areas where parents can experience judgement • PDA and parenting children with a PDA profile • changing communication and reducing unnecessary pressure • declarative language and recognising how tone can communicate expectation • parenting Autistic children into adolescence and adulthood • loneliness, isolation and the importance of finding an Autism parenting community. Lisa also speaks candidly about her own parenting journey, including recognising that approaches she encountered professionally did not always align with what her own Autistic children needed. A particularly important theme throughout the episode is the difference between lowering expectations and **matching expectations to capacity**. The conversation also explores **PDA and Autism**, with Lisa reflecting on what she has learned about parenting her PDA son and the importance of collaboration, communication, nervous system understanding and not interpreting protective responses as something personal. For parents who have felt judged because their child eats the same foods, needs more screen time, cannot manage particular expectations, struggles with school, experiences distress around demands or simply needs life to look different, this conversation offers another perspective. As Lisa describes her new book, it is a **permission slip, a conversation and a toolkit**, designed to help parents develop the confidence and courage to do things differently. This episode will be particularly valuable for parents and carers of Autistic children, teenagers and adults, as well as teachers, SNAs, Speech and Language Therapists, Occupational Therapists, educators and other professionals seeking a deeper understanding of neuroaffirmative Autism parenting and family life. **About Lisa Galley** Lisa Galley is an Autism consultant, speaker, author and former Speech and Language Therapist. She is the founder of the Autism Parenting Revolution community and combines her professional expertise with her lived experience of raising three Autistic children into adulthood. Her work supports families to understand Autism through nervous system regulation, connection and wellbeing, moving away from compliance-based approaches and helping parents develop greater confidence in parenting their Autistic child differently. Lisa’s debut book, *Parenting Your Autistic Child: Permission to Do It Differently*, is published by Penguin Random House.