Your child gets in the car after school and yells "go away" before their sibling has even finished a sentence. You correct the behaviour, they escalate, and nothing changes. In this episode Alison unpacks the difference between interpersonal skills, the ones between people, and intrapersonal skills, the ones happening inside your child before they ever open their mouth.

We talk about why parents and teachers focus almost entirely on the social side, sharing, turn taking, speaking politely, coping with no, and why that focus keeps failing when a child cannot yet recognise what is happening in their own body.

Alison walks through what intrapersonal awareness actually looks like: naming emotions, noticing body signals, recognising hunger, tiredness and sensory overload, and knowing when they are reaching capacity. She uses a real example from her own family, a son who needs silence on the drive home, to show how a child moves from "go away" to "I need twenty minutes on my own when we get in". This episode also turns the lens on parents, because you cannot teach a skill you have not learned yourself. Can you recognise when you are overstimulated, when you are exhausted, when your child's dysregulation is dysregulating you, when you are actually angry at your partner and not your child? Alison covers the shopping centre tantrum and the uncomfortable truth that sometimes what is driving a parent's reaction is not "how do I help my child" but "everyone is looking at us". You will walk away with practical language for building your child's internal vocabulary, why we regulate first and teach later, why open ended exits like "I'm going outside" need a time limit for neurodiverse people, and the reframe that neurodiversity is not an excuse, it is a reason. If knowing what to do and actually doing it feel like two different things in your house, this one is for you.

Connect with Alison on Instagram
Or Visit her Website for more information

Alison is providing general information only. Nothing shared in this episode is prescriptive or intended as individual advice. As always, listeners should consult their own health care practitioners for guidance specific to their family.