Social Relationships and Connection in Adulthood with Rachel Loftin, Ph.D. #241

For most autistic people, the supports end at 21 or 22. The friendships, the structure, the built-in reasons to be around other people, all of it was attached to a school system that stops. Dr. Rachel Loftin has spent her career with the people on the other side of that line. She is chief clinical officer at Prosper Health, which she helped found and which is now the largest provider of mental health services for autistic adults in the country. She is also on faculty in the psychiatry departments at Northwestern and Yale. In this episode, she joins host Jeff Skibitsky to talk about what connection really looks like in adulthood, why so much social skills instruction teaches autistic people to disappear into a crowd, and what parents of young kids can start doing now. In this episode: Why "social skills" usually means eye contact and small talk, and what it should mean instead Where teaching autistic people to blend in helps, and where it causes harm Telling real loneliness apart from a genuine preference for time alone What actually happens when a young adult ages out of school-based services What families should have in place at 16 or 17 Realistic first steps for an adult who is already isolated What sexuality education usually misses for autistic adults What parents of a 7-year-old can do now that pays off at 27 RESOURCES Dr. Rachel Loftin Bio and publications: https://prosperhealth.io/medical-reviewer/rachel-loftin Co-editor, Handbook of Autism Spectrum Disorder and the Law (Springer) Editorial board, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders Prosper Health Website: https://prosperhealth.io Self-reflection quiz for adults wondering about autism: https://prosperhealth.io/autismquiz Telehealth diagnosis and therapy for autistic adults, covered by most major insurance For adults and families navigating the transition Autistic Self Advocacy Network: https://autisticadvocacy.org The Arc, state and local chapters: https://thearc.org Autism Society affiliate finder: https://autismsociety.org Your state vocational rehabilitation agency, searchable at https://rsa.ed.gov For healthcare access AASPIRE Healthcare Toolkit, free tools for autistic adults and their doctors: https://autismandhealth.org ............................................................... Autism weekly is now found on all of the major listening apps including apple podcasts, stitcher, Spotify, amazon music, and more. Subscribe to be notified when we post a new podcast. Autism weekly is produced by ABS Kids. ABS Kids is proud to provide diagnostic assessments and ABA therapy to children with developmental delays like Autism Spectrum Disorder. You can learn more about ABS Kids and the Autism Weekly podcast by visiting abskids.com.