Communications & Anxiety Episodes

Are we focusing on the wrong starting point in autism care? In this episode of Autism Labs, host Mike Carr speaks with Dr. Theresa Lyons a Yale-trained scientist, PhD and autism parent about why health may be the missing piece in autism support. While many families begin with therapies like ABA or structured education, Dr. Lyons explains how underlying health challenges such as gut imbalances, infections, sleep issues and nutritional deficiencies can significantly impact behavior, learning an...

Communication with a nonverbal autistic child can feel overwhelming, confusing, and at times impossible. In this episode of Autism Labs, Mike Carr shares a powerful and practical framework that shifts the focus from speaking to listening, specifically, how we listen. Drawing from the concept of adaptive listening, Mike explains how communication in autism extends far beyond words. For individuals with limited or no verbal language, meaning is often expressed through body language, facial express...

You can have strong, caring support and still feel like things are falling apart. In this episode, Mike Carr shares a lesson that took years to fully understand. It’s not just about building the right team. Even the best caregivers face limits. They get sick. They move on. They can’t be there all the time. So what happens next? Mike talks about why families need more than good people. They need systems that can adjust as life changes. You’ll hear about: Why caregiver turnover keeps happeningT...

What happens when a profoundly autistic young adult reaches the end of high school? For Joel Wood and his wife Martha, that question has become increasingly urgent as their 20-year-old son William approaches adulthood. William has autism and apraxia and is largely non-speaking. After years of limited communication, his family's work with spelling revealed abilities and thoughts that challenged some of their previous assumptions about what he could understand and accomplish. In this episode of...

For families supporting someone with profound autism, unstructured time can sometimes lead to boredom, frustration, agitation, or challenging behavior. In this episode, Mike Carr shares how his family uses structure, visual schedules, communication tools, and meaningful choices to help his son Michael build independence and participate more actively in his daily life. Mike explains why visual structure isn't simply about keeping someone busy. Everyday activities such as making the bed, doing lau...

Aggressive behavior can be one of the most difficult challenges families face when supporting a person with profound or severe autism. In this episode of the Autism Labs Podcast, Mike Carr shares his personal experience raising his adult son, Michael, and navigating years of aggressive and challenging behavior. Mike discusses what his family has learned about applied behavior analysis (ABA), the importance of understanding what happens before a behavior, how our responses can unintentionally rei...

Stress is a reality for many parents and caregivers supporting someone with profound or severe autism, especially when that support continues into adulthood. In this personal Autism Labs episode, Mike Carr reflects on a frightening bicycle accident that gave him an unexpected opportunity to step back and reconsider the stress he carries as the father of his profoundly autistic adult son, Michael. Mike speaks openly about the realities of lifelong autism caregiving, including disrupted family pla...

In this powerful season premiere of Autism Labs, Mike Carr explores what it really means to “play the game” of profound autism caregiving and why most families are looking at it the wrong way. Using a mix of real-life experience and storytelling, Mike reflects on 35 years of raising a profoundly autistic son and reveals a truth many families eventually discover: caregiving is not evenly distributed, and the most important role is often invisible. From managing therapy schedules and behavioral ch...