Promoting Quality of Life: Suggestions for Mental Health Care Providers Working with Young Autistic Adults

A framework for neurodiversity-affirming interventions for autistic individuals.

“…Finally, given that NAIs draw from frameworks designed to uplift traditionally marginalized groups, it is valuable to ensure they are framed and explicitly prioritize the intersectional identities of individuals who will inevitably experience them (e.g., Black, Brown, and transgender autistic people; Lopez et al, 2022; White et al, 2023). Crucially, the NAI framework is not meant to be limited to oral communicators with average-or-above measured IQ and few support needs; rather, it must be applied, understood, and studied across the spectrum of ages, cognitive and verbal ability, and the full complexity of autistic life.…”