Okay, so I missed publishing this on Father’s Day, which was my original plan. But we were traveling on that day and since then so we’ll just say this was published during Father’s Week. And anyway, fathers in neurodiverse families deserve a whole week to celebrate them and the difference they make for their families.
The Dad in our neurodiverse family is an amazing partner and friend – he makes us laugh often, which we need and understands when we’re down or frustrated. He’s an excellent planner of our various adventures, and a crack photographer whose artistic eyes capture what we do and see in ways that vividly remind us of both the beautiful and maddening aspects of our efforts to rocket around.
Our guy is unique, but he is also one of many dads who make a difference every day – in big and little ways – in the lives of their neurodiverse families.
Below we feature eight of them and through these dad authors, bloggers, and podcasters we provide resources to support dads in neurodiverse families everywhere.
- Michael John Carley is an author, school, and business consultant, and former Executive Director in the autism, neurodiversity, mental health, disability, and DEI worlds. His website provides links to dozens of his articles and to his three books, all of which provide his valuable perspective as an autistic person and father of an autistic son. Michael John is also Editor-in-Chief of Neurodiversity Press, a website featuring blogs and books by authors who experience neurodiversity in various ways.
- https://www.fatherly.com/neurodiversity – Articles and insights on neurodiversity published by Fatherly, a digital media brand for dads.
- https://21stcenturydads.org/dad-to-dad-99-dr-lawrence-fung/ – Podcast in which host David Hirsch talks with Dr. Lawrence Fung, a psychologist and Director of the Stanford University Neurodiversity Alliance. Dr. Fung has two children, one of whom is autistic.
- https://www.dad.info/article/fatherhood/being-dad/parenting-an-autistic-child-a-dads-story/ – A World Autism Awareness Day interview with dad Stuart about life parenting an autistic child, and how an EarlyBird course helped his family.
- https://www.theautismdad.com/ – Rob Gorski’s amazingly extensive and honest blog about his life as a single Dad raising three autistic boys.
- https://www.adhdessentials.com/podcasts/ – ADHD/Executive Function consultant, coach, and speaker Brendan Mahan has ADHD himself and offers his thoughts and learnings through more than 150 episodes of ADHD Essentials. He also has a blog – https://www.adhdessentials.com/blog/.
- https://storiesaboutautism.com/ – James, dad to 2 boys with autism, shares stories of their lives through this blog and through his podcast here too where I interview other people from the autism community, and give them the chance to tell their stories.
- https://www.theautismdaddy.com/ – “Autism Daddy” Frank Campagna is a neurotypical dad with a son with autism and epilepsy. Through his blog, he rants while celebrating his son whom he calls “the king.” Frank works at Sesame Street and played a role in the launch of the show’s autism initiative, which centers around Julia, a lovable character who is autistic.