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Our special guest, Mary Judy, brings her vast experience as an advocate for neurodiverse families to the table. Mary Judy shares her compelling journey and the challenges her son faced despite his academic success. She discusses the importance of creating individualized support teams for those who may not outwardly appear neurodiverse but still require assistance. Mary Judy's story is a powerful testament to resilience and the necessity of tailored support systems for fostering independence in neurodivergent individuals.

About Mary Judy: I grew up in a Neurodiverse Family and that is my sense of normal. Not surprisingly, I married a man with a neurodivergent mind, and we have our own Neurodiverse Family. I was extremely fortunate to have the example of my mother Margaret’s support for my father and my brother who were the most impacted in our household while I was growing up. She was completely alone in her advocacy for our family, but she just did what was right because she loved us. My mom protected us all fiercely and meekly, using her gut to decide what was right and what was wrong. She was brilliant! After her death in 2008, my son was diagnosed with learning disabilities (2E) and eventually with Asperger’s Syndrome. When he was in high school, I realized that his father too has Asperger’s. There are only two choices you have when faced with this kind of knowledge; you can go all in or you can run. I went all in with the help of a wonderful network of friends and supporters that I had created for myself while raising my kids, and the example of my amazing mother who always showed me the way to love people unconditionally and with her whole being.

Now I’m helping other families bridge the gap to independence and adulthood professionally. When challenged daily with how to help my clients without enabling them, I think to myself “What would Margaret do?”

With the birth of our second child just prior to Y2K, I left the tech world to manage our significant real estate investments and educated myself about the residential design business and real estate management. We divested our North Carolina real estate holdings in 2005 to move to Chicago. There I earned my Illinois real estate and certified property management licenses. I renovated and flipped our family residences and managed the sales and renovation of client properties.

During these years our second child was identified as Twice Exceptional, eventually leading to an Asperger’s Syndrome diagnosis. I sought training through the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, Wrightslaw Special Education Law and Advocacy, and became a contracted Parent Advocate for the Illinois State Board of Education. With my neighbors we started the Riverside Area Inclusion Network (RAIN) to support families and work with the school systems to create more inclusive educational and community opportunities for our exceptionally identified children. Public educators and the state systems were just adapting to this new normal and by high school we moved our exceptional child to a Catholic single sex high school with wonderful supports, and MOST importantly, a sense of belonging not experienced anywhere before. A wonderful priest (to whom I will always be grateful) also helped me to see that my husband is on the spectrum. This insight saved our marriage!

Recognizing a family dream to live in the Rockies, we relocated to Colorado in 2018. Here I went to work for state licensed program approved service agencies (PASA) to learn the supportive ropes for the Neurodiverse community. I earned my Association of Community Rehabilitative Educators (ACRE) certification, and have built a network within the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE), the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy & Financing (HCPF), the Department of Vocational Rehabil

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We're thrilled to have Karleen Savage author of The Confident Teen Blueprint, and a veteran in parenting and conflict resolution, share her wisdom on establishing core principles like unconditional love, respect, and consistency. Karleen emphasizes the importance of parents understanding their own beliefs to raise confident and respectful children. We also introduce the "Confident Teen Blueprint," a 30-day challenge aimed at helping parents instill core values and daily mantras that promote self-efficacy and independence in their teens, setting them up for long-term happiness and success.

The episode takes a deeper dive into the complexities of conflict resolution. We discuss how empathy can bridge cultural differences and aid in resolving contentious issues, such as teenagers' exposure to explicit content on social media.

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What if understanding your child's brain could transform your parenting approach? Join us in this episode of Legit Parenting as seasoned child and family therapist Craig Knippenberg, LCSW, M.Div and special guest Dr. Robin McEvoy, a developmental neuropsychologist, joins us to shed light on the identification and management of learning disabilities and developmental challenges in children, offering invaluable advice for parents during the crucial summer break.

Navigating the maze of parental concerns can be overwhelming, especially with the added pressures of modern education and the lingering effects of COVID-19. We'll discuss the importance of tailored educational approaches and the benefits of reducing homework to improve both mental health and learning outcomes. Dr. McEvoy emphasizes the significance of understanding family and medical history when addressing learning disabilities, advocating for early evaluations and interventions.

We'll talk about the critical roles of nutrition, hydration, sleep, and exercise in a child's overall well-being, especially for those with attention deficit disorders. Practical strategies for reinforcing positive behavior and building new skills in children are shared, along with a discussion on balancing naturopathic approaches with medication when necessary.

Dr. Robin McEvoy has been practicing developmental neuropsychology for 30 years. With each evaluation, she asks herself, “How can I help.” Many parents bring their kids in for evaluation because they are still struggling, despite working with a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a learning specialist or a whole team of specialists. The parents were doing “standard of care” thoroughly, but it was not enough. There were times she worried that she would not find a way to help, that the parents were already doing everything possible.

But she hates the thought of saying there was nothing else to be done. So instead of saying that, she decided to dig deeper. She dug into nutrition, sleep, medical conditions and myriad of complementary and alternative approaches to learning and behavior. (And while digging, she met Child Decoded co-founder, Kim Gangwish.)

By developing a more thorough understanding of the mind/body integration, she began to find other avenues that actually opened up new possibilities for children. She loves having options for families who had been told to just accept their child’s challenges and live with them. She had been told the same thing about her own daughter who had a severe speech disability and sensory issues. As both a developmental neuropsychologist and a parent, she became expert at mapping out paths through difficult presentations.

Dr. McEvoy earned her PH.D. in Developmental Psychology from the University of Houston, then went on to fellow in Psychobiology/Neuropsychology at the University of Colorado Medical School. She holds a research faculty position at the University of Colorado, and also maintains a private practice where she can evaluate using the Child Decoded model.

Evaluation is the heart of her work with children: helping families, pediatricians, and school districts to find a deeper understanding of complex challenges. Dr. McEvoy enjoys writing and blogs frequently for Child Decoded. She loves public speaking and is a highly rated speaker.

You can read more about Robin McEvoy at her website www.robinmcevoy.com. She blogs about learning and learning challenges as well as tons about “behavior problems in children” because she has strong opinions about that. You can follow her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/DrRobinMcEvoy or on Twitter at twitter.com/RobinMcEvoy.