We’re hugely passionate about empowering neurodiverse families and kids who need a little extra help to let their light shine bright.
Our mission is to disrupt the narrative on behavior and change the culture of parenting (and educating). We’re advocating for a change in the way we see and address behavior and championing the normalization of neurodivergence.
We’re Penny and Sarah. We transform the science on behavior into real-life insights and strategies parents can easily apply and succeed with in everyday life with neurodivergent kids.
We teach parents how to calm the chaos and reactivity and foster connection. As parenting coaches, we help neurodiverse families like yours understand your child’s neurobiology and behavior, and shift your parenting to help your child thrive — without the frustration of trying to figure it out on your own.
We’re also moms of boys with ADHD and/or autism, so we get it. We live it, too.
Parenting ADHD/Autism Coach. Award-Winning Author. Speaker.
Penny Williams trains and coaches parents raising kids with ADHD and/or autism. She’s the parent of a son with ADHD and autism, and the award-winning author of four books on parenting kids with ADHD, including Boy Without Instructions.
Penny is the founder of ParentingADHDandAutism.com, host of the Beautifully Complex Podcast, co-founder of The Behavior Revolution, and a contributor on parenting and neurodivergent children for various publications, including ADDitude Magazine.
Parent Coach. RDI® Consultant. Special Needs Care Navigator.
Sarah Wayland, Ph.D. founded her company, Guiding Exceptional Parents, to help parents learn how to confidently and effectively help their children with ADHD, autism, learning disabilities, and other brain-based differences at home, at school, and in the community.
In addition to hosting trainings, lecturing, and working with individual clients, Sarah has co-authored a book on autism (Is This Autism? A Guide for Clinicians and Everyone Else) and co-edited the book Technology Tools for Students with Autism. She has written articles for Attention Magazine, the 2e Newsletter, Washington Parent Magazine, and the Gifted Homeschoolers Forum.
“I remember when my son was little and his meltdowns were volcanic. I did everything I could think of to try to help him during those times and nothing worked. I remember the helplessness I felt one evening when I had to put all my might into just walking out the door of the Goodwill store because my son was literally hanging on my coat tail and pulling against me with all his tiny might, screaming like I was physically hurting him.
I didn’t yet understand why the heck my son was acting that way, and that it was not within his control.
Once I realized that my son’s thinking brain was offline during a meltdown and his emotional and survival brains had taken over, I could finally improve our experience during a meltdown and even prevent them altogether.”
— PENNY
“I have two neurodivergent kids and they couldn’t be more different. My older son’s teachers always told me he was “a good kid” — he never acted out or hurt another kid in frustration — but he did sleep through class sometimes. It wasn’t until he was a junior in high school that I realized he wasn’t sleeping — he was dysregulated and “frozen with fear!”
My younger son was, as we called it, a “much more effective self-advocate.” We always knew when he was having a hard time! After he put the school into lockdown for the fourth time, we started taking parenting classes and reading every book we could find.
What made the biggest difference was understanding how stress behavior looked for each of my kids. Once we knew what to look for, it was easier to help them.”
— SARAH
That switch in how we thought about their behavior — from “they won’t do it” to “they can’t do it” — shifted everything for us. Not to mention our kids.
Once we recognized what was happening under the surface, we were able to help our kids through times of stress and were able to prevent most meltdowns altogether. We experienced some relief, a lot less anxiety, and more confidence in our parenting. Not to mention the improvement in our kids’ sense of competence, self-confidence, and the resulting transformation in their behavior.
Your family’s success depends a great deal on your mindset. The Manifesto of the Neurodiverse Family outlines the belief system you need to adopt to help your child succeed and your family thrive.
You don’t have to go it alone. We’ve helped thousands of families across the globe achieve improvement. We get it… and we know how to help.
Let us help your family too.
