Explore every episode of the podcast Parents Unheard

If your child is minimally verbal or non-speaking, there's a question that almost nobody in the system will ask — and it might be the most important one of all. Could it be apraxia?

In this episode, we speaks with New York-based speech-language pathologist Alonna Bondar, who has spent 25 years specialising in childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) — a motor planning disorder that research suggests may affect up to two thirds of autistic children, yet remains almost entirely absent from mainstream speech therapy practice, particularly in the UK.

Alonna breaks down what apraxia actually is, why it's so routinely missed, and why years of traditional language-based therapy can fail children who need motor speech intervention instead. She also explains the difference between approaches like PROMPT, DTTC, and the REST programme, how to find the right therapist, what parents can do at home, and why AAC should never be a last resort.

If your child has ever seemed to "pop out" a word or phrase and then never said it again, this episode is essential listening.

Topics covered:

• What childhood apraxia of speech is and how it differs from language delay
• Why autistic children are excluded from most CAS research — and what that means for diagnosis
• "Ghost words" and gestalt language processing
• Why telling a child to "just say it" can cause more harm than good
• PROMPT, DTTC, REST — what they are and which children they suit
• Why oral motor tools like whistles and vibrating devices won't help
• The state of apraxia awareness in the UK vs the US
• How to access Alonna's consultations, courses, and parent coaching

What if the 'autism' label was getting in the way of actually helping your child?

In this episode, Joe and Kayleigh sit down with Lara Barnes, founder of Brain Development UK, who spent years navigating her son Archie's developmental challenges before discovering a root-cause approach that changed everything.

Lara walks us through her son's early signs — a back-to-back birth, a weak latch, skipped crawling milestones, repetitive ear infections, delayed speech, and sensory overwhelm — and how she was eventually led to the work of Dr. Robert Melillo and the science of primitive reflex integration. What followed was a remarkable journey: monthly trips to Barcelona, a TENS machine, vibration therapy, dietary overhaul, photobiomodulation, and a child who began speaking, playing with Lego, and thriving in ways the conventional system had written off as unlikely.

In a conversation that covers an extraordinary amount of ground, Lara explains the pyramid of learning, why retained primitive reflexes hold children in a lower level of brain function, how the gut and brain are inseparable in this work, and why mould exposure, fluoride, processed food, and even cereal could be quietly undermining your child's development.

We also get into photobiomodulation and why buying a laser without guidance could make things worse. Plus — the vibration plate tip that helped a mum transform her child's anxiety in two weeks for £15.

Resources mentioned:

• braindevelopment.co.uk
• Disconnected Kids by Dr. Robert Melillo
• ION gut supplement
• Citri Drops nasal spray
• Vicky Finlayson / Happy Healthy Unicorn

Del Bigtree is an Emmy award winning producer.

Today he's the founder of The Highwire and Informed Consent Action Network.

He was also Communications Director for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s 2024 Presidential Campaign.

Then after all that, in 2026, he graciously agreed to come on our pokey little podcast.

And what an honour it was.

We discuss:

• The truth about disgraced doctor Andrew Wakefield.
• His superb documentary, An Inconvenient Study
• America's sick kids (the sickest in the industrialised world)
• How the NHS could easily prove if vaccines are safe (or not)
• That the COVID vaccine is the most studied vaccine ever

Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride trained as a neurosurgeon, neurologist and nutritionist. She's the creator of the GAPS (Gut and Psychology Syndrome) protocol, a dietary and lifestyle intervention that has helped thousands of families worldwide. Her own son recovered from severe autism. She knows what she's talking about.

In this conversation, Natasha doesn't pull punches. She explains why every chronic disease traces back to the same root cause — a damaged, unbalanced microbiome — and why that damage is being passed down through generations, getting worse each time. She lays out exactly how a leaky, toxic gut floods the developing brain with poisons, and why diagnostic labels like autism and ADHD are almost completely useless if you actually want to help your child.

We also get into why gluten-free and dairy-free diets barely scratch the surface, why animal fats are the cornerstone of immunity, and why the medical establishment has no interest in any of this.

In this episode:

• What GAPS actually is — and why Natasha now believes it underlies every chronic disease
• How damaged gut flora is passed from parent to child across generations
• The mechanism behind autism, ADHD, and learning disabilities
• Why diagnostic labels won't help your child recover
• What the GAPS protocol involves — and what makes it different from elimination diets
• Raw milk, fermented foods, meat stock, and organ meats explained
• Vaccinations, Andrew Wakefield, and the corporate interests at play
• Why veganism is a corporate project — and what to eat instead
• How to source real food when you can't grow your own

What does it actually mean to give a non-speaking child a voice?

In this episode, we sit down with Sammy — a special needs teacher with over a decade of experience working with autistic children and children with profound and multiple learning difficulties. Sammy is also the founder of Spectrum Patronum, an online platform and resource shop built around one core belief: every child deserves a means to communicate.

They cover a lot of ground. What's the difference between low-tech and high-tech AAC? Why are schools moving away from PECS? What are core words, and why do they matter more than the 250,000 words we never teach? And why does the NHS still gatekeep communication devices from the very children who need them most?

Sammy is refreshingly honest about the messiness of this — the overwhelm parents feel when they're handed a communication book and expected to just get on with it, the frustration of watching a child stim on the symbol for raisins while a rigid system demands he hand it over first, and the quiet, enormous wins that rarely make it onto social media.

There's also a conversation about Sammy's Let Them Have Their Voices campaign, her upcoming AAC Academy, and a parent-teacher advocacy webinar designed to help parents push back — professionally and effectively — when the system lets their child down.

If you've ever wondered where to start with communication support, or felt like you were doing it wrong, this one's for you.

Zack Ponder didn't plan on becoming a special education teacher — he stumbled into it as a substitute para educator and never looked back.

In this episode, Zack joins the show to share his five years in the classroom working predominantly with non-speaking students diagnosed with autism, the lessons that shaped his perspective on human potential, and why he eventually traded the classroom for a construction business and a microphone.

We dig into the often bruising reality of accessing special education in the US — from regional centre referrals to the IEP process — and why parents frequently need an advocate or attorney just to secure what their child is legally entitled to. We share our own 60-week fight to get our child into a specialist school, putting a human face on a system that too often prioritises budgets over children.

The conversation turns to Zack's book Special Dayz, a collection of twelve stories from his teaching years, including the unforgettable wood shop experiment with a 16-year-old student who craved connection with typical peers — and the chaos that followed. At the heart of the book, and Zack's philosophy, is a simple idea: presume competence. Every student has something going on inside worth finding.

Zack explains the mission behind The Unspecial Podcast — a space built specifically for parents navigating the profound end of the disability spectrum, where the mainstream narrative around autism often leaves them feeling invisible. The episode covers the cultural fault lines that make this community so complex: the controversy around the word "healing," the debate over letterboards and the Spellers method, the biomedical route to recovery, and why the broadening of the autism diagnosis has made it harder — not easier — for the most affected families to be heard.

Zack closes with direct advice for parents in the early, overwhelming days: find someone further down the road, take it one day at a time, and know that you are enough.

Why has autism become one of the most contested diagnoses in medicine — and who is paying the price?

In this episode, we sit down with Dr Sami Timimi, child psychiatrist and fierce critic of mainstream psychiatric diagnosis, to ask a question that doesn't get asked enough: what happens when a diagnostic label expands so far it stops meaning anything — and what does that cost the children who need support most?

This is a conversation that challenges some deeply held beliefs about neurodiversity, identity, and what it actually means to support disabled people.

We cover:

• Why there is no agreed definition of autism — even among 500 leading researchers
• How the expansion of the diagnostic spectrum is diluting resources for severely disabled children
• The neurodiversity movement's origins, its genuine intentions, and its unintended consequences
• Why the concept of "masking" expanded autism into an entirely new population
• ADHD as a consumer brand — and the research showing childhood diagnosis predicts worse long-term outcomes
• The 787% rise in autism diagnoses in the UK, and what the demographics reveal
• Why Sami believes diagnosis should be removed as evidence for services like the Disability Living Allowance — replaced with individualised assessments of real clinical, educational, and social need

If you're a parent of a high-needs child who has ever felt that something has gone badly wrong with how autism is understood, this one is for you.

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What if everything we thought we knew about non-speaking autism was wrong? In this episode of Parents Unheard, Joseph and Kayie sit down with Steven May, the founder of Presume Competence.

Steven isn’t a doctor or a parent—he is a dedicated researcher who has distilled the wisdom of over 120 books written by non-speakers to uncover a startling truth: the problem isn't intelligence; it's apraxia.

We explore why traditional AAC devices might actually be failing our children due to sensory "strobing" and optical challenges, and why a simple 26-letter board is the key to unlocking a trapped mind.

From the "Spiderwebs of Connection" found in spellers’ stories to the extraordinary sensory capabilities of non-speaking individuals, this episode challenges every boundary of what we believe is possible.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The Mind-Body Disconnect: Understanding apraxia and the "puppet" analogy.

• The AAC Critique: Why high-tech devices can be a barrier to true communication.

• The "I’m In Here" Moment: The emotional reality of a child’s first words on a letterboard.

• Sensory Superpowers: Why non-speakers might hear Wi-Fi and see in "Full HD" peripheral vision.

• The Path Forward: Practical steps for UK parents to start the spelling journey today.

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As parent carers, our default mode is often "survival."

We are the masters of managing our children’s appointments, therapies, and needs, but in the process, we often strike our own names off the priority list. We’ve all heard the cliché that "you can’t pour from an empty cup," but how do we actually refill it when our lives feel like a constant sprint?

In this episode, we sit down with Susannah Ashcroft-Batty, founder of Inter Wellness and a specialist in Functional Medicine and Clinical Hypnotherapy. Susannah joins the podcast to talk about the "wellness gap" – the paradox of why we are spending more on healthcare yet getting sicker every year.

We dive deep into the multi-faceted nature of wellness, moving beyond "spa day" self-care to look at the physiological reality of the caregiver’s life. From the impact of chronic stress on our gut and hormones to how our nervous system dictates our ability to heal.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The Caregiver Paradox: Why we minimise our own depletion and the physical cost of staying in "fight or flight" mode.

• Root Cause Wellness: Moving past symptoms to understand how sleep, movement, and nutrition are the foundations of our strength.

• Prevention as Advocacy: Why looking after yourself isn’t selfish—it’s the most important tool you have for supporting your child.

About Our Guest:Susannah Ashcroft-Batty (BSc Hons, IHPL2, GDipION, PCC, CCHt) is an Integrative and Functional Medicine Practitioner, Nutritional Therapist, and Clinical Hypnotherapist. Through her practice, Inter Wellness, she helps individuals identify the root causes of their health issues, bridging the gap between the physical and emotional self to achieve lasting vitality.

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A heartfelt conversation with Danielle, mother to Van, whose journey through autism has been one of patience, persistence, and hard-won progress. From a child who didn't speak until seven, struggling through his early school years, to a young person who now finds genuine connection in education—Van's story defies simple narratives.

We discuss the gap between low and high support needs autism, and why the lived realities of families like Danielle's often go unheard in broader conversations about neurodiversity. She doesn't sugarcoat the isolation or the weight of advocating alone in a system that offers little support.

Danielle also speaks candidly about what gets lost along the way—the careers never pursued, the holidays never taken, the ordinary freedoms that slip quietly out of reach. This is a conversation about what it takes to show up, day after day, when no one else will.

Her perspective may challenge assumptions. We invite listeners to stay present, lean into the complexity, and make space for the voices that are too often left out of the room.

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Ashley Blaker is a comedian and writer based in London and New York.

Ashley has six children, three of whom have an SEN diagnosis. Between endless meetings, countless therapists, public humiliations, failed playdates, surreal monologues and occasional violence, it’s certainly not what anyone would call a ‘normal’ household – but would he want it any other way?

In this episode, we sit down with Sinead Kerley-Dunne to explore gestalt language processing (GLP) and what it means for autistic children and their families. Sinead breaks down the prevalence of GLP among autistic children and shares practical insights for parents navigating this language development pathway.

We discuss how to identify gestalt language processing in non-speaking children, challenging some common assumptions about language acquisition. Sinead also offers a refreshing perspective on screen time, explaining why it can actually be beneficial for gestalt language processors when used intentionally.

The conversation wraps up with actionable advice for parents who suspect their child may be a gestalt language processor, including how to approach these conversations with schools and nurseries to ensure their child receives appropriate support.

Whether you're a parent, educator, or professional working with autistic children, this episode provides valuable insights into recognizing and supporting gestalt language learners.

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Taiba Bajar is a TEDx Speaker, Award-Winning Author, and Founder of Autism Brain Empowerment. She helps parents turn confusion into clarity and create real progress for their autistic child by focusing on what they can change at home.

When Taiba’s son regressed at 20 months, stopping eye contact, no longer responding to his name, and losing speech, she quickly discovered that the system meant to support her was full of limitations. Determined to help him reach his developmental milestones, she began exploring alternative approaches.

His transformation inspired her book Unlock Autism, which outlines a seven-step, practical, science-backed method to support a child’s development. Today, Taiba works with families worldwide through her coaching programme, helping them understand the critical role environment plays in their child’s progress.

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In this episode, I’m joined by Gemma Herbertson from Neuro Frontiers to explore how neuroplasticity therapies can support autistic individuals across their lives. We unpack common misconceptions, discuss why proper neuroevaluation matters, and look at how personalised programmes can unlock meaningful change.

What we cover:

• The four neuromyths surrounding autism

• What neuroplasticity really means, and why every brain has the capacity to change

• The role and value of neuroevaluation in understanding individual brain profiles

• Neuroplasticity-based therapies available for autistic individuals

• Why personalised programmes are more effective than one-size-fits-all approaches

• How Neuro Frontiers supports individuals, parents and carers, therapists, and researchers with practical tools and resources

About Neuro Frontiers
Neuro Frontiers is a platform dedicated to providing practical, evidence-informed tools and resources focused on neuroplasticity therapies. Their work supports individuals, families, clinicians, and researchers in improving brain function through personalised, targeted approaches.

This conversation is a grounded, hopeful look at what’s possible when we move beyond myths and focus on the brain as a dynamic, changeable system.

Listen now and learn how understanding the brain differently can open up new pathways for support and progress.

In this episode, I sit down with Greer McGuinness to talk about what happens when a parent refuses to accept “there’s nothing more we can do”.

Greer shares her personal journey as a mother of a child diagnosed with autism at the age of two, the limitations she encountered in conventional medicine, and the turning point that led her back to university to study health science. Drawing on 15 years in the medical field, she explains how functional and integrative medicine shaped her approach to supporting children by addressing root causes rather than managing symptoms.

We discuss the real-world changes she witnessed in her own son through holistic and alternative therapies, and how those experiences led her to found Biomedical Healing for Kids. Greer also outlines how she works with families today, designing evidence-based, personalised strategies to support children with complex health needs.

This conversation is honest, practical, and grounded in lived experience – offering insight, hope, and a broader way of thinking about health, healing, and advocacy for children and their families.

Hannah Joy is on a mission to ensure that every child's right to communicate is upheld and every parent has the chance to achieve successful communication with their child.

Hannah will help you discover the power and joy that comes from celebrating the communication and language that exists beyond speech.

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A powerful conversation with online “dadvocate” Tyler Hudson, father to Lyric, his nearly 18-year-old, minimally speaking, profoundly autistic son. Their bond, so visible in the videos Tyler shares, sets the tone for an honest and deeply human discussion.

We explore Lyric’s regressive autism, the impact on family life, and how siblings navigate a landscape that shifts as needs change.

Our discussion also delves into An Inconvenient Study. A controversial documentary about the safety of vaccines.

Tyler doesn’t shy away from difficult truths, and some of his views may feel confronting. We invite listeners to stay open, lean into any discomfort, and consider how questioning long-held assumptions can move the conversation forward.

In this episode, we sit down with Lucinda Miller of Nature Doc to explore some of the most challenging — and often misunderstood — areas of childhood nutrition.

We discuss ARFID and practical ways families can support children with restrictive eating, the benefits and considerations of gluten- and casein-free diets, and what current evidence tells us about pica.

Lucinda also shares insights into the use of leucovorin and why it’s gaining attention in certain therapeutic settings.

A thoughtful and informative conversation for anyone navigating complex nutritional needs.