LIVE, IN-PERSON TRAINING
Chicago, IL | April 18, 2026 | 9 AM - 4:15 PM

Strengths-Based Practices in Action: Supporting Your Autistic Clients to Learn, Play & Thrive

In this live, in-person 6 contact hour course, you’ll learn how to support the deepest well-being of your Autistic clients. This training takes place in Naperville, IL. It is registered for .6 ASHA CEUs and .6 AOTA CEUs. In-person and live virtual options are available.

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FAQs
Meet the Instructors
Course Objectives
Testimonials

Continuing Education 
from Learn Play Thrive

Together we will
align your practice with your values

PART 1: Neurodiversity Language (15 minutes)

There is so much conflicting information out there about what language we should use to describe our Autistic clients. In this short introductory module, you’ll learn to center Autistic perspectives and well-being in language choices. Topics covered include neurodiversity, identity-first language, and functioning labels so that you can choose your words with confidence and defend your choices to others. You’ll also get oriented to the goals, organization, and evidence base for the training.

PART 2: Authentic Well-Being (1 hour)

This should be the starting point of every conversation about how we support our clients. But unfortunately, we often instead start with research evidence that doesn’t center our clients’ deepest sense of well-being, or with developmental milestones. In this section, we’ll examine both research and lived experiences (with an abundance of audio quotes from Autistic people with different intersectional identities) to learn what it truly looks like to center authentic well-being for our Autistic clients. This section covers positive Autistic identity, Autistic joy and passions, and Autistic play. We’ll also go into how to move away from coercive practices that don’t support authentic participation for your Autistic clients.

PART 3: Intersectionality (1 hour)

As providers, we will inevitably find ourselves supporting clients whose identities we don’t share. Without becoming curious about our clients intersecting identities, we cannot become the affirming provider our clients need and deserve. Using quotes, audio clips, and group reflection, we’ll learn about the experiences of Autistic people related to gender, sexuality, race, and more. We’ll explore what it looks like to actively examine our biases and to create truly inclusive spaces. We’ll also dive into how our work changes depending on what model of disability we choose. 

PART 4: The Autistic Neurotype (1 hour)

Go deep into how Autistic people learn and experience the world based on the latest research and the experience of Autistic adults so that you can create strengths-based support plans with confidence. Topics include Autistic social preferences, delayed echolalia, the double empathy problem, routines, interests, auditory processing, executive functioning, and more. This section includes video contributions from Autistic SLP Rachel Dorsey and Autistic OT Sarah-Selvaggi-Hernandez.  

PART 5: Strengths-Based Treatment Planning (2.5 hours)

Learn a concrete process to help you shift your perspective and truly consider the experience of your Autistic clients. This means looking beyond the behavior you can see and diving deep into how a child’s participation in daily routines is impacted by their neurotype, interests, and strengths, as well as the demands of the environment.  Participate in a hands-on case study as you learn an autism-specific process that will allow you to generate a robust list of hypotheses and strengths-based interventions every time you sit down with a new goal. 

PART 6: Self-Advocacy (7 minutes) + PART 7: Q&A (8 minutes)

Before our clients can advocate to have their needs met, they need to be able to feel what their needs are, and to experience having them accommodated in order to discover what is helpful to them. Only then can we begin to scaffold the process of teaching meaningful self-advocacy. In this brief module, we explore how we can meaningfully teach and support self-advocacy for Autistic people of any age. 

This interactive training will
transform your treatment
planning process

You’ll learn how to confidently create strengths-based treatment plans using strategies that are already in your tool bag. It’s all about understanding authentic well-being for your Autistic clients and shaping your interventions to reflect respect for their strengths and how they think and learn.

You’ll develop strengths-based support plans you can apply in your practice right away.

Investment

Tickets for this in-person event are $289. Tickets for the live-stream of the in-person event are $189. 

Access

This live in-person training takes place at the NIU Naperville Campus. Disability accommodations are available. Please contact us with any access needs. 

For those attending virtually, access will be via Zoom. No recorded replay will be available.

Continuing Education

This course will be registered for .6 AOTA CEUs (6 contact hours) and .6 ASHA CEUs. 

FAQs

Information about completion requirements, accommodations, and more can be found in the FAQs.

View FAQs
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Strengths-Based Approaches in Action
is for you if…

You currently work with Autistic clients in any setting and you want to be more effective in your strengths-based treatment planning

You believe in learning from the lived experiences of Autistic adults with different intersectional identities

  • You currently work with Autistic clients in any setting and you want to be more effective in your strengths-based treatment planning
  • You believe in learning from the lived experiences of Autistic adults with different intersectional identities​

You want concrete tools to help you shape your interventions based on the strengths of your neurodivergent clients so that they can experience more ease, authenticity, and joy in participating in their life

  • You want concrete tools to help you shape your interventions based on the strengths of your neurodivergent clients so that they can experience more ease, authenticity, and joy in participating in their life

Reviews from Meg's Learn Play Thrive Trainings:

This has been the best course I have ever taken! It is worth every penny and your time. Meg offers so many practical real-life examples that you can put into practice right away. I walked away with so many tools and strategies to better serve my kids. Best of all, I feel as though I have a greater understanding of autistic learning styles.
Angie Jones,
Angie Jones,OTR/L
Learn Play Thrive is the only course I would recommend for learning how to better evaluate and treat autistic children. I love that it values autistic perspectives and does not try to force autistic kids to present neurotypical, rather it helps support them in their own goals. I appreciate that it provides concrete examples and extra space to practice and discuss.
This is a career and practice changing course.
Mary Pat Kochenash,
Mary Pat Kochenash, OTR/L
Wow! I honestly cannot say enough positive things about this training. Meg has put together a thoughtful, thorough, and highly informative training. I left feeling more confident in my understanding of how people with autism learn, think, and play, and with new concrete tools to use in my practice - a combination I feel is often lacking from trainings. I am excited to get back to work and implement all that I learned from this training as I am confident that it will help me feel better prepared and more capable when working with my clients!
Lili W. MS,
Lili W. MS, OTR/L
This is by far the best course and professional development I have done to enhance my OT practice! Meg has taken a huge amount of research, knowledge and experience and condensed it into a course that is accessible, practical and just makes sense. I highly recommend this course to any OT working with young people with autism. You will not only walk away with explicit strategies and interventions but also a much deeper and useful understanding of autism learning styles and how this informs our practice.
Christine B.,
Christine B.,OT
If you’re looking for effective, real-life strategies for working with children on the autism spectrum, you need to take this course. Meg uses her extensive experience to teach you not only what to do, but how to actually do it! Her presentation is engaging, easy to follow, and you’ll walk away with the confidence that you can put these strategies into action right away.
I am an OT with over 30 years of experience working in the school setting. I have thoroughly enjoyed this very comprehensive course! In this course, Meg provides therapists with a comprehensive approach to meaningful and thoughtful assessment and intervention techniques. The information is shared in slides as well as in lively lectures. The format which incorporates “ homework” really makes the information stick as you put it into practice. She provides thoughtful feedback and the Facebook group encourages further sharing amongst therapists. In all my years, I have never engaged in such a thoughtful and organized course where knowledge is gained and applied giving therapists a strong foundation in both theory and practice.
Patricia Fowler
Patricia Fowler
Learn Play Thrive should be a required part of every OT school pediatrics course. Meg does a wonderful job of explaining the paradigm shift to a strengths-based approach to autism and practices what she preaches by centering autistic voices in the course. LPT leaves you with both an important cultural mindset to guide your therapy practice AND concrete strategies to implement with clients.
Cecilia Gigante
Cecilia Gigante
The Learn Play Thrive Approach has shaped my career and my approaches with my clients. I was lucky enough to experience one of the first courses and refreshing with the updated course gives me so much hope for the future of Autistic people. I educate all my coworker about this course and everyone who has taken it shouts their praises.
Sherridan B.
Sherridan B.
This was a really great course - practical, well delivered, thoughtful and covers a broad range of areas relevant to OTs working with autistic kids and young people. I would absolutely recommend it for anyone who wants to add tangible new ideas to their therapeutic toolbox. I love that Meg has incorporated autistic voices within and sought out their feedback on the content of her course - Meg sets the bar high!
This is the most beneficial course I have taken in years. The information is presented clearly, and is research based. I found the assessment and intervention strategies to be practical and child/family oriented. I have also found that the intervention strategies really work! Meg is a wealth of knowledge, and a wonderful instructor. I am grateful to have had this opportunity.
This course is full of insights into providing a strengths based approach to autistic clients. It was fascinating to learn from Meg with a combination of presentations, handouts and video case studies. I've been an OT for 20 yrs and I'm so glad I found this course. The practical strategies offered are gold! This was such good value for money.
C.B,
C.B, OT
This is the most impactful CEU course I've taken to date. Typically a course will teach about autism in an outdated way; this course taught effective strategies and interventions to help take the perspective of autistic clients in a way that works. I have an entire new approach to working with autistics now and feel confident moving forward to educate others!
Dani A.,
Dani A., OTR/L
This course has been one of the most helpful and practical courses I have taken in....well forever. I have struggled ever since a student to accept the behavioral strategies taught to me and I could never carry them over with my clients. The forced compliance always felt wrong and unkind. This discomfort grew to an absolute rejection once I had my own children and eventually my own autistic children. I was never taught alternatives and therefor have spent years sort of "winging it" using strategies I learned from Floortime and Dr Ross Greene . This course has really pulled it all together for me and now I feel like I have a true framework to build from.
K.F.
K.F.
The LPT Approach to Autism is a course that all neurodiveristy affirming clinicians should take. I learned so much and it helped to really solidify some ideas I have about effective intervention with the autistic population. It was a great, easy to follow course.
Kaitlin Mulcahey,
Kaitlin Mulcahey, MS CCC SLP
"As a new graduate occupational therapist working in a pediatric clinic setting, this class gave me very concrete, simple, methods that I could start implementing as soon as I watched them in the first module. I have taken a lot of CEUs that give me SO much information, but at the end I'm left confused on how to implement it. This course gave me all of the information AND all of the ways to implement it into my daily practice."
Emily Noldin
Emily Noldin
"This has been a wonderful learning experience. The course is extremely well thought of and put together. Meg teaches in a way that is clear and concise. I highly recommend this course to anyone who wants to understand and engage their client in a respectful, empowering way."
Sheila P.
Sheila P.
This course is a great place to start if you want to be part of the shift to neurodiversity affirming practice! The ideas and processes covered in this course really helped me make a plan for changing the way I teach and guide my autistic students as an OTA. It gives a clear plan, has excellent opportunities to work through the plan in stages, great feedback, and a real-life scenario to use to work through the entire process to demonstrate understanding. It has lots of in-depth examples and case studies from which to glean insight. One of the best, most "walk out and use it" courses I've taken.
Kristin
Kristin
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Meet your
Instructor

INSTRUCTOR

Meg Ferrell

M.S., OTR/L
Founder of Learn Play Thrive, Occupational Therapist (she/her)
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Meg Ferrell

Founder of Learn Play Thrive, Occupational Therapist (she/her)
Meg (she/her) is the founder of Learn Play Thrive and an occupational therapist who cares deeply about person-affirming therapy. At Learn Play Thrive, she hopes to springboard as many professionals as humanly possible into practices that are culturally responsive and neurodiversity-affirming.

Meg continues to learn from Autistic adults with different intersectional identities through hosting the Two Sides of the Spectrum podcast, and paying Autistic consultants to review Learn Play Thrive courses.

She is the primary instructor in The Learn Play Thrive Approach to Autism, where she fills up the toolboxes of OTs, SLPs, social workers, school psychologists, and other professionals with strengths-based strategies to use in their work.
Disclosures for Meg Ferrell
FINANCIAL: Meg is the owner of Learn Play Thrive and receives a salary.
NON-FINANCIAL: Meg has friends and colleagues who are Autistic.

Please note: disclosure statements are contained in the Bio page for each speaker. Click on "READ BIO" above to review the disclosures.

"I have been a pediatric OT for almost 20 years, and Meg's course is the only one I've ever attended that I feel is absolutely spot on and the best approach to working with autistic clients. It gives me hope for our profession."

 – Lynn Salley, MS, OTR/L

Full Course Objectives

Evaluate current practices to identify areas of growth for diversity, equity, and inclusion practices when supporting multiply marginalized Autistic people

Critique traditional models of behavior problem solving using the framework of the Double Empathy Problem and research on the mental health outcomes of masking

Develop six or more specific hypotheses about how a child's difficulty participating in a learning activity or routine may be related to Autistic learning styles

  • Evaluate current practices to identify areas of growth for diversity, equity, and inclusion practices when supporting multiply marginalized Autistic people
  • Critique traditional models of behavior problem solving using the framework of the Double Empathy Problem and research on the mental health outcomes of masking
  • Develop six or more specific hypotheses about how a child's difficulty participating in a learning activity or routine may be related to Autistic learning styles

Generate six or more intervention strategies to teach new skills and adapt the learning environment based on specific client’s strengths

Select therapy practices that center authentic Autistic joy over compliance

  • Generate six or more intervention strategies to teach new skills and adapt the learning environment based on specific client’s strengths
  • Select therapy practices that center authentic Autistic joy over compliance
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Frequently Asked Questions

This course is developed for occupational therapists, speech therapists, and other professionals who support Autistic kids in any setting. This is not a course designed for parents.
 
This course is targeted at the intermediate level.

This course is relevant for kids from early intervention through young adulthood. 

This training includes videos, audio clips, lecture, slides, and a participatory process.

This course is registered for .6 AOTA CEUs and .6 ASHA CEUs.

This in-person training takes place at NIU Naperville from 9AM to 4:15 PM CT with a one hour lunch break at noon and a short break in the morning and afternoon.

1120 E. Diehl Rd.
Naperville, IL 60563

The virtual live stream of the training will be hosted on Zoom.

Learners who attend in person will be required to sign in within 10 minutes of the beginning of the training and sign out within 10 minutes of the end of the training. Learners must complete a learner satisfaction survey within one week of completing the live training. Certificates will be sent out by email after the survey is complete.

Learners who attend virtually must self-attest to viewing the entire presentation and complete a learner satisfaction survey within one week of the live training. Certificates will be sent out virtually after the survey is complete.

If the program is canceled by the instructor at any point, learners will be issued a full refund.

If learners wish to cancel their in-person refund, they will be given a full refund minus a 3% processing fee if it is more than 30 days before the live event. If it is less than 30 days before the live event, learners will have the option of transferring their registration to another learner, or switching into the virtual viewing of the event.

Please email admin@learnplaythrive.com prior to your training date.

Accommodations will be made to support all learners in compliance with the Americans with Disability Act. 

You can send an email to admin@learnplaythrive.com

This training truly centers Autistic well-being

As a provider supporting Autistic kids in an ableist world, it can be hard to truly center their authentic well-being

But with this live training, you can align your work with your values and work in a way that truly makes the greatest positive impact

attend in person

This course will be available for ASHA CEUs from April 18th, 2026 until April 18th, 2031 at which point Learn Play Thrive will apply for re-registration.The assignment of AOTA CEUs does not imply endorsement of specific course content, products, or clinical procedures by AOTA.
ASHA CE Provider approval and use of the Brand Block does not imply endorsement of course content, specific products or clinical procedures.