What’s in Your Autistic Toolbox?
Image description: There is a picture of a wood toolbox with tools inside. Over a white background the black text reads "What's in your autistic toolbox."
As a late diagnosed Autistic and Autistic life coach I’ve seen first hand the steady miracles of practical autistic support. Support like tending to your sensory needs, recovery from autistic burnout, advocating for your autistic needs are no small things. For many of us late diagnosed Autistics and AuDHDers we’ve gone the majority of our lives thinking that there was something wrong with us or wondering why life just came easier to other people. There can a sense of relief when we realize that we’re neurodivergent later in life and also a feeling of “okay, now what? How do I make my life supportive for my autistic self?” I say this as someone who felt very overwhelmed when I received my dual Autism + ADHD diagnosis in my mid-30’s. It was both a huge relief to understand who I was and how I experienced the world and I remember feeling unsure about how to make life work for my neurodivergent brain.
Which is why I’ve loved building an autistic toolbox with tools, practices and accommodations that would support me as a late diagnosed Autistic. In this blog post I’m going to share with you my favorite tools that I have in my autistic toolbox and how you can create you own!
What is an autistic toolbox?
Just like a carpenter stores the tools they need in their toolbox your autistic toolbox stores the tools, accommodations, education and practical support that you need for life to be accessible and support for you. I encourage you to think of your autistic toolbox as an imaginary box filled with all different types of tools tailored to support your autistic self.
What types of things should I “put” in my autistic toolbox?
Image description: Over a pink background there is a drawing of a toolbox. The title and text are written in black text and read "Things you might include in your neurodivergent tool box" and "Sensory aids, scripts to help you advocate for your needs, meltdown and shutdown recovery plans, communication aids, neurodivergent education, pacing systems, sensory breaks, your favorite stims."
As the saying goes “if you’ve met one autistic, you’ve still only met one autistic” in other words: every autistic is different! I encourage you to tailor your autistic toolbox to your own autistic needs. But some examples of things you might include in your autistic toolbox are:
Neurodivergent education & resources.
Your go-to stims.
Sensory aids like noise cancelling headphones, ear plugs or sunglasses.
Meltdown and shutdown recovery protocols.
Communication support like communication cards, AAC apps, tone indicators.
Sensory support tools like sensory breaks and sensory soothers.
Scripts to help your share your needs or boundaries.
Pacing systems.
Unmasking support.
Although everyone autistic is different, I’m going to share with you some of my favorite tools and practical autistic support that I encourage my autistic coaching clients to have in their autistic toolbox.
1.) Sensory support & care.
Supporting your sensory needs is a core way you can experience more sensory safety (and joy!) in your life. You might include some of the following things in your autistic toolbox:
Sensory breaks: 5-15 sensory breaks spread out throughout your day to increase sensory regulation.
Sensory aids like noise cancelling headphones, earbuds, sunglasses and more!
Neurodivergent education on things like sensory trauma, getting to know your sensory profile, identifying your sensory triggers and soothers.
Sensory accommodations that support you both on regular days and when you have to be in an environment or event that isn’t sensory ideal.
Creating a Sensory Emergency Plan.
2.) Meltdown & Shutdown support.
Meltdowns and shutdowns are so hard and we can create more safety by adding to our autistic toolbox different types of support like:
Getting to know your meltdown and shutdown triggers.
Creating a meltdown and shutdown recovery plan. This creates safety and helps you know exactly what to do to recover from your meltdown or shutdown.
Neurodivergent education on meltdowns and shutdowns.
Image description: A sample page from the workbook "My Autistic Meltdown and Shutdown recovery plan" where the reader is prompted to answer the questions: "the most supportive care I can give myself is..", "the most supportive care I can receive is..." and "what would be the most loving thing for me to do during my meltdown and shutdown recovery plan?"
3.) Pacing systems.
A key way you can create a life that feels accessible and supportive for your autistic needs is pacing systems! You might add to your autistic toolbox:
Neurodivergent education on topics like spoon, fork and knives theory and the boom or bust cycle.
Getting to know and tracking your neurodivergent spoons.
Honoring your capacity and identifying specific supports and boundaries that help you.
4.) Communication support & tools.
For some autistics communication can feel challenging and part of making our life more accessible is identifying our communication needs. Here are some communication support and tools to add to your autistic toolbox:
Identifying your communication needs and accommodations. What do you need for communication to be accessible?
Communication aids and support like: communication cards, AAC apps, tone indicators, wearing headphones or earbuds to reduce background noise, scripts.
Advocating for your communication needs. Such as do you prefer object based conversations vs social based ones? Do you need tone indicators to understand text? Do you need to communicate via text, phone call or with AAC apps?
Image description: There is a drawing of a white woman with brown hair wearing headphones, her eyes are closed and she is smiling. The title reads "What's in my autistic toolbox?" There are text bubbles surrounding the woman which read: "meltdown and shutdown recovery plans!", "My noise cancelling headphones!", "pacing systems!", "my sensory soothers", "my favorite stims" and "how to advocate for my communication needs."
5.) Autistic deeper support.
I also believe that deeper support around topics like unmasking, autistic burnout recovery and unpacking internalized ableism are deeply supportive. You might add to your autistic toolkit:
A protocol for when you hear an ableist comment or notice an internalized ableism belief.
Learning about the neurodivergent nervous system and learning how to track your sensitive nervous system.
Doable ways to explore unmasking.
Getting to know your autistic burnout signals and creating an autistic burnout recovery plan.
An autistic toolbox creates safety and support.
Image description: Over an orange, blue and tan background there is a white frame with a quote written in back text that reads: "what tools, support and care support your autistic wellness and joy?"
Being a late diagnosed autistic can sometimes feel overwhelming as so many of us are trying to make life feel accessible, affirming and supportive for our autistic selves. What I love about an autistic toolbox is that it creates safety. I think of it my autistic toolbox as a space where I can store all of my favorite tools which I can then pick out as needed. So instead of wondering what to do when I’m in a shutdown, I know exactly what to do. When I’m in a sensory emergency I can quickly select my sensory emergency protocol.
It might be supportive to think of building an autistic toolbox as something you add to slowly over time. You might add supportive tools you see on social media, include key pieces of neurodivergent education you learned from a book or blog or maybe from tools a neurodivergent coach or therapist has shared with you. Ultimately your autistic toolbox is about gathering the tools, accommodations and education that support your autistic wellness and joy.
Thank you for reading!
I hope this blog post was supportive. If you’d like to share a bit about what you include in your own autistic toolbox-please feel free to share in the comments.
The information contained in this blog post is for general educational and informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical or mental health advice. The information provided is not a substitute for advice from a qualified professional who is aware of the facts and circumstances of your individual situation. We expressly recommend that you seek advice from a professional familiar with your specific situation.
Your autistic healing matters.
I hope this blog post was helpful in your own autistic healing journey. I truly believe that us late diagnosed autistics deserve autistic affirming healing and I hope you have the best practitioners, tools and support for your own healing.
If you’re seeking autistic support and healing, I’d love to support you in my 5 month program The Autistic Mentorship. It includes:
An intensive intake session & healing map to identify your goals and developmental objectives that we’ll work on in our program together.
Three (75 minute) sessions a month.
Lots of support & education: think recap emails + personalized practices sent to your inbox, neurodivergent workbooks and resources and two optional 30 minute check-in calls.
You can find out more about The Autistic Mentorship here.
Tiffany Landry is an autistic coach and trauma resolution practitioner. She works with clients in her programs Slow and The Autistic Mentorship . Tiffany also writes a free newsletter on Substack called The Queer Autistic Newsletter.