Savy's 2 cents

Welcome to the Map Maker Blog—your trusted source for expert insights, family guidance, and real-world strategies focused on Deaf+ individuals. Whether you’re a parent, educator, therapist, or support staff, our blog brings together trauma-informed practices, inclusive education tools, and language-first approaches designed for Deaf and autistic children and adults.

Our posts cover topics like behavior as communication, setting up visual supports, trauma recovery in nonspeaking individuals, supporting executive function, language deprivation, and building inclusive environments in homes, schools, and adult care settings.

With a foundation in evidence-based strategies and lived experience, Map Maker’s blog helps you understand the "why" behind challenging behaviors and gives you practical tools for creating connection, structure, and success. Every article is written with Deaf+ needs in mind—centered around autonomy, accessibility, and belonging.

When Transitions Feel Like Free Fall: Why They’re So Hard (and How We Can Help)

Transitions are easier when we can name what’s happening. But what if you don’t have the words yet? For non-speaking kids or those still building ASL fluency, transitions hit harder. They don’t just need words—they need time to preload the transition into their sensory and emotional system. That means prep before the moment. Not warnings shouted from across the room. Not verbal instructions with no context. But rich, layered cues—signs, objects, timers, visuals, touch sign

Paying Off Old Debts: How Connective Tissue, PTSD, and Muscle Memory Shape Deaf+ and Autistic Responses

🔁 Paying Off Old Debts: How Connective Tissue, PTSD, and Muscle Memory Shape Deaf+ and Autistic Responses Some behaviors aren’t learned...

Misfires & Memory

Misfires & Memory: Why Sign Language, Visuals, and Predictable Transitions Change Everything for Deaf+ and Autistic Kids Behavior is...

Emotion Regulation First and Foremost

🧠 Learning to Drive the Meat Suit: Why Physiological Regulation Must Come Before Academics “You can’t download software if the system...

Section 7: Building Structure, Autonomy, and Daily Routines at Home

Your house isn’t a classroom. It’s the first operating system lab. Before a child can generalize routines or skills in school, they must first learn how they operate at home — the most consistent and emotionally charged environment in their life. Autonomy doesn’t mean doing everything alone. It means having the language and structure to participate with purpose.

Section 6: Therapies, Medical Navigation, and Home Advocacy

Therapies should build access, not compliance. The goal of therapy isn’t to make your child “less autistic.” It’s to For Deaf+ children, dysregulation isn’t a moment — it’s a nervous system pattern. They’re not overreacting. They’re overloading. They’re not seeking attention. They’re seeking control. They’re not being defiant. Their body is stuck in a state of fight, flight, or freeze. You can’t discipline a body out of crisis. You can only regulate it, support it, and th

Section 5: Daily Regulation Tools and Home Environments

Regulation is not a reward. It is survival. For Deaf+ children, dysregulation isn’t a moment — it’s a nervous system pattern. They’re not overreacting. They’re overloading. They’re not seeking attention. They’re seeking control. They’re not being defiant. Their body is stuck in a state of fight, flight, or freeze. You can’t discipline a body out of crisis. You can only regulate it, support it, and then build it forward.

Section 4: Routines, Visuals, and Daily Structure

Structure isn’t rigidity. It’s clarity. A neurotypical child often learns through overhearing, prompting, and routine exposure. But a Deaf+ child — with a different operating system and no audio input — needs the world mapped out visually, predictably, and physically in order to participate, regulate, and eventually act independently. Think of routine as an app shortcut: Without it, they’re digging through dozens of unfamiliar files. With it, they click and go.

Section 3: Understanding Behavior at Home

Behavior Is the Language of a System Under Stress When your Deaf+ child is upset, avoidant, aggressive, or rigid — what you’re seeing is a m Your child’s operating system is autistic. That means: Their processing is unique. Their sensory input is custom-wired. Their ability to interpret, predict, and respond depends on a visual language environment they can actually access. For Deaf+ children, sign language isn’t optional. It’s the only way to install functional language on

Section 2: Language Access at Home

Language is the Software. Visual is the System. Your child’s operating system is autistic. That means: Their processing is unique. Their sensory input is custom-wired. Their ability to interpret, predict, and respond depends on a visual language environment they can actually access. For Deaf+ children, sign language isn’t optional. It’s the only way to install functional language on the OS.