What do you wish you’d taught your child earlier, now they’re a neurodiverse adult?

They need to know when young that you are their biggest advocate. That you help them when they are too young to regulate so they trust you to be a safe space as they get older. Teach them some behaviour is not acceptable whether they are ND or not. Make them aware the world is not always accepting and help them to have a variety stims or soothing behaviours, so they have some more discreet ones, regulating is much harder if you feel the world is watching. Fortunately these days wandering around with headphones on all the time will barely get you a second glance! However within our four walls our child is free to be as random as they wish to be we’ve only occasionally asked them to rein it in at home if it gets a bit too loud but we always do so gently and with an explanation.
Help them learn what can help with self regulation, what situations can be avoided how to deal with harder ones. A little bit of pushing around comfort zones so they maybe attempt new things, but always give them ultimate control over whether or not they do something. Ie we will try this once and if you don’t like it that’s fine. It helps them to know that a single slightly unpleasant/annnoying experience isn’t the end of the world.

Self care strategies both for regulation in the moment and pacing in everyday life.

My dd was diagnosed young, aged 2, and I was given advice to teach her independence, no not use autism as an excuse and to assume she can be a successful adult. Took longer than a typical person to get independent but at 25 she managed it, no so much working, more still studying

My son is 20 and very likely autistic. He's waiting on assessment results. Best thing we did was work out a coping strategy. So if he feels overwhelmed by a situation how to handle it. Hugs to anyone going through this, it's not easy but you find a way through x

Following as in the same boat.