See the child before the behavior.

Ashlee Savia DeConinck is a mother, autism advocate, and creator of Visual Support Tools for Autism. Her work began with a personal question: how could she help the adults around her nonverbal son, Rocco, better understand what he could not always communicate?

Rocco has higher support needs, limited danger awareness, and a history of elopement. His experiences showed Ashlee that even caring adults may understand the same child differently, and that in critical moments, misunderstanding can affect safety, regulation, and dignity.

Ashlee created the kind of practical visual support she had been searching for. The original school resource is designed to be reviewed in about twenty minutes, and the collection now extends the same child centered approach to first response and emergency care. The tools complement professional training, policy, clinical judgment, and individualized care.

Created entirely from lived experience, the collection helps the adults responsible for a child’s well being build a clearer, more consistent understanding across home, school, transportation, clinical, community, and emergency settings.

Ashlee’s autism advocacy has been acknowledged in formal White House correspondence. Her family’s journey was published in the April 2026 Autism Annual Issue of Exceptional Parent Magazine, and her original resource was featured in an ABA Toolbox community spotlight. These milestones reflect acknowledgment and reach, not accreditation, endorsement, or clinical validation.

Her work exists for one reason: when adults share a clearer understanding, children with autism who have higher support needs are safer, better supported, and more fully understood.