The Retirement Success in Maine Podcast Ep 114: Autism, Aging, and Advocacy: The Role of Grandparents and Retirees in Lifelong Support

 

 

Transcript:

Intro (00:01):

Do you struggle with what it means to be successful in your retirement? Trust us, you're not alone. Welcome to the Retirement Success in Maine podcast. Here you'll go in depth with guidance point advisors, investment consultants, to hear stories about how retirees in Maine are navigating a successful retirement, get insight into the inevitable challenges of aging, and define what a successful retirement looks like.

Ben Smith (00:26):

Welcome everybody to the Retirement Success in Maine podcast. I'm Ben Smith, and joining me as always is the man who's like the weighted blanket of financial planning, calm, reliable, and always there when you need some reassurance. And if he's the weighted blanket, I guess that makes me the decorative pillow. My co-host, Curtis Worcester, how are you doing today, Curtis?

Curtis Worcester (00:45):

All right. I'm doing well, Ben. I like the comfy cozy. We're going with the metaphor today. You're going to make me want to go take a little afternoon nap here, but no, I'm doing well, Ben. How are you?

Ben Smith (00:56):

Really well, really well, and I know hopefully you all out there listening are doing well as well, and we'd love to hear from you. You can always reach out to us at benSmith@guidancepointrs.com. You can email us there or you can kind of just leave a message on our social media pages, whether it be Facebook or LinkedIn. Feel free to reach out to us there. But I know today's topic is one we haven't touched on before, and it's becoming a really important conversation for many retirees. And we often picture retirement as a time of stepping away from responsibility, but for a growing number of people, it's actually a time when they step up.

Curtis Worcester (01:35):

Yeah, it's exactly right, Ben. And especially true for grandparents or retirees in general who may be supporting family members with autism, whether it's helping care for a grandchild who may be on the spectrum or continuing to support an adult child with autism, many folks are navigating a very different kind of retirement than they may have anticipated.

Ben Smith (01:57):

And that support role can be incredibly meaningful, but also emotionally complex. We're talking routines, advocacy, mental health and caregiving, all layered with love and uncertainty.

Curtis Worcester (02:08):

That's right, Ben. So today's episode, we're going to dig into how retirees are stepping into those roles and what they need to understand and how they can take care of themselves along the way.

Ben Smith (02:18):

And to help us with that, we've invited someone who's not only walked with families on the journey, but helped shape how professionals think about it. She brings over 30 years of experience as a psychologist, group facilitator, and autism advocate.

Curtis Worcester (02:30):

That's right, Ben. Our guest today is a seasoned clinical psychologist from California with more than 30 years of experience over her career. She's worked extensively with children and families conducting psychological, educational and neuropsychological testing. She expanded into individual and group therapy. Parenting groups in school-based interventions later became a strong voice for the autism community. Through her work with the Grandparent Network, she co-leads a monthly drop-in support group for children, parents and adults on the spectrum, and delivered presentations on suicide prevention, parenting, autistic children, relaxation techniques, and police training for handling autistic individuals. Our guest has served in leadership roles including newsletter editor, webmaster and president of the Orange County Psychological Association, now retired, I'll say retired in quotes there for people watching. She writes on mental health topics for medium.com and her website, a j rogers o books.com, and we'll link that for everybody listening. You can also find her latest book, your Journey to Successful Parenting Ages two through 11, a Stress-Free Guide to Effective Behavior Change that is available on Amazon. And again, for everybody listening, we will link that book as well in the show notes. Our guest's mission is to make family harmony and psychological insight accessible, especially for those who can't access therapy when things go wrong. So with that background, please join me in welcoming Dr. Alexandra Rogers to the Retirement Success in Maine Podcast. Dr. Rogers, thank you so much for coming on our show today.

Dr. Alexandra Rogers (04:18):

Oh, it's my pleasure. Thank you for having me on.

Ben Smith (04:21):

Well, Dr. Rogers, we want to obviously just get to know you a little bit in the first segment of our show here. So love to just kind of hear a little bit about what first inspired your path into psychology and how did that evolve into working with the autism community?

Dr. Alexandra Rogers (04:35):

Okay, so when I was in high school, we had a school psychologist who was very popular with everyone. Everyone loved him. I tried to talk him into teaching a psychology class, but he said he didn't have time. So he said he would do a club for us. So several of us joined this psychology club and three of us became psychologists. So when I was in high school, I really loved biology, and that was the time when the DNA helix was discovered and discussed broadly, and I thought I would become a microbiologist, but I got headaches from looking through microscopes all the time, so I had to give that up. So psychology became it. Later on, I worked in many, many settings. I don't want to go into all of them. There were really a lot. And eventually what happened is I became interested in autism when my grandson was diagnosed as autistic at the age of two, he's now 21. It was many years ago. So I was still practicing. I was still seeing families and kids. So I dove into learning as much as I could about autism. A friend of mine recommended several books written by autistic individuals, both teenagers and adults, and she said that I should read those. So I started reading that because it gave me an idea of what it's like for the autistic person, what it's like on the inside,

(06:08):

Because the symptoms that we see on the outside are really, they're related to what's going on inside, but they don't make logical sense to be related to what's going on inside. So armed with that, and I kept on reading other books by autistic adults, I have a list of books, my favorite ones on my website in one of my articles.

Curtis Worcester (06:33):

Perfect. And we'll be sure to link that as well for everybody listening. And Dr. Rogers, you just touched on it, right? You've obviously had an incredibly diverse background and career here from testing and therapy to advocacy and training. Can we just expand a little bit maybe on what experiences most shaped your understanding of how families do navigate autism?

Dr. Alexandra Rogers (06:57):

Probably working with families who had autistic kids. Eventually, after I studied up on it, I started doing support groups in my office for nothing to learn more about the kids and about families and how the kids could be reached and how they could be socialized if they could actually do things together and enjoy being together. So from there, I learned more about families, and then I started doing, no, I joined one of those autism support groups. At first, I joined as just a member, or I wasn't leading it. And it was interesting because when I went there, allegedly autistic individuals, a lot of 'em are really noise sensitive. So I went to this IHOP restaurant. It was a huge IHOP restaurant, and the group had gotten so big, and I went in there and I was observing the kids. And the kids when they first came in were hiding behind their books.

(08:06):

So the way it was structured was that the kids were in one area, the parents were in another area talking to one another, and the kids were kind of on their own. And the young adults on the autism spectrum had their own area. And when I noticed when I first walked in is all the kids were hiding behind their books. They brought book because they came from school, they brought books, they were hiding behind their books or they were on their little devices that they brought in with them. But eventually as the meeting went on, the books came down and the devices came down and they were actually talking to one another. And I thought, wow, this is really something. And then of course, talking to the parents, the parents were very frank about what kind of issues they were having with the kids. What kind of things helped? What helped? They would exchange tips on what helped. They would exchange tips on the professionals that they used that whom they liked. So this is how I learned. I learned by doing. I learned everything by doing.

Ben Smith (09:14):

Yeah. Nice. Well, Dr. Rogers, I know obviously you mentioned your personal story of becoming a grandparent to someone on the autism spectrum. And I want to just talk a little bit about that, about what drew you specifically to work with grandparents and retirees as part of the autism support ecosystem. Was that something where you were just drawing from your own experiences and saying, Hey, as a grandparent, I'm trying to figure this out myself and maybe I could help others? How did that come about of that connection?

Dr. Alexandra Rogers (09:40):

Part of learning about autism was going to bazillion conferences, and there were opportunities for parents and for providers to learn more about autism. So there are all kinds of lessons. And I met other providers over there, and I met other parents that weren't part of our group. And I met the grandparent grandma who actually started the Grandparent Autism Network, and basically the autism network was to help grandparents understand what was going on. Most of the grandparents, I was very involved, but most of the other grandparents saw their grandkids on an intermittent basis, and they weren't professionals and they didn't have the training that I did. They didn't go to all the workshops and things that I went to. So they were kind of at a loss on what the behaviors meant and what to do about them and how to help and what they can do to help and support their grown children with the kids. But in terms of advocacy for the Grandparent Autism Network, it was primarily medical and we were supporting research, medical research that was being done at UCI, which was the local university. So I did knock on the doors of politicians or anything like that.

Curtis Worcester (11:08):

Yeah, yeah. That's great though. I appreciate that kind of background into, I know obviously we read your very diverse background. I appreciate you giving us the insight to what got you to where you are today. I really want to dive in now to the topic of today's show, and we'd like to start again foundationally. So maybe for those listeners who may be sort of new to autism or helping support somebody with autism, I want to ask you Dr. Rogers, how would you define autism in a kind of practical everyday sense, and how does it impact the lives of those diagnosed?

Dr. Alexandra Rogers (11:46):

Okay, so the saying is if you've met one autistic person, you met one autistic person. So it's not a one size fits all diagnosis. There are two ways to look at autism. You can either look at the behaviors that are displayed, like the flapping, repeating certain things, coele, repeating what you said, poor eye contact, unwilling or unable to make eye contact while they're being talked to, problems with conversation, tendency to lecture. If they're very verbal, they might be like the little professor and launch into lectures about their favorite topic, but they don't want to stop. They don't want to talk about anything else. But in terms of the give and take of conversation, it is difficult for them. So it goes the gamut between talking late or not being able to talk at all to wanting to communicate via written word or not wanting to communicate via written word to being very hyperverbal, very articulate, high functioning to the point of being a college professor able to function as a college professor or an engineer. But in terms of interpersonal relations, there's always a problem. There's always a misunderstanding. They have to pretend it's like role playing. It doesn't come naturally. Social interactions don't come naturally to 'em. So they copy somebody that they think is really good at talking to other people, and they kind of use that persona when they're interacting with other people. But it takes a lot of, it drains them emotionally, it drains them physically, and then they have to take a long rest after that. So even the very high functioning ones have problems.

Ben Smith (13:53):

Well, Dr. Rogers, I know obviously for our audience out there, and for many retirees listening today, they may not have expected to become caregivers in this way. Is it something that it might just kind of happen in terms of a family member getting a diagnosis? And so I want to just hear about what you've seen out there for what are some reasons that grandparents and older adults find themselves supporting a grandchild or adult child with autism?

Dr. Alexandra Rogers (14:19):

Well, the primary reason is to help their kids, or if something happens to their kids where they can't take care of the grandchild and Child Protective Services goes to them first because they like to place people with family members rather in foster care. So this is how they end up helping with the care. Myself, I basically took my grandson every weekend from midday Saturday to Midday Sunday.

(14:52):

And so I had a lot of exposure to him. And then when the younger brother was born, and I took both of 'em basically to give the parents some adult time so they can have some time to themselves because it's very time consuming. Caring for a child with autism takes more stamina and it takes more out of you because not only do you have to figure out how to care for them, but then you have to advocate for them in the school and childcare at the doctor's office. And so it's very draining. And so I think like myself, the parents just want their kids to have some time to themselves, some rest, to do whatever they feel like.

Curtis Worcester (15:44):

Yeah, I appreciate that answer and you kind of lead right into my next question is speaking to those kind of challenges from the caretaking perspective in this situation, can you just maybe elaborate or share some examples that you've seen on what are some of those emotional challenges that somebody may experience when caregiving or providing support for a loved one who may be on the spectrum?

Dr. Alexandra Rogers (16:09):

So part of it is everything takes longer. Dressing takes longer. You have to teach them things over and over again. They forget when they're younger. Feeding takes longer. They don't want to eat most stuff. They like to stick to a limited diet because of the taste of things and a texture of things. So cooking for them, preparing food, feeding, trying to take them to the park, they go through stages where they just want to run, they abscond. So I remember one time at the shopping center, I too used to take my grandson to shopping center. He used to have a little play area there that he liked, and

(16:58):

One time we were walking there and he started running and he kept running and running and running. The people I was afraid he would bump into people. So I was yelling miles slow down, and he didn't slow down, but the people parted to let him through. I just let him run until he got tired and he finally got so tired. He just laid down on the floor by one of the stores, or they want to ride the elevators over and over and over again. So your time is spent in a very different way than you would spend it with a child who's not affected by autism.

(17:41):

So everything takes longer and everything is different. Some people have a hard time because other relatives instead of being helpful are very critical. So they tell the parents that they're spoiling their kid and they should spank them and they should not let 'em do this and that and the other. And the parents know that it wouldn't help and it's not the way to do it. And so on top of having a child who's affected, they get all this criticism on top of that, and it is just wearying to the soul. And usually there's not, the kids also have trouble falling asleep a lot of times. And so you wake up to little feet thumping around on the floor in the other room just running in circles because they're wide awake and can't fall back asleep. So it is just tiring. And then when you hit the schools and the schools don't want to provide services that they're supposed to be providing, they have to fight with the school, everything is more complicated.

(18:51):

And

(18:51):

So you end up not having time to yourself. You can't really be good to yourself because you don't have the time. And then worrying about what's going to happen to 'em when they grow up. That starts when they're teenagers, and that's also when you realize there's very little support for them after they get out of school, then the worrying is intensified because on top of worrying about what's going to happen though to them when you die, you worry about how you're going to keep them busy if they're not able to work.

Ben Smith (19:28):

And Dr. Roger. Yeah, I think Dr. Roger, that's kind of a perfect segue to the question I wanted to ask you next was because I think as you're saying, just the emotional component and just it's a very intensive ask to support somebody on. It can be, I guess is what I want to say to support somebody on the spectrum here. I think there's, to your point about what happens when I pass, I think maybe there's a lot of families that'll eventually consider residential support options like group homes. So just want to hear just your take here about what advice do you have for retirees and family members that are navigating the emotional, especially the emotional, but in the practical aspects of group home placement for that loved one that they're supporting on the spectrum there.

Dr. Alexandra Rogers (20:15):

So there are limited number of group homes out there, and when the parents go look at their group homes or their grandparents, they're usually disappointed. They don't really approve of them, they don't like them. They're not this and they're not that, and they don't want to place their kids in there. There's also a worry about people on the autism spectrum don't like change, and there's a worry about how are they going to adopt to a new environment. So that's a very, very difficult thing. So my recommendation would be start looking early and place your child before your child doesn't need to be placed. Find a place before they need to be placed. And sometimes they can live independently in apartments. And there are some programs in California, I don't know how the other states are, but there are some programs in California that offer that, and there are job coaches and other types of coaches to help them with independent living. I had a patient who had coach had a coach like that, so start early and let them try it out early so you can find and you can look for a better place for them while they're trying the one place, but get them used to the idea of living independently before it's too late, before you get too sick to care for them before you get too sick to look for a proper place for them. Just okay. That's about it.

Ben Smith (21:59):

Okay. Well, so I got a couple follow ups there, Dr. Rogers, because I think one is I would just love to hear just your opinion on kind of the group home piece because I could see where if I'm caring for my child, it doesn't matter where I take them, they're just never going to measure up to the amount of love that I'm giving my kiddo, right? There's never going to be a replacement for that. So I could see it's really easy to be critical and say, I'm just never going to put somebody into a group home situation because they're never going to care for them like I can. But I guess what I want to get to is then outside of that, how are you comparing, what would you say would be a good group home placement versus not a good one? How would you just look at quality between the two? Because I think that's an important distinction.

Dr. Alexandra Rogers (22:48):

I think a lot of people go in and they look at the furniture and they look at the house and they decide it's not as nice as my furniture in my house. It's not as nice. I would go in there and look at the caregivers because the caregivers in the group home are more important than the actual setting. You want to make sure that the place is clean and you want to make sure that the other people living in the group home are not straight out assaultive. A lot of places don't want young people with behaviors. And so sometimes when autistic people are overwhelmed, sometimes they shout, sometimes they scream, sometimes they throw stuff. And so those are referred to as behaviors and a lot of places don't want someone who has behaviors. And so that makes it very hard to find a place that you like visually and where you like the caregivers and who will take your child. Because sometimes he might have behaviors, she might have behaviors.

Ben Smith (24:00):

And I'll add too, Dr. Rogers, I actually used to in college, used to work for a organization that provided group home services. And just one thing that just witnessing from the inside was the turnover rate of the caregivers. They had an 80% turnover rate and you talk about here's a population that really needs stability and you are turning over caregivers eight months through the year, nine months through the year, and they're just trading in people. And that was very disruptive to the entirety of the population you're trying to support. So I know there's a lot of things out there that were just so I appreciate you mentioning that too, but I want to ask another question too. You mentioned kind of the independent apartment living a little bit, and I just want to just ask a question. Are there other options that might be available other than group homes? And you mentioned maybe independent apartment living, but especially if one has financial resources, what are some other kind living solutions for that loved one on the spectrum?

Dr. Alexandra Rogers (24:59):

So some people buy a house to put their young person in there with a roommate and also with a caregiver, it depends on how much support the young people need. Some people might be able to just live outside support in a rooming situation, and then the parents can pretty much control who comes there and who lives with their young person. And to try to figure out how much support they actually need, whether they need somebody to come in once a day, whether they need somebody to be there half a day, sometimes they forget to eat, they'll be doing whatever, and they'll just not feel hungry, forget to eat. They're unaccustomed to making their own meals, and it doesn't mean that they can't, they just haven't been doing this for such a long time. They just don't think it's a thing. It doesn't really cross their mind to do it. So that would be an ideal situation for somebody who has

(26:05):

Money

(26:07):

Who can do that and then build a structure around that so it can continue after their parents are no longer able to care and supervise.

Curtis Worcester (26:17):

Yeah, no, I appreciate you sharing that with us. I want to circle back to something you mentioned in a previous answer and that was advocacy. So I heard you mention it in school settings. We have medical environments where you may need to, grandparents or loved ones may need to advocate for better outcomes. And I heard you mentioned an interesting one that I hadn't thought of, which was even within the family dynamic, you may be getting judgment from other family members for how you're handling things. Can you just share some examples of how you've seen or how you've helped grandparents advocate for better outcomes there?

Dr. Alexandra Rogers (26:52):

What I've done is through education, I've helped the grandparents not to do those kinds of things, not to do to say the destructive things,

(27:02):

Try to explain to them what's going on because it's really hard from the outside to really know what's going on. That's why I encourage people to read writings of people on the spectrum of autism so they understand how difficult it is for the young people and what all their behaviors mean. And so I haven't gone out there. I'm also on Reddit. Reddit is really a good platform for parents to sound off and ask for advice, and sometimes people say things that are not helpful, so I'll usually make a comment, turn it around and explain a little bit instead of saying That wasn't helpful and you shouldn't be saying stuff like that. I try to explain.

Ben Smith (27:50):

Interesting. Well, I want to obviously go along the advocacy realm here a little bit and just role play this a little bit, Dr. Rogers for a second, but especially for a retiree who lives farther away from their loved one, right? So say you're in California and your loved one is in the state of Maine, and so you're physically not there, but what are some ways that you could still play a meaningful and supporting role here to maybe not only just kind of have that relationship with a loved one on the spectrum, but also just to the point about advocacy and helping to support, what are some ways that maybe grandparents and aging adults can kind support those family members?

Dr. Alexandra Rogers (28:31):

Well, you get the only way that you'd be able to support your kids that way is by learning as much as you can about what's possible and about how to advocate for their child and pass that information onto your adult kids. So education, definitely,

(28:54):

You can't be there in person. The other way is to spend time with a grandchild on the autism spectrum. You can do videos like we're doing now. You can do Zoom or FaceTime or something, and if they're talkative, you can talk to them or listen to them when they're telling you for the 14th time about their favorite topic of interest to them now even though you're bored to tears. So you can do that and it makes them happy and makes them content. You can try to buy them toys that they might enjoy and help out that way.

Curtis Worcester (29:43):

I think those are all great examples, and I think you laid out at the beginning, I think every situation's going to be different and probably very different, but I think what I hear is putting in an effort and just doing, even if it seems like a little thing, but just trying to put in that effort and trying to connect that meaningful and supportive role. I have another question. Scenario involves a little bit of a role play as well. So in this scenario, we have grandparents, we have adult children, and the adult children are caring for a child with autism, so it'd be the grandchild. What advice can you give the grandparents specifically in this situation to find that balance between wanting to help, they want to be supportive, but they don't want to overstep either because they're adult children are the ones directly caregiving for the child. You may be diagnosed with autism. How would you help navigate that scenario?

Dr. Alexandra Rogers (30:43):

Okay, so let's say that my son calls me up and is complaining about the young person with autism. So I would do the first thing I would do, I would say, what have you tried so far to give respect to the fact that they may have been working on this for a while before they decided to complain to me about it? And then I would say, if I didn't know what to do, I would say, well, let me research this and see if I can find any answers of how we could do this differently. Would you like for me to do that? Always ask because they can do their own research and maybe they're just complaining and maybe they just want you to feel bad for them and be sympathetic and say, this is really hard and I wish I could help you. I wish I was there to help you.

Ben Smith (31:39):

Well, Dr. Rogers, I want to maybe kind of keep going on this. I think there's something you just said a few minutes ago about that really supporting somebody with autism can just be just more encompassing. It takes time. It can be exhausting because there's just, it's required of more of you and then maybe even from a sleep perspective, it can be a little more challenging. So just kind of flipping the mirror here and saying, Hey, I'm the caregiver and I'm caregiving for somebody that is on the spectrum. What are some signs that I might need support for my own mental health when I'm in this role? And then what resources or strategies would you recommend here? Because again, I think one of the things I'd be concerned about if I was in that it was I get so afraid and so frazzled that maybe I am not reacting well and I'm not giving the support to the kiddo I need to give them because I am just maybe at my wit's end and I need a break. What are signs you say that would be something that would be showing there?

Dr. Alexandra Rogers (32:49):

Well, when you start feeling sorry for yourself wouldn't be number one. When you find yourself screaming at your child or children with very low provocation, that would be another sign when you can't fall asleep at night, even though everybody else seems to be asleep worrying about the future or worrying about what happened yesterday or worrying about a how to fight the school. Sometimes people feel suicidal and sometimes people take it out on their spouse and a lot of marriages split up because they disagree on how to work with the autistic child and they just can't seem, they don't have a life of their own. That's why I was babysitting for my daughter so much because you don't have a life of your own. You don't have any adult time, you don't have any time for yourself. But just realizing that all of a sudden that you don't have any time for yourself, you're always doing for others, then try to try everything in your power to try to get somebody to watch the kids for you. Try to get somebody to, if you're married, take turns taking care of the kids, make sure that you're taking the kids out. If you have maybe three children, make sure that you take the kids out for individual little dates

(34:14):

So they don't feel like part of the cluster of grapes. They feel like they matter to you as an individual. You can go to therapy as well, but if you don't carve out time for yourself, then the therapy might not be as effective and the therapist will tell you to try to carve out time for yourself because you need it.

Curtis Worcester (34:36):

Sure, sure. Yeah, I appreciate that. I think that's all really, really great advice and important. It's an important thing too, I think to again, object and goal number one is obviously the caregiving, but it is important to, as Ben said, flip the mirror on ourselves too if we're in that position and really make sure we're taking care of ourselves too. So I appreciate that. I have another question for you. Obviously you're somebody who's worked very closely with families for decades here. Kind of a one hitter question, what is that one piece of advice that you wish that every retiree or just person supporting a loved one with autism, what's that one piece of advice that you wish they would hear,

Dr. Alexandra Rogers (35:20):

Learn about how your loved one on the autism spectrum perceives the world from the inside? It'll be very helpful to them if you can understand them and show that understanding.

Curtis Worcester (35:33):

Yeah, that's great. I know I kind of put you on the spot there with, I think this whole conversation has been advice and it's been really appreciated, but I want to kind of get that one hitter there at the end here. I do have kind of a final question for you, Dr. Rogers. Before I ask it, I do want to just say thank you on behalf of Ben and I and of all of our listeners for coming on our show today and really sharing your expertise and knowledge with us. It was a really great conversation, but I have to ask one more question and I'm flipping it a little more directed to you personally. So the name of our show, it's a Retirement Success in Maine podcast, so I have to ask you a retirement question. I ask all of our guests this, how are you personally going to find your personal retirement success? What does that look like for you?

Dr. Alexandra Rogers (36:24):

Okay, so when I retired from private practice when I was 71, and that was about, that was five years ago, and I was watching a show about a children's writer, children's book writer, and she was 99 at the time of the interview. And I thought, oh, my stars, what am I going to do for the next few years of my life if I don't die 30 years? And I decided to write. So I started with children's books, which seemed easier to me and I soon found out that I wasn't doing it the right way, and then COVID hit and all my imagination dried up. So what I did, I read a book called How to Make Money From What You Know. That book really resonated with me, and I thought, I know all this psychology stuff, so I might as well try to write about that. I started with writing articles, and then when I had about 20 articles out on medium.com, I started publishing on Medium to see if people like my stuff. I had about 20 articles on there, and then I decided to do a parenting book, and that's how my parenting book came to be, and there's going to be, the next one is going to be about autism and hyperactivity to help parents with their kids on the spectrum. So I am doing my retirement right week.

Ben Smith (37:59):

Nice. No, that's

Curtis Worcester (38:00):

Fantastic. I love that.

Ben Smith (38:01):

Well, Dr. Rogers, as Chris said, we really appreciate you coming on our show. It is just for both of us, and I know we both have friends and family members that have members of their family that are on the autism spectrum, and just for us, I think to kind of understand it a little bit more personally, but also for those that are listening and maybe are in that situation as well, really appreciate you just sharing that expertise. Again, we will link, obviously your journey to successful parenting book and we'll link to medium there for you too. But thank you so much. We really appreciate your time today.

Dr. Alexandra Rogers (38:37):

Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity. I enjoyed it.

Ben Smith (38:40):

Be well. So Dr. Rogers, again, autism was something that we know with our client conversations that has come up with things that we're worried about in retirement and how do I support maybe an adult child, maybe how do I support a grandchild? What if I have a niece or nephew that's really special to me? Anything like that, it's just really good to get a better understanding of just you in your role versus someone on the spectrum and just kind of how they interact. So we really appreciate Dr. Rogers for coming on today, sharing that expertise. Again, we will put in our show notes so you can go if you want to read her book, which is your journey to Successful Parenting ages two to 11, a Stress-Free Guide to Effective Behavior Change, so we'll have that link on Amazon for you to check out. You can also go to her website, which is AJ Rogers A-J-R-O-G-E-R-S books.com, and you can find her website there. You can also go to our website, our blog page for this podcast, which is guidance point llc.com/ 1 1 4 for episode 114, and you can see all the information there. But we really appreciate you tuning in. Hope you find this episode useful, and we will talk to you next time.

Outro (40:09):

Ladies and gentlemen, you've just listened to an information filled episode of the Retirement Success in Maine Podcast. While this show is about finding more ways to improve your retirement happiness guidance point, advisor's mission is to help our clients create a fulfilling retirement. We do financial planning so that people can enjoy retirement and align their monetary resources to their goals. If you are wondering about your own personal success, we invite you to reach out to us to schedule a 45 minute listening session. Our advisors will have a conversation with you about your goals, your frustrations, and your problems. Make sure you check out guidance point advisors on our blog, Facebook and LinkedIn, and you can always check out more episodes of this podcast on iTunes and Spotify, and of course, keep on finding your retirement success.