Piece by Piece

Welcome to Piece by Piece

• Christi Jensen & Angie Matheney

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In our very first episode of Piece by Piece: An Autism Podcast, we—Angie Matheney and Christi Jensen—introduce ourselves and share the heart behind this podcast. We're two women with a shared passion for helping others navigate the world of autism, and we’re here to build a supportive, honest, and empowering community.

We’ll talk about our experiences working with Alec and how we use Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) to help him get the most out of life. Through real stories, practical insights, and open conversations, our goal is to connect with families, professionals, and anyone walking this path. Let’s grow and learn together—one piece at a time.

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Angie:

Welcome to the Piece by Piece Autism Podcast with your hosts, Angie and Christi. They've worked 25 years to help Alec get the most out of life. Let them tell you how they're doing it.

Angie:

Hello and welcome to the first episode of Piece by Piece Autism Podcast. We're so excited you're here and we look forward to sharing nuts and bolts and tricks of the trade as we discuss a spectrum of information about all things autism. I am Angie Matheney. And I'm Christi Jensen. And we are here to share all things autism as it pertains to our knowledge as we have helped Alec, Christi's 27-year-old son, learn and grow through his home ABA program.

Christi:

ABA is a proven method for treating autism, which is data-driven. And we've done it in our home since Alec was 2 1⁄2 years old. That's six months after his diagnosis, we started a team and brought them into our home. And so he's had that ever since he was 2 1⁄2 and still has it to this

Angie:

day. Yeah, I came into Alec's life first as a babysitter when he was about three years old. You had already started his home program at that point. But... I was not involved with his home program as much as I was just kind of respite care at the time. But I've known the guy since he was just a little tyke. And then that kind of evolved. I then was hired on as a teacher as part of the team under another consultant. And my admiration and love for applied behavioral analysis kind of grew and led me to go back to school to get my master's in Applied Behavioral Analysis. And now I consult for Alec's home program where he currently lives in Utah.

Christi:

And we were talking about, you know, you hear a lot about autism and treatment for younger children, but you don't hear... very much about adults. Like what happens to the adults? Where are they? It seems like when the children are little, you hear about support groups. You hear about the community a lot of the autism community. It's an accessible community, but then once you get an adult child, it just seems to dwindle away. And then you wonder- where are the adults where are they well we want to tell you where our adult is because we know where he is and we would love to share with you all the cool things that we're doing with him because he does have a very enriched life and we're very proud u of where he is right now.

Angie:

And I think he's very proud of where he is right now. For sure. The proof is in the pudding, as we like to say. And together, we've got decades of experience. And we know that our work is not done. We've got still a lot to learn. And we hope that this community can be one in which we learn and share experiences and grow together. We want to hear from you. We want to know what you're doing and how you're supporting those affected and on the spectrum in your communities and we hope that we can be a support and another resource for you and your child wherever you may be in your journey

Christi:

yeah and i think know 25 years of doing this we have a lot of experience a lot of trial and error we've had a lot of successes we've had some disappointments we've had you know happy days and sad days and a lot of growing pains a lot of growing pains but just overall feeling pretty positive about where we are and where we're going and what we're we would love to share with other people just the hope of having an adult autistic child and having them be able to fully participate i mean almost

Angie:

fully participate in life a contributing member to society and absolutely wanting to get up and enjoy the day look forward to what is to come instead of feeling dread or sadness for yes what what each day is going to hold

Christi:

yeah

Angie:

we want to share a little bit more about Alec like we mentioned he is a 27 year old young man with severe autism he is non-speaking and communicates using a keyboard

Christi:

Yes. He loves actually to be social. He loves to be included in activities. Tonight he was out playing with his nieces and nephews. It's weird that he has nieces and nephews, but he loves to give high fives. He loves to give fist bumps. That's his main communication. And it was... I mean, he'll wear you out with a high five. So he loves a party. He loves the month of October because it's his birthday month. And it's also Halloween, which he absolutely loves. He tolerates babies and small children. He loves wind down time. Angie does not like him to take a nap very much. But sometimes he's been known to fall asleep sitting straight up. On my sofa because he will try to get a nap in no matter what.

Angie:

Kind of snag him when you can, right?

Christi:

Yeah. He loves his work. He works in the missionary training center. He's back in the dishwashing section, and he loves all different kinds of responsibilities he has back there.

Angie:

Yeah, he's got such a great work ethic. He really always has.

Christi:

And takes pride in his work. Yes. It's been a really cool thing to watch that. develop over time and and know that he loves it

Angie:

yeah he's such a gentle giant very affectionate very smart and loves to be held to a high standard we've really kind of from the get-go set the bar quite high knowing that he is a capable individual and he has risen to that bar time and time again and continues to really grow and develop even now. He's learning and applying skills in new ways that is very impressive.

Christi:

Yeah. And I mean, we're enjoying a lot of really good days right now that we acknowledge like this is not easy it's not easy what you're doing and so we would love to just be able to provide some of our experience and our knowledge and share it with you and help you feel like it's attainable for you and that your child can have success and and have more good days than bad days

Angie:

yeah yeah it's worth it's worth digging through the mud to get to the other side right like

Christi:

Yes.

Angie:

Like you said, there's more good days now than bad. But there was a time where we really went through the trenches with Alec. So not to say that it's been sunshine and roses from the beginning. We've learned a lot on the way. And because of where we're at and where we feel like Alec has developed and what he has achieved, that's worth sharing and shedding light on.

Christi:

Yes, and we've had so many people ask us, would you sit down and share with us? And sometimes I'll find myself sitting down and writing an email and just outlining everything that I've done with him through the years and things that have worked and haven't worked. And so I think this forum will give us a chance to share that and be able to give other people some knowledge that may be change things in your day-to-day life

Angie:

yeah

Christi:

with your autistic person

Angie:

yeah we know that that life and family dynamics and all of that with children and adults on the spectrum can't be an easy task but i think through all of your years Christi c and mine and being a part of it we look back and laugh and find joy in so many positive experiences more than dwelling on the negative. Well, sometimes we

Christi:

laugh at the negative. Because we can

Angie:

now, but... It wasn't funny at the time. We've made it through, but just sometimes going back and thinking, oh, I forgot about that. Oh, I forgot we had to get through those things, but... as as we share these experiences most of all we hope you know that you are not alone and we want to just build a community of support and encouragement we're here to help

Christi:

absolutely we hope you have kind of an idea of what we plan to do with our piece by piece autism podcast and i want you to know that we have quite a few episodes in the pipeline and that we're pumped about that we've been able to delve back into things going on in alex life and over the decades and uh just a couple of them we're going to talk about the d word which is you know data we're going to talk about a hard knock life which is chores we're going to talk about alex early days his current setup etc but there's So many, so many topics that we want to cover. And I hope you'll come back and listen and tell all of your friends about it in your support group or wherever you've got your autism friends and families. We would love to have you back.

Angie:

Yeah, we'd love to hear what you've got to share as well. So that's a wrap for today's episode of Piece by Piece. And if you're loving this conversation as much as we are, Hit the follow button, share the show, and help us spread the word because every piece of the story matters. If you've got a story, a question, or an idea, slide into our DMs to shoot us a message. We'd love to hear from you. You can find us on Instagram and Facebook at Peace by Peace Autism Podcast. That's P-I-E-C-E, Piece by Piece Autism Podcast. Until next time, see you later.

Christi:

Bye.