Gabrielle Stigant joins Erika Ng to discuss her niche work with neurodivergent females and social skills instruction. She describes some of the differences between males and females who are neurodivergent and how females are sometimes overlooked, but still in need of support.
Interview Highlights:
- Gabrielle Stigant is a BCBA who is local to the Vancouver area, British Columbia. Gabrielle specializes in supporting females who are neurodiverse, specifically with social skill development. [0:20]
- Gabrielle has been successful in teaching new social skills to a wide variety of clients, including those with a variety of neurodiverse needs such as ADHD, autism, anxiety and depression. [1:35]
- Terms: Based on the research and literature, there is no one preferred term to describe autism. Gabrielle will be using various terms such as ‘ neurodiverse,’ ‘autistic person’ or ‘person with autism’ [3:36]
- Females who are neurodiverse specifically with autism have the same skill deficits or excesses as males, but the deficits tend to be overlooked or not recognized. One of the reasons for this is that people don’t expect girls to have autism or the girls who are diagnosed with autism aren’t showing the same trademarks as their male counterparts. [4:20]
- Girls tend to be more socially motivated than autistic boys, so they find ways to fit in and ‘mask’ their autistic traits. Many have described it as being like an actor on the stage. [4:52]
- For other neurodiverse girls, some struggle with anxiety or ADHD. [5:37]
- When Gabrielle was interning and working for a non-for-profit, she had the opportunity with another colleague to create social skills groups. [6:17]
- The difference in the female participants versus the male participants. Females wanted to be there. They talked more openly about challenges with friendships. Whereas the boys that were participating were a bit more ambivalent to being there. They wanted to focus more on the activities and less on the conversation piece. [6:56]
- Gabrielle had some girls on her caseload that had a similar skill set and were enough to form a group. This was the beginning of their first girls group, five years ago. [7:30]
- In person, Gabrielle had two groups running and they were meeting every two weeks. She tends to run on the semester system and each session is two hours long. A lot of the focus was not just on the social piece, but also they did social emotional check-ins, helping to learn to identify and talk about feelings. [8:25]
- They would talk about hypothetical problems, friendship problems, relationship problems with parents and even topics like hygiene. [8:47]
- They’d even work on executive function skills through making snacks [9:10]
- When COVID hit, Gabrielle scrambled and learned quickly how to engage her clients over the internet. The online groups are much smaller. It’s a maximum of four children, but it really depends on their skill set and the abilities. [9:23]
“It’s really about finding ways to continue to have that social engagement so I’m not talking at them but instead it’s a group conversation and I’m pulling them in.”
— Gabrielle Stigant
- Currently, Gabrielle is running multiple groups. She has a unique name for each age group: Girls Group and Sister Squad and her Fairy Friends are her Kindergarten group. She groups the girls partly based on their age, but also based on their interests, communication abilities and skill set. [11:07]
- As the girls get older, parents are less involved with organizing. The other challenge is with that piece. Gabrielle noticed with her older kids that executive functioning such as planning and following through requires some support [12:20]
- Gabrielle has been organizing and offering some Friday night meetups every once in a while over Zoom so the girls can just chat and hang out together [13:51]
“Even with your child attending a weekly group or even attending school to develop a friendship, it really needs to happen beyond those environments.”
— Gabrielle Stigant
- Gabrielle can teach them the skills, but it’s really up to them to be motivated in applying and using them. She’s not here to tell them what’s right or wrong. She’s there to provide the perspective-taking and then help them make that decision of what they want to do going forward. [16:21]
“My goal is to create a safe space for girls to attend, not mask and to be themselves.”
— Gabrielle Stigant
- Gabrielle does set goals of measure. So there has been an increase in conversing, topical conversations, seeking information from others, sharing personal information. [18:09]
- They’ve done some homework where everybody gets to choose a movie, or a show, whichever is of interest and then each week they go through and rotate. It’s an opportunity to expose the girls to different movies that they may not have otherwise watched. It’s an exercise in flexibility and following other people’s prerogatives and agendas by just trying new activities. [19:11]
- Gabrielle’s advice to parents who maybe have a girl at home that is neurodiverse in some way and struggling with social skills is the one thing to consider is there’s friendship and there’s companionship. [22:11]
“Follow your child’s interest and find a social connection even if it’s …just building comfort to be with somebody else and having a shared moment.” — Gabrielle Stigant
- Gabrielle’s personal habits that have contributed to her success is that she’s able to laugh at her mistakes. She’s just trying to be real with them. If she doesn’t have the answers, she’s honest about that and says, let’s figure this out together. [26:09]
“I’m able to laugh at my mistakes. I’m just trying to be real with them. If I don’t have the answers, I’m honest about that. ”
— Gabrielle Stigant
- Gabrielle’s posts information and resources related to social skills and neurodivergent girls on her Instagram and Facebook page. She also has her own website that posts information about the groups that will be upcoming and for registration information. [26:48]
Guest Bio:
Gabrielle Stigant has been working in the field of Applied Behaviour Analysis with children with autism since 2002. She began as a behaviour interventionist and over the years took on more responsibility as a Senior BI, working under the supervision of a number of well-regarded local behaviour consultants. She completed her Masters of Education with a focus in Special Education and Autism at the University of British Columbia. She became a certified Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) therapist to continue my growth in the field of intervention and early development.
She has worked with children with autism between the ages of 15 months to 15 years. Prior to running a private practice, she worked for a non-profit organization which allowed development in a variety of experiences. This included developing and overlooking early intervention programs, consultation services to family and professionals including parent coaching; and developing and facilitating social skill groups and summer camps. She is a Registered Autism Service Provider (RASP) in British Columbia.
“Creating a space for them to talk about and recognize that they’re not alone, that’s my main goal, but the skill piece and developing the social skills, that’s secondary.”
— Gabrielle Stigant
Resources from this episode:
- Intro Episode: Welcome to the Behavioral Collective Podcast
- Subscribe to the newsletter to get our latest articles and podcasts
- Check out Gabrielle’s Website
- Check out Private Practice
- Connect with Gabrielle on LinkedIn
- Follow Gabrielle on Facebook
- Follow Gabrielle On Instagram
- Send Gabrielle an email at gabriellestigant@shaw.ca
Related articles and podcasts:
- About The Behavioral Collective podcast
- Article: Parent Coaching: Effective Tool Or Social-Media Driven Fad?
- Article: What Does A Child Behavioral Specialist Do?
- Article: Evidence-Based Parenting Explained & 14 Resources To Start
We’re trying out transcribing our podcasts using a software program. Please forgive any typos as the bot isn’t correct 100% of the time.
Read the Transcript:
Erika Ng
Welcome to Behavioral Health Collective podcast, a community of behavior analysts who are passionate about sharing our science by connecting families to information that promotes meaningful behavior change. We’re a community of practitioners who seek to empower parents by sharing effective behavioral strategies and evidence-based practices from the perspective of behavior science.
Thanks for tuning in I’m Erika Ng, the founder of the Behavioral Health Collective. And today I’ll be speaking with Gabrielle Stigant who is a BCBA who is local to the Vancouver area. In the lower mainland here in British Columbia. Now Gabrielle specializes in supporting females who are neurodiverse specifically with our social skill development.
And I’m so excited to be sharing her work with you today because she is in such a unique area that can often be overlooked. As someone who works in the school system, I have noticed this, that we tend to focus on really overt, big behaviors and that’s when teachers and staff are calling for help because there might be safety concerns, but we also know that there are girls, females out there who are neurodiverse in some way and really struggling socially and that might be leading to further depression or anxiety or other mental health challenges.
So this really is an important area that sometimes can be forgotten or less obvious as a glaring need. Females with various exceptional needs can present differently as we know from their male counterparts, so having interventions that are specific to their needs is really critical to their long-term success.
I’m really looking forward to having her share her insights and perspective to you today, as an expert in this specialized area. Gabrielle has been successful in teaching new social skills to a really wide variety of clients, including those with a variety of neurodiverse needs, such as ADHD, autism, even anxiety and depression.
If you have a neuro-diverse girl in your life, whether that’s your daughter or a family member or someone else you work with and support, this episode definitely is for you. Gabrielle highlight the ways she addresses social skills development with females and I’ll also speak about her behavior consultation services to families with other behavioral health needs.
Now, I think it was so surprising and exciting about this episode is I didn’t have a great deal of idea about what her social skills groups looks like and there are just an amazing outcomes that have come out of her groups of her female client. So without further ado, here’s Gabrielle.
Hi Gabrielle, thank you so much for joining me today. I really appreciate it.
Gabrielle Stigant
Oh my pleasure.
Erika Ng
So given the awareness in our field, these days of language. We want to be cognizant of that and I think BCBAs are trying to be more aware of the language that we use and that we work with such a diverse population of people.
Do you want to start off by just speaking to the language that you will be using as we go through this, these questions and interview?
Gabrielle Stigant
Yeah. So based on the research and literature, there is not one preferred term to describe autism. So I will be using various forms of words to describe such as neurodiverse or autistic person or person with autism.
Erika Ng
Awesome. Okay. Thank you so much.
So starting out, could you just describe for us [00:04:00] what some of the differences might be between a female with autism and a male with autism, and how might females who are neurodiverse present differently from a male counterpart? So that might include some skill areas that are overdeveloped or underdeveloped and so any of those excesses or deficits that you notice.
Gabrielle Stigant
Yeah. So, females who are neurodiverse specifically autism have the same skill deficits or excesses as males, but the deficits tend to be overlooked or not recognized. And I think there’s a lot of reasons for this. One is that people don’t expect girls to have autism or the girls who are diagnosed with autism, aren’t showing the same trademarks as their male counterparts.
So symptoms can present as less obvious and more subtle. Girls tend to be more socially motivated than autistic boys, so they find ways to “fit in” and mask their autistic traits. So, many have described it as being like an actor on the stage. So they’re really looking at other girls imitating to see how others are talking or how their mannerisms are. They may pre-practice conversations so that they’re saying the right things, they’re doing the right things, but it might just come across as a bit more socially awkward. If that makes sense.
Erika Ng
Okay, and have you noticed with girls that do not have autism, but are neurodiverse in some other way, have you noticed any differences there?
Gabrielle Stigant
So for other girls who are neurodiverse, those are girls who are struggling with anxiety or ADHD. So again, it might be many parents have told me, they sort of hold it together at school and then they come home and fall apart. So they’re internalizing all those emotions and masking in their own way to kind of survive the day, and then come home [00:06:00] and into their safe space. And that’s when all the emotions sort of bubble up to the surface.
Erika Ng
Yeah. Okay. Thank you. And I’m so curious, how did you first get into first of all, teaching social skills and that being kind of your area of expertise, but also specifically with girls?
Gabrielle Stigant
So when, way back when I was interning and working for a non-for-profit, I had the opportunity with another colleague to create social skills groups. And we, you know, we were supervised, but we learned as we went and had groups and at the time most of the participants were boys. When I, when the group that I was with the non-for-profit closed down and I started my private practice.
I had the opportunity to continue doing some social skill groups that include boys and girls where I tended to pair up based on age and the skill deficits that we needed, that we were we’re going to work on. And I think the kids were about 8, 9, 10, and I started to notice a difference in the female participants versus the male participants.
The females wanted to be there. They talked more openly about challenges with friendships. And wanted to sort of practice those skills. Whereas the boys that were participating were a bit more ambivalent to being there they wanted to focus more on the activities and less on the conversation piece.
And so at the time I just happened to have a few girls on my caseload that were, you know, enough to form a group that had a similar skillset and so we just started our first girls group and that was five years ago, I think. And yeah, and we just it was just, they taught me so much, it’s been an amazing process.
And yeah, so we, just as we started to branch out and create more groups, COVID hit and so I had to adjust but yeah, that’s how we started.
Erika Ng
That’s amazing. So I guess kind of going with that, could you describe, first of all, kind of the services that you provide for girls and then also, how did you adapt when the pandemic hit? Because I can imagine something like social skills has so much to do with being in person and so how has that gone?
Gabrielle Stigant
Yeah. So, in person I had two groups running and we were meeting, I mean, bi-weekly, every two weeks over like I tend to run on the semester system and the groups for two hours. So a lot of the focus was not just on the social piece, but also we did the social-emotional check-in, helping to learn to identify and talk about feelings.
Some girls are less comfortable in doing that. We would sort of talk about hypothetical problems, you know, friendship problems not just friendship, but various relationship problems with parents. We talked about hygiene. We’d work on, you know, various pieces of learning how to put a pad on and talking about how maybe hygiene routines have to change.
And then we’d work on executive function skills through making snacks. So the groups were two hours as we needed a lot of time, just even the portion to make the snack piece. And then when COVID hit I scrambled and learned quickly how to use and and how to engage my clients over over the internet because it’s very different as you say, in person. So the group the groups are much smaller. It’s a maximum of four children, but it really depends on the skillset and the abilities. So some groups are only two girls and myself and it’s really finding ways to continue to have that social engagement so I’m not talking at them but it’s a group [00:10:00] conversation and I’m pulling them in.
So, we’re still, you know, working on very similar skills and learning to navigate conversations either, you know, listening or following up with topical comments or questions. But we’re also working on, again, that social, emotional piece we’re working on flexibility following other people’s ideas and we still, I’ve always included a texting component, so we create group chats, so the girls can keep up with the conversation beyond the group because yeah, friendship. Friendship needs to develop outside of just meeting up once a week. Oh and virtually we have we have changed it so it’s only an hour cause I really can’t capture my audience for more than an hour and it’s on a weekly basis.
Erika Ng
Okay, that’s amazing. And just following up on one thing you said, are your groups based on age or skill set? Cause you were saying you do try to group based on skills when you moved into the pandemic and only four, do you have a wide range of ages based on skills or is it more based on age?
Gabrielle Stigant
Yeah, so right now I’m running multiple groups. So I have I like my acronyms. I’m dating fairy friends. Do you mean, girls group and sister squad.
So my fairy friends are for my kindergartners girls group tends to be more for the eight to 11 year olds. And then the sister squad or the older girls beyond, I grouped the girls partly based on their age, but also based on their interests and their communication abilities and their skillset.
So even though I have multiple groups of a sister squad, the goals that we’re working on look different depending on the group. So I really look individualize the goals and the skills that we’re developing within groups.
Erika Ng
And given that they have shared interests and are kind of similar in age there and you’ve got [00:12:00] the texting going on, do you notice friendships come out of these groups afterwards?
Gabrielle Stigant
I have and it was interesting. And through, I mean, yes. So let me backtrack. So when it was in person, it was really nice that kids were reporting of inviting each other to birthday parties and that was taking place.
It’s definitely, as the girls get older, parents are less involved with organizing. Cause they’re no longer play dates, they’re Hangouts. So, the other challenge with that piece, though, that I’ve noticed with my older kids is that executive functioning piece that planning and following through and so some of that support is needed. With the pandemic, I would say it’s gotten a little bit trickier because girls, you know, they can’t hang out together as like they used to. When we first started the Zoom was a bit of a novelty, so some of them were asking if they could stay on, and actually this has happened recently too, where the girls are asking to stay on after group so that they can continue chatting.
So it allows me to shut off my mic and my video camera and let them carry on. I find with the texting, there are girls that, there are certain girls that text and other girls that don’t and so, those group conversations do, I mean, definitely there’s been an evening where I had to turn my phone off cause it was going ding ding ding ding.
Erika Ng
Lots of socializing.
Gabrielle Stigant
Yeah, which you know, warms my heart, and then I do have a couple of girls who have extended their friendship beyond and have done some meet-ups. You know, social distance scene of what they’re able to do, the challenge is that with this population, because it’s sometimes tricky for them to plan and execute these Hangouts, I do have we have been organizing and offering sort of, Friday night meetups every once in a while over Zoom and so like last night I hosted in among us. Zero chat so the girls can all play together. Yeah, I think the important key piece for parents to understand and supporting their daughters is that even with your child attending a weekly group or, you know, even attending school to develop a friendship. It really needs to happen beyond that environment and so it’s helping to support your daughter in organizing themselves, like of meeting up outside of, you know. Whether it’s not even just a social group, but outside of ballet, outside of art class, or karate or swimming. So yeah. Something to consider for as far as the friendship piece goes.
Erika Ng
Yeah. That makes sense. Wow. That is so great to hear. And as someone who works in the school system, I find they’re often kids who, especially as I get older, like it sounds to me like the sister,
Gabrielle Stigant
The sister squad?
Erika Ng
The sister squad age group, sometimes those girls or boys have been with the same kids for many years. And if there aren’t those bridges there or maybe there’s been some social challenges in the past, it sounds to me like that’s such a great opportunity to build some connections in the community outside of their immediate classroom, potentially.
Gabrielle Stigant
Yeah.
Erika Ng
And meet meet some new friends, but then learn the skills that they can bring back to school as well and build friendships there. So.
Gabrielle Stigant
Yeah. And I think I want to touch on too, like the goal of my group. Yes. We’re working on skills, but I would say that predominantly what I’m creating is, or I, my, my goal is to create a safe space for girls to attend and not mask, to be themselves and, you know, one followed up with me afterwards and was like, I’ve never met other girls like me.
That’s amazing and able to converse and say, yeah, group projects are really hard. I hate finding a partner. What if people say no, or nobody wants to be my partner. I hate being in that position [00:16:00] and you know, all the other girls going, me too. Yeah, no kidding. So, creating a space for them to talk about that, honestly, and recognize that they’re not alone, that That’s my main goal, but the skill piece and developing the social skills, that secondary. I mean, they’re at an age where I can give them and teach them the skills, but it’s really up to them to be motivated in applying them and use them.
And you know, I can say like, yeah, you’re here. Like you can choose to wear your hair messy like that. These are the thoughts that other people might have, but you need to make that choice of if you want to change or not. So I’m not here to tell them what’s right or wrong. I’m more just to provide the perspective taking that maybe others would have and then help them make that decision of what they want to do within forward.
Erika Ng
That sounds incredible. Wow. And such an important thing, like that seems like you’re really meeting a need for those girls. Like to hear that, that they’re connecting with people for the first time that it feels like a safe space.
Gabrielle Stigant
Yeah and it’s been pretty amazing to be virtual because it’s you know, a lot of, I have many girls who are actually zooming in from smaller communities across DC.
Erika Ng
Okay. Wow.
Gabrielle Stigant
So they, you know, they don’t have, there’s not the same offerings in their community and they may not have an opportunity to meet other girls like them because of being in a smaller community.
Erika Ng
Silver lining there, I suppose.
Gabrielle Stigant
I’m learning a lot from zoom.
Erika Ng
Oh boy. Do you also provide groups for boys or mixed groups?
Gabrielle Stigant
I don’t currently. It’s I, yeah, it’s blown up and there’s been so much interest right now with the girls that’s been my focal point.
Erika Ng
Amazing, yeah!
Gabrielle Stigant
And to be honest, there’s so many groups out there for boys.
Erika Ng
Sure. Yeah. Yeah. No, that makes sense. No, I was just curious, I thought.
Gabrielle Stigant
Yeah.
Erika Ng
So you did touch a little bit on this, but are there other changes that you have noticed yourself in your girls and clients over time throughout the group and afterwards, or things that parents have reported to you?
Gabrielle Stigant
Yeah. So, I mean, I do set goals. I do, sorry my cat’s walking around my computer. I didn’t mean distraction. I do set goals of measure. So there has been an increased in conversing, you know, topical conversations, seeking information from others sharing personal information. I find some of the girls, you know, if I’m like, how was your day? Fine. What’d you do on the weekend? Nothing.
So there’s been, as I think the girls have become more comfortable with the group that they’re in and with me sharing more information of not just, you know, what’s been going on in their life, but also you know, feeling, sharing feelings, feeling when they were feeling anxious or depressed or sad.
So that’s been a huge a huge difference in many of the kids that I’ve worked with in the group. Just developing new interests and hobbies many come in with their own special interest and it doesn’t necessarily align with others in the groups, but providing a platform for that discussion, they’re able to expose each other to different interests.
We’ve done some homework where we have to watch, everybody gets to choose a movie. Or a show, whichever is of interest and then each week we go through and rotate. So it’s an opportunity to expose girls to different movies that they may not have otherwise watched. So, so, so flexibility and following other people’s, you know, prerogatives and agendas flexibility and just trying new activities.
Some of them have anxiety with just trying something new. So creating a safe space creating an opportunity to ask for help. Some of the girls really struggle with that, or even asserting themselves being like, you know, especially it’s been interesting with the virtual piece cause I’ve had girls who say, I’m just going to turn my camera off today because I don’t feel comfortable. And you know that in person, right? We just don’t have that ability. So it’s been interesting going virtually of what is able to cater of how we can cater to those needs.
Erika Ng
Wow. And do you hear anything directly from parents? Like do parents often report back to you about changes that they see? Or do you specifically ask for feedback from them?
Gabrielle Stigant
Yeah, no parents have been, I mean, the many, it keeps signing the girls ups, and the girls keep wanting to come back. So, that speaks for itself.
That’s great. But we, I’ve had parents respond and have noticed an increase in conversation and sharing personal information with themselves or same family members have noticed a difference.
Yeah, just as you mentioned earlier, like reaching out and creating friendships, like some of them have developed, I wouldn’t say all of them, but some of them have developed a friendship with someone else and then they’ve connected through the group.
Seeing the texting, texting, that’s been really cool. One flexibility with fashion and like, it was quite interesting. We did one a spa beauty night. And we all had to put our hair back, right? And a parent reported and said, her daughter, who’d never wore things in her hair was then encouraged and like, okay, this isn’t so bad. Maybe I will put my hair back. So, you know, it wasn’t an intended skill that we were working on, but it was something that, that was yeah.
Erika Ng
That’s amazing and such practical areas too for adaptations, I suppose and for girls to grow.
Gabrielle Stigant
Yeah. Yeah. It was the spa night was interesting. Cause it made me realize how many girls didn’t understand how to wash their face, right? Like something we take for granted.
Erika Ng
Absolutely. Wow. That’s really incredible to hear that you’ve done. That sounds like social skills, plus, you know, there’s all the additional application, social skills, life skills. Yeah. And then the fun component too. That’s amazing.
So would you, so thinking about these incredible outcomes that you’ve had with these girls, what advice would you give to parents who maybe have a girl at home that is neurodiverse in some way and struggling with social skills?
Gabrielle Stigant
I think I was actually talking to another parent right the other day. The one thing to consider is there’s friendship and there’s companionship. And friendship were really focusing on those not only shared experiences, but conversation and you know, that intimacy, whereas many girls on the spectrum research has show that, or some of them are just interested in companionship, you know, somebody to you draw anime with.
Erika Ng
Sure.
Gabrielle Stigant
And just talk about anime with, you know finding and sharing that special interest with somebody elsewhere it’s not even focused on developing a skillset. So I think my advice for parents is, you know, follow your child’s interest and find a social connection, even if it’s simply based on that interest where it’s not working on a scale, but it’s just building comfort to be with somebody else and having a shared moment.
Erika Ng
Okay.
Gabrielle Stigant
And it’s been amazing. I mean, now with everything virtual, I find there’s so many virtual classes that are advertised and there seems to be more up there that’s available.
Erika Ng
That’s some great advice and a great way to conceptualize that of the companionship and the friendship. Yeah. I hadn’t really thought about that, but that’s helpful advice.
And so since part of the goal of this podcast is advocacy for improved services and greater access for families of, with all diagnoses or none at all. What advice or I guess in thinking about big picture, how might we better serve neurodiverse females who are struggling with social skills in the future here in BC and maybe Canada and beyond?
Gabrielle Stigant
I think having more girls groups, I can’t serve them all. And I think I’ve heard more and more practitioners are offering, so that’s great. I think it’s educating people in the school system. W, you know, I think many are because girls are masking and presenting as capable is helping them understand what those challenges are for her and what that support might look like.
You know, in the school system, I know many times the focus is on supporting academically. But maybe providing opportunities throughout the day where the support can be focused more on the social piece.
Erika Ng
That’s great.
Gabrielle Stigant
I think it’s really educating, educating others and helping them understand what those challenges are for your daughter, or your child, not your daughter, the girl you’re caring for.
Erika Ng
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. No that’s helpful and that’s a great takeaway for me as someone who is in the school system that, yeah, that education component, and it might not be, it might not appear as the most pressing thing. Like they’re not throwing chairs or they’re not, you know, avoiding school necessarily. Maybe they are, but yeah, just that they are masking. That’s a great takeaway.
So just to wrap up, I wanted to ask you some quick questions, like a lightning round that are less about specifically your practice necessarily, but just your perspective on things. So, first of all, I guess, what is the best advice you’ve ever received as a behavior analyst?
Gabrielle Stigant
I think that honestly, and this is probably come more recently in the last couple of years is I have increased my following on social media accounts of following women with autism and hearing and learning their experiences. There’s so many women who’ve been diagnosed later in life and are self-reflecting on their childhood or have always grown up knowing they were autistic and are posting on YouTube and Instagram and Facebook and I, yeah. Follow, follow those women.
Erika Ng
Okay. That’s great advice.
And what is, are there, do you have yourself some personal habits that you think have contributed to your success with your girls groups in this niche that you’re in?
Gabrielle Stigant
I think that I’m able to laugh at my mistakes. I’m I just try to be real with them. If I don’t have the answers, I’m honest about that and I say, let’s figure this out together. Yeah, I, as much as possible, I want the kiddos that I work with to be a part of the process. I’m not the expert on them. They are just here to help provide some ideas.
Erika Ng
Do you have a resource, like a, an internet based resource or tool or website or something of that might be helpful for families that have a neurodiverse female or other practitioners that might be listening?
Gabrielle Stigant
Yeah, I do. I’m not very good at updating it all the time, but I do have an Instagram account and a Facebook page. So I try to post, you know, recent events or games or what have you that have been successful in groups to share with other professionals. I also try to share books or, you know, even other Instagram accounts or Facebook accounts that I found useful or interesting to me. So I try to post information and, yeah. And then I always have my website that post information about the groups that I’m that will be upcoming and for registration information.
Erika Ng
Awesome. Okay. And I’ll definitely put those, all that information into the show notes so people can confine that. So, thank you so much.
Gabrielle Stigant
Thank you.
Erika Ng
Well, Gabrielle, thank you so much. It has been such a pleasure and an honor to hear all about the important work that you’re doing and the really positive outcomes that you’ve had with your clients and just it’s so encouraging to hear that girls that are sometimes forgotten because of that masking that you spoke about in the beginning there, are really being served in such a, an incredible way and able to grow and connect. And it sounds like you’re really achieving your goal of creating a positive space, a safe space for these girls. So thank you so much for sharing that with us. I really appreciate it.
Gabrielle Stigant
Thank you for letting me tell my stories, so thank you.
Erika Ng
Enjoy the rest of your Saturday before the snow storm comes.
Gabrielle Stigant
I’m excited! I don’t have to drive so I’m okay with it.
Erika Ng
It’s so funny. It’s like big news in Vancouver, I’m actually from Ontario so everybody’s like, Oh my goodness. So thank you so much.
Gabrielle Stigant
Great. Thank you.
Erika Ng
Anything that Gabrielle has mentioned today including her social media handles and website, I will link to in the show notes, but just to verbally mentioned to you here, the website is www.gabriellestigant.com, again so that’s G A B R I E L E S T I G A N T.com, that’s her website. And she did mention towards the end there that her Facebook handle and Instagram account, which are by the same name, Gabriellestigant, all one word on Instagram and Facebook.
She puts resources there, especially on her Facebook that she tries to update as often as possible. And as per her work, she is following and we’ll share a lot of information about neurodivergent females specifically. So do check that out on her Facebook. These will also be list in the show notes. Until next time.
Thank you again for listening. I’m Erika Ng. Bye bye.
The comments and views expressed in this podcast do not constitute or replace contractual behavior, analytic consultation, or professional advice. Views expressed are solely the perspective of the speaker and do not represent the views or position of their colleagues and player or other associates.
Please seek out a behavior analyst with BACB website, if you’d like to receive further behavior consultation. Until next time. Take care.
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