Reading the Nervous System: A Physiological Reading of Autistic Experience

Reading the Nervous System: A Physiological Reading of Autistic Experience

What if behavior is not the starting point?

Reading the Nervous System presents a framework for understanding human experience through the organization of the nervous system across time. Rather than viewing behavior as an isolated event, the book explores how physiological processes shape access to communication, learning, participation, flexibility, and regulation.

Drawing on more than a decade of clinical work with autistic and neurodivergent individuals, speech-language pathologist Maria E. Reyes introduces concepts such as concurrent demand, regulatory margin, recovery, accumulation, and internal time to explain why the same person may experience vastly different levels of access under different conditions.

This book offers a shift in observation itself—from interpreting behavior as a trait, choice, or deficit to understanding the physiological conditions under which behavior becomes possible.

Inside the book:

• A physiological framework for understanding behavior and experience

• An exploration of regulation, recovery, and nervous system organization

• A re-examination of autistic experience through physiology

• Clinical, educational, and caregiving implications

• Original concepts and observational tools for understanding access across time

Written for clinicians, educators, caregivers, autistic readers, and anyone interested in the relationship between physiology and human experience.

Digital PDF Edition

223 pages • Fully searchable PDF • Includes all figures and diagrams