Aaron Lanou is an educational consultant supporting schools and organizations to reach all kids with inclusive, strengths-based practices.

Through the lens of Universal Design for Learning, Aaron coaches teachers and others to teach and support autistic students and all kids with a variety of academic, executive functioning, and social support needs. A member of Carol Gray’s Team Social Stories, Aaron also provides Social Stories workshops and collaborates with Carol and the team to continually update and refine the Social Stories philosophy and approach.

Aaron was previously a special education teacher in the New York City Public Schools and Executive Director of the Nest program at NYU, leading the nation’s largest inclusion program for autistic students.

Aaron developed The Balance Challenge as a way to explore social concepts with autistic students that weren’t deficit-based and could benefit anyone, of any neurotype. Rather than a “social skills” approach that focused on what “autistic people need to learn,” he wanted to find a way to investigate the social world in an authentically universal way. After all, who among us couldn’t strike a better balance—at times—between our ideas and those of the people around us?

Find out more about Aaron’s work and contact him at his website: aaronlanou.com

Aaron lives in Brooklyn, New York.

I used to post thoughts on the social world at The Social Whirled. And I had a nice back-and-forth about autism and communication at Presumptions of Difference with my friend, Paul Kotler.