There's A Generation Of 'Cocooned' Children. We Need To Help Them Become Butterflies

For neurodivergent children, simply existing in a neurotypical world can be exhausting beyond measure.

When overwhelm happens repeatedly, day after day, the mask that allows them to function eventually slips, and burnout becomes inevitable. The operating systems stop working.

Burnout is very real, and very dangerous. And what often follows burnout is cocooning.

For an autistic child, every interaction requires constant decoding: tone, facial expression, body language, unspoken rules.