my son is in a great communication and interaction program with dedicated space inside the school. lots of sensory adaptive tools and quiet areas. theres awareness that some of the kids just dont care about being praised, but making the content contextually relavent and assuming they have the self awareness to decide does work. though praise definitely works with my son. had a lot of really interesting discussions with his teacher. i may very well have had a wildy different experiance if that space had existed 30 years ago. at the time all that i wanted was to do self paced remote classes where i could submit everything via computer. which by highschool was an option. but at that time the only goal was me in a gen-ed classroom with my behavior adjusted to make everyone else around me comfotable. allowing me to do what would work for me was seen as failure by everyone making decisions.
for the tactile part specifically. e-readers, stone paper for writing and terraslate if i need printed materials. have significantly improved my life.
"muscle tension", for most of my life i though relaxed and calm were the same thing. then covid hit and i never had to go out. all verbal communication was done via scheduled zoom and i could immediately drop my facial expression. then i finally understood what if fealt like to have my muscles relax without being high as fuck. i love that my kid has become verbal, it's great for him. but damn do i miss going days without saying or hearing a spoken word.