AUTHOR • CONSULTANT
Helping uniquely-wired students and their parents thrive throughout the K-12 journey and beyond
Become Your Child’s Most Powerful Advocate
Navigate the school system with confidence – no attorney or advocate required.
It’s easier than you think.
- Understand your child’s rights
- Work effectively with teachers and staff
- Secure the support your child deserves
- Empower you to be your child’s advocate
Yes, your child can succeed in school!
Your Child CAN Thrive, Inside and Outside the Classroom
If you’re the loving parent of a child with autism, ADHD, or other special needs, you may feel overwhelmed by the challenges and pressures of navigating the school system.
This comprehensive book is packed with actionable advice and compassionate guidance, so you can confidently:
- Understand your child’s unique strengths and learn how to leverage them.
- Discover tools and tactics to balance your child’s use of devices and promote healthy screen time habits.
- Get practical advice on working collaboratively with teachers, office staff, and administrators to secure the resources and accommodations your child needs.
- Learn effective strategies to help your child navigate social situations, build resilience, and feel safe at school.
- From hybrid and independent study programs to online learning, find the best educational path if the traditional classroom isn’t the right fit.
With Ali’s guidance, you’ll also uncover how to establish a positive, proactive strategy that works in partnership with teachers and administrators. You’ll gain insights into advocating for an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) or a 504 Plan and learn ways to adapt these resources for elementary school success.
When It Comes to Your Child’s Education, Don’t Take No For an Answer!
If you’re the loving parent of a child with autism, ADHD, or other special needs, you’re not alone. Although your journey may feel like a lonely one.
Ali Sims should know. As a teacher, she observed which parents received support from the school system and which families did not. This insight helped her quickly determine the best approach for her two uniquely-wired children.
Now, Ali shares her most successful strategies in a simple 7-step framework to help you avoid unnecessary heartache and drama. Discover how to:
- Uncover your child’s gifts and proactively cultivate them
- Maintain positive relationships with teachers, staff and administrators
- Deal effectively with bullying
- Get the extra support your child needs
- Reign in the negative influence of peers, especially social media
This book will leave you feeling empowered and equipped with everything you need to help your child thrive in middle school and beyond. You have more control over your kid’s school journey than you think. With the right tools and support, any student can succeed.
Your Teen’s Future Deserves the Right Answer, Not Just the Easy One!
Ali Sims gets it. As a teacher and the mother of two uniquely wired kids, she’s seen firsthand which families get the support they need from the school system — and which get left to figure it out alone. In this book, she distills her most effective strategies into a simple 7-step framework built for the high school years.
Discover how to:
- Get the extra support your uniquely-wired teen needs
- Rein in the negative influence of peers, especially social media
- Maintain positive relationships with teachers, staff, and administrators
- Deal effectively with bullying
- Prepare confidently for what comes after graduation, whether it’s career, college, or beyond
This book will leave you feeling empowered and equipped to help your teen not just survive high school, but graduate ready for whatever’s next. You have more influence over this journey than you think — and the right strategy will make all the difference.
Do you need to feel more confident at your next IEP meeting?
Walking into an IEP meeting can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re surrounded by educators and professionals and aren’t sure what questions to ask or how to advocate for your child. 7 Essential Steps for the Empowered Parent was created to help you feel prepared, informed, and confident as you navigate this important conversation.
Inside this free guide, you’ll discover seven practical steps to help you advocate effectively—from knowing your rights and identifying your top priorities to turning concerns into specific requests and leaving the meeting with a clear plan for what happens next. You don’t have to be perfect, and you don’t have to know everything. You simply need to be prepared.
Sign up below to receive your free copy and take the next step toward becoming the confident advocate your child needs.
About Ali Sims
As the oldest of five children, Ali Sims enjoyed “playing school” with her younger siblings. She was always the teacher. Ali assumed that the teaching profession was where she would land after she grew up.
But instead, after graduating from the University of Hawaii in Honolulu with a bachelor’s degree in English, Ali began working in the broadcast media and advertising business back on the mainland. Ali was a part of many large advertising and marketing campaigns involving international companies. She was based in Los Angeles and later in San Francisco.
She also spent much time working on projects in New York City. Later she held positions in the real estate and construction industries.
Her last corporate position was in management at a Fortune 500 company. The job was high paying, but the hours were grueling. She began to feel ready for a career that had more meaning for her and offered better work and family life balance.
During that time of pondering, Ali came across an article that discussed how a high percentage of people serving time in prison could not read and write effectively. She wanted to do something to be a small part of the solution to a terrible problem. Ali also felt that her “real world” experience might make her an asset to her students in the classroom. She decided to go into teaching mid-career.
Ali earned three teaching credentials—one for elementary, one for secondary (7th -12th), and one single-subject secondary credential for teaching English. Concurrently, she completed her master’s degree in education, at the University of Phoenix, in curriculum and instruction.
Ali’s first teaching position was teaching in one of the largest school districts in the country. While receiving her initial training there, she began to learn about “the system.” Later, she taught in a medium-sized suburban district, which further gave her a window into the workings of a smaller-sized district. The similarities between the school district structure and the business environment (regarding operations) surprised Ali. She also observed how many parents struggled with dealing effectively with the school system, which is not particularly accessible or welcoming.
Then Ali and her husband became the parents of two uniquely-wired kids. While teaching, Ali had to continuously research and hunt down resources for her children’s needs, beginning at preschool age. Ali began to appreciate further the challenges her students’ parents faced when dealing with the system.
Eventually, Ali wanted to “write the book series I wish was around when I was going through the K-12 school system.” And so, Elementary School Success for the Uniquely-Wired Child and Middle School Success for the Uniquely-Wired Child were written.