Stockton Police share Your Way Registry during World Autism Awareness Day
Video Above: What is Autism?
The program helps officers better understand and respond to those with special needs during times of crisis, according to the police department.
Police said the registry is designed to maintain records of people who may require special assistance in an emergency.
Discovering authors with connections to Sacramento
'We are committed to fostering an inclusive community, continually training our officers to accommodate and support everyone—regardless of sensory needs, mental health, or disabilities,' said SPD. 'Together, we make a stronger, more compassionate community.'
To provide SPD with the information needed to successfully communicate with loved ones, as well as provide them with emergency contact information, visit the city's Your Way Registry page.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Autistic student achieves dream of going to university
A neurodivergent young woman who once doubted she could cope in a classroom is heading to university, with the dream of caring for children with additional needs. Carriad Lewis, 22, has secured a place to study early years education at Cardiff Metropolitan University after completing her Level 3 qualification in children's care, play, learning and development. Ms Lewis, from Tonyrefail, once believed she would be unable to cope in the classroom. Diagnosed with autism at 20, she struggled through school with social interaction and communication, and the idea of returning to a classroom felt overwhelming. Ms Lewis said: 'Starting college was a really big step for me, especially with my autism. 'I've always found social situations and new environments difficult, so the idea of stepping into a classroom full of people I didn't know was really daunting. 'I was nervous about whether I'd be understood or if I'd be able to cope with the demands of the course.' Despite her fears, Ms Lewis was determined to push beyond her comfort zone and praised the teachers at Coleg y Cymoedd, who she described as 'patient and kind'. 'For the first time, I felt like I didn't have to mask who I was,' she said, 'I could just be myself while learning and growing. 'That experience has given me the confidence to take the next step, and now I'm really excited to go to university and do something to make a difference for other children.' Now, Ms Lewis is looking ahead to university. She said: 'When my cousin was diagnosed with autism, it really cemented my belief that I could help others who face similar challenges. 'I want to create a nursery where all children – especially those with additional needs – feel seen, supported and safe. 'I know what it's like to grow up feeling different and misunderstood. 'I want to be the person I needed when I was younger.' Ms Lewis is not the only student at Coleg y Cymoedd who has overcome adversity to achieve their dreams of going to university. Keira Swain, 18, an aspiring filmmaker from Mountain Ash, who struggled following the death of her mother, did not think university would be an option for her. Ms Swain said: 'My mum passed away just as I was due to start college and it was one of the hardest things I've ever had to go through. 'At first, I didn't want to focus on it, so I threw myself into work as a distraction. 'But underneath it all, I was really struggling. 'I didn't think I had a future, let alone one at university.' Ms Swain said her tutors noticed her struggles and encouraged her to accept support. She said: 'I realised I could use what I'd been through to push myself harder and achieve my goals. 'I wanted to do well for my mum – to make her proud.' Ms Swain went on to thrive in her studies and is now going to study film at Aberystwyth University. Oliver Edmunds, 18, used the grief he had after losing his father as motivation for launching his own fitness brand. The Caerphilly teenager, who was 10 years old when his father died, used the gym to help him get through difficult moments. Having completed his Level 3 BTec business course at Coleg, he is preparing to launch OE Fitness, with the aim of helping others find the same mental wellbeing he did. Mr Edmunds said: 'Fitness changed everything for me. 'The gym helped me get through the hardest moments of my life and I don't know where I'd be without it. 'I think my life would look very different if my friend hadn't suggested I go with him for a session all those years ago. 'It gave me purpose, discipline, and helped me to build a support network. 'It had a really positive impact on my mental health, I now want to help others find that same strength.' Mr Edmunds was inspired to create his own business having watched his father run his own guitar shop and wants to follow in his footsteps. He said: 'After he passed away, it became even more important to me to create something meaningful and a way to honour his memory. 'Starting my own business in fitness just felt like the right fit for me.' Mr Edmunds added: 'I built a strong support network in college and I'm in the position I am today because of that. 'Without the advice and encouragement I received, I don't think I'd have had the confidence to pursue this path. 'They helped me believe in the idea and in myself.'


Washington Post
5 days ago
- Washington Post
My teen is on the spectrum, and her ‘neediness wears on me'
Hi Meghan, I have a 15-year-old daughter on the spectrum. She wants privacy a lot of the time and reminds me that she's 15 and not a baby. But, at the same time, she's so needy. She wants company while she dresses and bathes, general assistance with self-care and meals and wants me to baby her ('I'm your widdle baby'). The neediness wears on me, but I also know she wants my attention and company and is trying to connect as best she can. I feel annoyed with her a lot of the time, and then I feel guilty. I want her to be more independent, but I don't want to push her away. Life isn't easy for her. Any input would be much appreciated; I really enjoy your column. Thanks! — Needy's Parent Needy's Parent: Thank you for your letter. Before we get into how to help your teen on the spectrum, know that your parenting frustration is normal. You are parenting a teen with all the accompanying hormones and ups and downs. Add on that your teen is on the spectrum and wants both privacy and your constant company. This is a lot for even the most skillful parent, so give yourself a break. Taking care of yourself can help you break this cycle of annoyance and guilt. Start by surrounding yourself with a community of other parents in the same boat. Parenting a teen with autism can be isolating, so the important thing is to meet people who understand your unique struggles whether this is in person (highly recommended) or online, therapeutic or casual. I also recommend reading books like 'Growing Up on the Spectrum' by Lynn Kern Koegel and Claire LaZebnik to keep the ideas flowing. For teens on the spectrum, daily and 'normal' tasks can often be physically, emotionally and psychologically overwhelming. Holly Blanc Moses, a therapist and autism/ADHD expert, says: 'Your daughter may not have the same energy reserves to complete tasks independently every single day. One day, she may breeze through getting dressed, while another day that same task feels overwhelming. Executive functioning differences and motor skill variations can make daily tasks genuinely difficult.' This isn't due to a lack of parenting love from you or a lack of effort on your daughter's part; it is simply part of the neurotype. Having you nearby soothes her jangled nervous system. Neediness — an unskillful way to get attention — is a common behavior in humans, and we are accustomed to seeing it in little kids. Babies are unskillful (crying) because they are immature, toddlers are unskillful because their needs outpace the speed of their skill acquisition, and teens on the spectrum are unskillful because they need to learn how to identify and communicate their feelings in a way that neurotypical teens may not. Underneath the 'widdle baby' and your daughter's calls for nearness are deeper emotions that she needs more support handling. There are a number of ways you can help your daughter grow more skills, despite the frustration. Because executive functioning skills grow at a slower pace in many autistic teens, break down these basic self-care needs into bite-size steps. Bathing, getting dressed and eating all involve a huge number of decisions; breaking them down will bring your daughter's overwhelm down and, hopefully, will also lessen the neediness. For example, when it comes to getting dressed, Blanc Moses suggests: 'Write down each step of the process. You'll likely discover there are many more steps than you initially realized. Create a visual way for her to indicate how easy or difficult each step feels (perhaps a simple 1-5 scale). This helps identify which areas she feels confident handling independently versus which steps need more support. Create a visual with images of clothing along with the written steps.' Even if breaking down these many steps may seem daunting at first, the more you practice this approach to solving problems, the easier the other tasks may become. Once your daughter becomes more comfortable and independent getting dressed, that confidence may also spill into creating the steps for bathing, eating, etc. Remember: Neediness is a by-product of fear, so the more she can calm her own nervous system with small steps, the more independence can grow. Again, 15 is an intense time for every human, so be sure to build in breaks for your daughter. It is okay to baby her a little bit; most teens love a little babying, and her intense brain will need more breaks from this work than the typical teen. Be patient with yourself and her, and be sure to celebrate even the smallest of wins, pointing out her growth from one day or week or month to the next. Good luck!
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
Go Ask Alex: I'm pansexual and autistic. How do I date and have great sex?
Hi, I am William, and I wanted to email you for advice and help on being a pansexual male. I am 28 years old, and I read your website from time to time, and I have had good and bad experiences with guys, and the fact that I have autism. If you have any tips or advice for me, that would be helpful and useful. If so, thank you so much. Hi William, I'm also neurodivergent. I get it. We live in a world filled with people who, in some respects, communicate better than we do. I use my writing to work around that — my clearest, easiest self-expression happens on the page — but others like us have their own ways of expressing themselves that work best for them. Find an outlet that allows you to shape your thoughts outside of your head — writing, art, making playlists, whatever. It'll help. As for dating: Yeah, you might have a harder time being both pansexual and neurodivergent. Then again, you might not. I am both pansexual and neurodivergent, and I do pretty well. My point is that anything can be a hurdle or an inhibition, but nothing has to be: You are not set up for failure or struggle in the arena of intimacy because of who or how you are. You might just not yet have figured out how to use these aspects of your mind in your favor. I now see my funny brain as a blessing. I don't read non-direct forms of communication very well, so I have no taste for sarcasm or passive aggression. People with these traits are quickly weeded out: I don't need or want to go home with them, and they tend to find me too direct and boring. Our mismatch benefits both of us. Being direct — needing and fostering clear, straightforward communication — makes me good at kink and more adventurous sex that requires precise, overt, explicitly-stated desires and consent. In bed, I like asking, 'Does that feel good?' and, to be frank, I have to ask — I can't read nonverbal pleasure well. I believe this makes me a good, attentive lover. Yes, there are drawbacks. I can be too logical in an arena rife with murky emotions that aren't always clear and precise. That's hard. At a young age, I found it easy to separate and compartmentalize sex and love, so I gained sexual competence quickly. I became a great sex worker. (Most successful sex workers are neurodivergent.) As a result, my sex and love skills are not at the same level. Feelings are harder. My logical, compartmentalizing brain was not prepared for the grown-up battle of bringing sex and love together — of navigating things that can live separately but don't have to — and when they collide, I often find myself without the correct words. (Even the way I'm phrasing that is so autistic. There are no 'correct' words — there's just words, and I have to try and use them as best as I can. That's relationships!) William, I'm sorry to say there are no tricks, no shortcuts. But that's true for everyone, autistic and otherwise. In sex and dating, there is no better teacher than just doing it — sometimes you just have to dive. You will break your own heart and the hearts of others, and that's what you must do to learn how heartbreak feels and, worse, how it feels to hurt someone else. Everyone needs a few good, rough breakups. (The first one will be the worst. The second and third ones will be terrible, but not so bad. Your fourth breakup might finally be gentle.) At this point in my life, I'm wary of anyone who hasn't had a horrible, drawn-out, messy breakup. That's a vital growth experience that everyone needs. How else do you learn how to do it better next time? The only thing better than a little experience in sex and dating is a lot of it. Have sex with lots of people. Date lots of people. Here's a sentence I think only highly logical people will appreciate: More data points lead to a more competent education. Every person you go home with is a data point, and from each one, you learn. That's how it is for everyone, though romantic, highly emotional people might not like to see it in such stark terms. But that's how it is. Sluts are the best lovers because they're practiced. People who've had a few breakups know how to do it without so much yelling or slamming doors. People who've had partners who listen well know, from that point on, how good it feels to be heard. You can't know how your autism benefits your love life until you love, and you can't know how it helps you sexually until you fuck. Or get fucked. Or both. So do all of it — lots of it. Honestly, pansexuality is the bigger challenge, but it's mostly a challenge of language. At a bar or in a club toilet, it's hard to communicate to someone you like what 'pansexual' means, and there's no need to do so unless they ask. But if they ask — and some people will — you should come up with a short sentence explaining what 'pansexual' means to you in the simplest terms. Some pansexuals say the classic line, 'I care about what's between the ears, not what's between the legs.' I don't use that line because I do care about what's between the legs, at least a little bit. In general, I say: 'If there's a connection, I'll have sex with anyone.' This works for me. And it's the truth. Having that little sentence ready overcomes the biggest hurdle of being pansexual — explaining it. Most people in the modern world know what 'straight,' 'gay,' 'lesbian,' and 'bisexual' mean. The niche sexualities like 'pansexual' (or, my god, 'sexually fluid,' 'asexual,' and the combinations, like 'asexual homoromantic') need an explainer, and having to explain one's sexuality often feels very unsexy. Making it more challenging for us is the fact that pansexuals usually seek different things with different genders. (For example: with women, I'm only submissive, but with men I am dominant too.) Keep a few quick, easy explanations for this stuff so that, when it comes up, you can say what you like without turning it into a long conversation. Casual sex hookups will not ask, but potential romantic partners (dates) will, so these little explanations do matter. Be prepared for rejection — everyone faces it at some point. The universality of rejection makes it no less painful, but over time, it does sting not meant to be liked and wanted by everyone. Nobody is. Rejection is a universal human experience and is an inevitable part of the sex and love journey. Along with rejection, connection and love are also human experiences, and they happen more often than you might think. You just have to go looking for them. Hey there! I'm Alexander Cheves. I'm a sex writer and former sex worker—I worked in the business for over 12 years. You can read my sex-and-culture column Last Call in Out and my book My Love Is a Beast: Confessions, from Unbound Edition Press. But be warned: Kirkus Reviews says the book is "not for squeamish readers.' In the past, I directed (ahem) adult videos and sold adult products. I have spoken about subjects like cruising, sexual health, and HIV at the International AIDS Conference, SXSW, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and elsewhere, and appeared on dozens of podcasts. Here, I'm offering sex and relationship advice to Out's readers. Send your question to askbeastly@ — it may get answered in a future post. This article originally appeared on Out: Go Ask Alex: I'm pansexual and autistic. How do I date and have great sex? Solve the daily Crossword