Hello! I’m Debbie Reber, and I created Tilt Parenting with a goal of reshaping the parenting experience for families with differently wired kids and championing a strengths-based, neurodivergent-affirming paradigm.
How the Tilt Movement Was Born
When my child was born in 2004, my husband and I set off on the same parenting journey as so many others—full of anticipation, a stack of parenting books, and the belief that we could figure it all out as we went. But it didn’t take long to realize that the path ahead wasn’t what we had expected. Our child was intense, precocious, sensitive, and full of contradictions — fascinating and joyful one moment, struggling and misunderstood the next. By the time the toddler years arrived, we found ourselves asking, Is there something more going on here? But finding real, helpful, and empowering answers proved far more challenging than we could have imagined.
At the time, conversations about neurodivergence were nearly nonexistent. The prevailing narrative around ADHD, autism, learning disabilities, and other differences was rooted in deficits — framing them as problems to be solved rather than identities to be understood. Nearly all of the resources I found were pathologizing, offering strategies for managing or “fixing” rather than supporting and celebrating the unique strengths of differently wired kids. Finding an optimistic, strength-based perspective—one that saw neurodivergence as a natural part of human diversity rather than something broken—felt like mission impossible.
What followed were years of frustration and exhaustion — navigating evaluations, cycling through diagnoses, advocating for school accommodations, and trying everything the experts said would “help.” But nothing truly fit. Instead, we found ourselves constantly trying to force a square-peg child into a round-hole system that wasn’t designed for a brain that worked differently. And I knew we weren’t alone. I met other parents experiencing the same isolation and self-doubt, wondering why the world wasn’t ready to support kids like ours who didn’t fit the mold.
That’s when I had my lightbulb moment.
The problem wasn’t our kids — it was the paradigm. A system that treated differences as problems to be fixed instead of identities to be understood and embraced. So instead of trying to get our children to change who they inherently are to fit into an outdated way of thinking, I focused on reimagining what parenting, education, and support could look like if we set our sights on changing the entire paradigm.
And so, in 2016, Tilt Parenting was born.
I created Tilt to provide a space where parents raising neurodivergent kids can find community, clarity, and confidence. Through my podcast, resources, and advocacy, my mission is to transform the lives of parents raising neurodivergent kids, and to change the way the world sees and supports them, so families like ours can thrive.
If you’re navigating this path too, you don’t have to do it alone.
Learn More About the Team Behind Tilt Parenting
Read the story of Debbie’s family in Differently Wired
I describe Differently Wired as a combination of stories, expert advice, how-to, and manifesto, with a goal of helping parents like us raising neurodivergent kids do so with more confidence, hope, and joy.
In the first chapter, I share our family’s zig-zag journey as we struggled to find a school fit, navigate the diagnostic process, search for community, and identify every and anything that could help our family get out of the crisis mode that was quickly becoming our norm.
How Tilt is Impacting Families’ Lives
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being such a ray of light in a dark time to me and many, many others. Keep up the great work and know that it makes a difference in ways you can’t even imagine!
Your thoughtful interviews give me lots of food for thought every week and have been such a huge help to become aware of and understand all the different aspects of being differently wired. Our house has become so much more peaceful and harmonious.
Can’t thank you enough for believing in the potential of these kids and supporting this parent community. It has made a world of difference, especially on the days when giving up seems the best option.
Your podcast has been the single most helpful resource that I’ve found — the interviews and resources are all so wonderful. Even better, is your honest discussion about your personal parenting journey!
Please know your guidance has made the journey so much easier for those of us walking a similar path. Wishing you the very best and so grateful for all that you do!
Finding your book, your podcast and the community you’ve created with people, values, and philosophy grounded in research and positivity and action … it’s been a tremendous positive force in my life. I feel better understood, less alone, and like the values I’ve been trying to forge on my own are out there in the world with a movement behind them.
In listening to you, I feel connected, understood, and less alone. I’ve learned from you positive terminology, how to frame this in my mind internally, and how to explain the challenges and advantages of Autism to others.
Reading your words and hearing you speak (on your podcast and in the book club) created a shift in my perspective. The only way I can describe it is that it’s like a light bulb turned on inside of me and I now have a plan for how I want to parent.
I describe “Differently Wired” as the book that changed my life. Grateful for your work, how it’s changed our family dynamic and led us to a path of healing. We have a lot of work to do still, but we have such a different understanding of our child and for that we’re just very grateful.
Welcome to the Tilt Parenting Revolution
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TILT PARENTING
Tilt Parenting, LLC is an educational resource, podcast, consultancy, and community with a focus on positively shifting the way neurodifferences in children are perceived, experienced, and supported, and supporting parents raising differently wired™ kids so these exceptional kids can thrive in their schools, in their families, and in their lives. It was founded by Debbie Reber in 2016.
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