It is time to create a more positive perception about what it means to be different, to think differently, to be neurodiverse. Neurodiversity is an idea that’s been around for a while. In brief, it means that brain differences are just that: differences. So conditions like ADHD and autism aren’t “abnormal”, instead they’re simply variations of the human brain.
For children and young people with learning and thinking differences, the idea of neurodiversity has real benefits. It can help them and their families to frame their challenges as differences, rather than as deficits. It can also highlight their strengths.
By neuro-diverse standards, the “normal” brain is easily distractible, is obsessively social, and suffers from a deficit of attention to detail and routine. So individuals on the spectrum experience the neurotypical world as relentlessly unpredictable and chaotic, perpetually turned up too loud, and full of people who have little respect for personal space.
Our therapeutic goals must be to empower and teach individuals how to cope with special challenges with special strategies; to make them aware not that they are ill, but to celebrate their differences and support them on their own path to success.
We can all be the dreamers. The pioneers. The innovators. The change-makers. The future business leaders. We are the creators. The adventurers. The discoverers…………….