Mental Health and Wellbeing News

Dear Parents and Carers,

Last week we held our information session on neurodivergence. I would like to thank those who attended. I have included some information from the session. 

I have also included a link to an open letter recording by Hugh van Cuylenburg, who is the founder of The Resilience Project. It is a confronting video, but extremely enlightening and worth watching. There is a section towards the end where Hugh uses an expletive, but it is otherwise very appropriate. 

Neurodiversity, neurodivergence and children

Neurodiversity is the idea that there’s natural variation in how people’s brains work and how people experience, understand and interact with the world. This means there are natural differences in the way people learn and communicate.

Most children’s brains develop in ways that are seen as typical for their age and stage. These children can be described as neurotypical.

About 1 in 5-6 children have variations in their brain development. These variations include those seen in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, dyslexia and several other conditions.  These children can be described as neurodivergent.

Embracing neurodiversity

Embracing neurodiversity is about accepting, including, celebrating and supporting neurodivergent children. Their differences are part of natural variation and don’t need to be treated or changed.

Embracing neurodiversity involves:

• acknowledging that neurodivergent children might do things differently from neurotypical children
• adjusting tasks and activities so that neurodivergent children can fully participate
• making the most of neurodivergent children’s skills, especially the skills they’re proud of
• helping neurodivergent children develop ways of managing everyday tasks and activities that feel natural to them
• not expecting neurodivergent children to change behaviour that doesn’t interfere with their everyday activities, like stimming.
  
• making sure that schools, sports clubs, social groups, and community organisations include and support neurodivergent children.

Neurodivergent children can be disabled by noise, light and other things in the environment. People's expectations can be disabling too. But it’s not up to neurodivergent children to change. Rather, environments and expectations need to change to better include and embrace neurodivergent children’s differences.

https://www.theimperfects.com.au/episode/an-open-letter-to-parents-of-neurodivergent-people/

If you would like any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Deb Owens,

Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader