Neurodiversity is a superpower, exclaimed our interns at The Chini Trust last year. We nodded in agreement, knowing that every superhero has immense challenges navigating the ‘real’ world’. While I know that neurodiversity is not just about its abilities, secretly I was thrilled that they had framed it this way. This is the marketing that neurodiverse people need to be able to be treated better in the world so that they can be functional both for themselves and others around them.
Neurodiversity is about people who are wired differently. It is a cruel world that mocks anyone who is different from the norm. Being different in any way is to be an outcast – whether it is a fat person, someone with different colour of skin, eyes that are shaped differently, a mark on their face, or just a different set of reactions. Some of these are physically diverse, others racially, some just visibly different, and of course some with their neurons firing to make pathways that are not normally seen.
I want to take a moment on the word normal. To be normal is to be the norm. Or the mainstream. Statistically we call this the modal range (remember mean, median, mode from calculating average at school?) To be normal is to be in the mode, and that is considered cool because it is easy. In fashion, the term we use is a la mode – to be modish is to be fashionable, to go along with the norm. Lying within the norm has been so glorified, that most of us who struggle to be like others often find ourselves pretending just to be able to join in. This is called masking. In a room, you will struggle to see who is within the average ranges and who is masking, just pretending to be ordinary. To a certain extent, and in different contexts, all of us find ourselves with some range of diversity and have socialised ourselves to join in with whatever is ordinarily acceptable in the moment.
This takes a toll. It is exhausting to pretend, to mask. The ordinary often feels boring, irrelevant to us people with neurodivergence. We are interested in other things, can we get on with that, we hear ourselves asking. For most of us, the ability to join in is so well trained, or our neurodiversity is not that extreme and we manage the moments where we don’t feel we fit with just a little effort. Those who are clinically diagnosed as neurodiverse struggle greatly, always finding themselves wrong footed or standing apart, dismayed at how odd everything feels. Life, work and social situations become fraught, with each looking at the other and wondering – what happened here?
And yet, the neurodiverse have huge amounts to talent, ability and great ideas. Look up the number of neurodiverse geniuses, and you’ll be surprised! There are various types of neurodiversity (and the language is evolving as neurosciences advance) and you’ll be amazed to find that the mathematical magician in your class may just be a high performing aspergers (autism spectrum) neurodivergent. Or that the great painter has Attention Deficit Disorder(ADD/ADHD, now being renamed). The child who could not sit still in the room is turning out great projects and shows full understanding of the science. The one who had a melt down just last week actually was able to impress senior visitors with great questions way beyond expectations. There is so much happening in there that we were never trained to understand and handle.
Teachers and bosses have been overstretched, and undeniably a bit in fear of the neurodiverse. What if we cannot control the situation, they ask. The loss of control over the classroom or the team is the greatest fear, but also equally, the fear of confusion and letting others down. Like anything new, this too needs training. Once understood, a lot becomes less scary. Neurodiverse people need support and accommodations for sure. One needs to know enough to ensure that we do no additional harm. To trigger a neurodiverse person with low self control or emotional regulation creates an incident – and we try to avoid these in workplaces.
This week, it was a pleasure to support The Chini Trust in a talk by NIMHANS academics and clinicians on what to expect and how to build accomodations when working with neurodiverse students. Do look up the trust – this talk and its excerpts will be put up soon. I will not presume to summarise all of that here. But as I was listening, I recognised that teachers often need a specific formula to get them started…and I offer it here.
There are 4 things a teacher (and a manager in a meeting) need to do when you have neurodiverse people in the room. These are best practices that work with people with less neurodivergence too, but if you do have neurodivergent people, this must become hygiene practice. This is the 4A – Accept, Acknowledge, Accommodate, Advance.
Accept: The first step happens in the mindset of the manager or teacher in the room. They must accept the reality that there will be some in the room who will behave differently. If they are rocking, or stimming (eg moving hands, legs, fidgeting etc.), these are behaviours that are helping them listen, these are not disrespect nor are they distractions. Allow them these. Accept that people with neurodivergence often get overwhelmed and overstimulated with light, noise and other abrasions. A professional room must be kind in any case, but here do accept that this room needs to be kept calm, evenly lit and if you have any activities with flashing lights or loud sounds then you exclude the sensitive students. Accept that you will hear odd questions – sometimes super bright ones! Accept that there will be different behaviours. Once this is in place, you will realise that these are not a challenge to your authority and you will handle the room better.
Acknowledge: It is very important to the neurodivergent to feel safe, and in order to do that, a great technique is for the manager/teacher to acknowledge them at the beginning of the session with kindness. Do not single them out as special, just acknowledge them with a short sentence or call out in the beginning of the session, maybe just a simple well being check. This reassures them that they will be understood, and that you will use your authority to create a safe space for them. Done with care, an acknowledgement reduces anxiety levels dramatically and creates a pathway of communication between them and you. It is then easier for them to share their needs with you and for you to negotiate sensibly and kindly with them. A neurodivergent person often has the same needs as modal people for acknowledgement, but often they do not have the ability to receive signals – this personal acknowledgement of their presence does the job.
Accommodate: This is key to a peaceful and functional room that can progress towards its shared purpose. A lesson can be taught better if you are okay with a neurodivergent student using a fidget toy. Moving around the room to balance energies and actually engage the brain to solve the problem is another accommodation. Some people need a quiet corner in the room or in an adjacent space to be able to rebalance. Others need a kind buddy who fills in what their brain missed out, either because it was working too fast or because it does not have specific socialised skills. In every case the accommodations might be different, and this is where communication is essential to design them into the system. Everyone benefits.
Advance: Do not get stuck in the moment, advance steadily having handled an outburst or any other confusion. It is not the job of a teacher or manager to ‘solve’ for neurodiversity. They are not a therapist or specialist. They must know enough to understand conditions, enable accommodations and action them with skill. In a meeting, this might mean acknowledging the point that a neurodivergent colleague is making very forcefully and scheduling a time for it to be discussed later in a sidebar. Or in a classroom, it could be allowing the student to take a walk and come back in a few minutes. A neurodivergent person does not disrupt the main flow if good quality accommodations are skillfully deployed. As a teacher or manager, do advance and do not get stuck in the moment – you are not trained for it, you are not expected to solve or change things. You must create a safe space and move on for the benefit of all, especially for to reduce the overwhelm of too much attention, embarrassment and anxiety of the neurodivergent individual. Follow the protocols established for accommodations and advance your task. It is rare for neurodivergence to impede the progress of the greater goal if managed well.
You as a leader of the room must also be prepared to be surprised, inspired and amazed when you go home and reflect on your day. There will be small and big insights, honest questions and great prompts that you will find enrich you when you are dealing with those with neurodivergence. Be prepared to grow emotionally, mentally and spiritually too as you seek answers to the questions that they dare to verbalise – and even see with their unique framing of the world. It will open up wonderful futures for you and your cohorts. There is an honesty, a release from the prison of conventional framing when working with neurodivergent people. This is just one of the joys, and you will discover many more. Start with the 4A, and I promise you that you inner growth in ways that are deeply satisfying as leaders.
Meeta W Sengupta 