Every student deserves to be seen, understood, and supported in their journey through education. But for many neurodivergent students, the classroom can often feel like an uphill battle—one where their unique strengths are overlooked and their challenges misunderstood.
As someone who has walked this path, I want to share with you not only my personal journey but also the broader impact neurodiversity has on students.
It’s about more than just individual experiences; it’s about the systemic changes needed to ensure that every neurodivergent student can thrive.
These students often bring exceptional creativity, problem-solving abilities, and new perspectives, yet they frequently face environments that aren’t designed for them.
Today, I hope to provide insight into the real, tangible effects of neurodiversity in education—how it shapes students' lives, their learning, and their potential to succeed. Together, we can explore how to create spaces where neurodivergent students are not just accommodated but celebrated for the value they bring.
So my story begins when I was obviously very young, before school. If you think about the brazen bold and confident kid within your school that was me. I wasn’t nervous around people, I loved to express myself and had so much confidence it was basically bursting out of me. I displayed the typical signs of ASD, but how could such a bright kid have autism? But as time went on… the laughter stopped, and there was only the shell of the girl before. No longer was I bursting with confidence, or expressing myself and I became nervous around people. I had trouble interacting with my peers but it's normal for kids it will pass… except it didn’t. The traits that had showed up before were much more prominent : picky eating, extreme sensitivity, trouble reading expressions, walking around in circles for hours and rejection sensitivity all became more severe.
I noticed that I was different from the rest of my peers and desperately tried to fix myself because I was so concerned that I wasn't “normal.”
But it can't possibly be autism because this young girl is intelligent and bright. People with autism can’t be intelligent. People with autism can’t make jokes or have humor. People with autism constantly need help. They are incapable. They lack empathy. They can’t communicate. But this girl doesn’t fit any of this. So she must not have autism.
And so instead of getting support I got ridiculed. You overwhelmingly want to sit in the same spot- well the world doesn’t revolve around you. Why are you crying, you fell over and got hurt- get over it. Gosh you're so clingy and you stare far too much. These comments from teachers and peers happened consistently until there wasn’t even a shell of five year old me. I had anxiety and severe depression at the age of 10 and have continued having issues with mental health up until this day. Being undiagnosed for a large portion of my childhood has led to CPTSD and possible BPD. Unfortunately I am not the only one that has ended up with mental health issues due to a lack of recognition of neurodiversity and this is a common occurrence especially in female children. I know of people who have gotten depression as early as the age of six due to unrecognised neurodiversity in schools.
As I moved into highschool I started to recognise that the traits I presented resemble those of somebody with neurodiversity. I did my research and came to 2 conclusions.
It's either ADHD or autism and looking back it was probably both as 70% of people with autism have ADHD. I collected the facts, made notes on my behaviours and when I was ready took it to my therapist at the time. But instead of recognising my neurodiversity she simply stated that it wasn’t the case because “she has worked with neurodiverse individuals with autism and I’m not like them.” to her it was just anxiety and depression which I did have but wasn’t related to anything I was talking about. To her it was anything, everything but neurodiversity. At this point I was so frustrated and ready to give up.
If it wasn’t for 1 person I probably wouldn’t be diagnosed at all. My Mum. You see my mum is a principal at a school in Dunedin which has a moderate population of neurodiverse students. She has been surrounded by them for most of her career and was able to learn the criteria and help students because of it. She was also aware that both sides of my family had a history of neurodiverse conditions. When I started talking about my feelings and how I experienced she clocked on, and took me to the GP who referred me to YSS. After many tests, and creating stories with toothpicks and reading a book about frogs I was finally diagnosed with ASD. Instead of considering how this could help me my immediate thoughts were oh god, I’m never gonna get a job or this is going to limit my opportunities so much which were a result of the stigma around me towards ASD.
Despite my reservations, the diagnosis has helped me a lot in school.
My teachers are more empathetic, I’m allowed to wear headphones in class, and I get separate accommodation for exams. Now I am apart of the YNC and have been working to broaden Dunedin's perspectives of neurodiversity starting at my own school where I have been implementing a sensory room, for all students to come and destress as well as multiple information activities to eliminate bias. My biggest goal is to eventually get some sort of neurodiversity leader into the school to work with the SENCO on SAC and the wellbeing of neurodivergent students.
So what can you take away from my experience? 3 Simple things:
You are critical to diagnosing kids early.
You know the signs and need to use your knowledge on both the kids that you work with and the surrounding ones in the classroom. If I had been diagnosed earlier, then my whole life would’ve been different and I most likely wouldn’t have gone through the multiple struggles with my mental health. We can put all sorts of procedures in place, but without knowing who needs it, it will never be truly useful. It is better to suspect something and be wrong than it is to be right and dismiss it.
Neurodiverse people are capable.
And not just the gifted kids. It's the non-verbal ones, the ones who have trouble processing or trust too easily. They are all much more capable than you think. Many people have the preconceived notion that most neurodivergent kids are dumb or unable to actively produce anything which is just not true. It may not take the form of traditional intelligence but once you find their spark they will achieve amazing things.
Keep learning.
The world is constantly evolving and we find new things everyday. You may know 1 technique to help a problem but there may be 10,000 other solutions that will help for many other children. Acknowledge what you know and then keep pushing those boundaries. Take the time to truly Learn. Keep talking to the people with neurodiversity, listen to what they are telling you and use this to support them and others. And that's why you're here so make the most of it.
If anybody has any questions feel free to come and talk to me and hopefully I haven’t bored you all half to death. Reconsider ending confidently. Trust me, people will be captivated by you!