Megan was recently interviewed by the Family Times magazine about her expertise on understanding neurodiversity in children and how we can help them understand the differences amongst themselves and their peers. Here is a snippet from the article and you can read the whole article here.
1. Empower kids to understand their own strengths and needs.
What are they great at? What helps them calm their bodies down? Once kids know themselves, they can see that others have their own strengths and needs.
2. Talk about how our brains are all different.
Neurodiversity describes the idea that people experience and interact with the world in different ways. Talk openly to your kids about how all brains are different, just like fingerprints are. No brain is better than another, just different.
3. Focus on others’ strengths.
“I hope Sam chooses me on his team; his memory is the best!” If your child asks questions about someone, you could say, “Their brain is wired differently to yours; how cool! What are your different superpowers?”
4. Encourage kids to see that behaviour is communication.
Help kids to see another person’s behaviours as the best way they had at that moment to communicate. For example, when Isla ran out of the classroom, she was telling me, “It was too loud and busy in here for me.”
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