#neurodiversity-affirming

#neurodiversity-affirming

The Sesame Workshop resources want the same for everyone. They are meant to help facilitate safe, inclusive group settings by giving children (and adults!) tips and engagement ideas for reaching out to someone, inviting others into your play, and offering encouragement to a kiddo who might feel a little uncertain or left out.

Logan is a big fan of Hannah Montana and Spongebob Squarepants. He loves model trains and watches videos of them crashing, because that way he knows that no one was hurt.

We in the autism science and advocacy community were just appalled at the way he went about selecting members. The current committee has been hijacked by a narrow ideological agenda that does not reflect either the broad autism community or the state of autism science.

In 1925, Sukhareva clearly described older boys who were writing for a school newspaper in a great literary style, playing musical instruments, creating art, connecting deeply with nature and select individuals, and holding on to their ethical principles. They also had sensory sensitivities, limited motor coordination, intense idiosyncratic interests, and difficulties with socializing.

There is a unique kind of pain in losing your mind, not just once, but over and over. Losing your perception of reality, of your emotions, of your closest relationships-both across months and multiple times a day. Knowing deep down that something is wrong but being unable to stop it.

Having ADHD affects executive functioning skills, those mental processes headquartered in the prefrontal cortex that are responsible for planning, prioritizing, regulating attention, managing time, and sustaining effort. In a fast-paced environment, demands on such skills can expose areas of vulnerability.

Developmental disabilities are actually quite common. In the United States, about 1 in 6 children has a developmental disability (CDC, 2024). Intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are a group of neurodevelopmental conditions usually present at birth that affect the trajectory of a person's physical, intellectual, and/or emotional development (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2021). Conditions such as Down Syndrome, Autism, Fragile X, Cerebral Palsy, and others are examples of intellectual or developmental disabilities.

In 2013, when Meredith O'Connor was 16, the music video for her debut single "Celebrity" went viral. Afterward, she channeled her own stardom into championing childhood mental health: As a hyperactive kid, O'Connor says she was often the subject of bullying, and when her music career gave her a platform, she was eager to use it to advocate on behalf of other victims. "I knew my fan base was younger, but I didn't know how many people would resonate with mental health challenges," she says. "I realized there were millions of gifted people that are being marginalized, and that's when I really wanted to start the mental health study."

ADHD contributes to these moments because the disorder affects executive functioning, which is the brain's "management system" that keeps actions, thoughts and feelings under control. For people with ADHD, this system doesn't always work efficiently, making it harder to regulate emotions, control impulses, organize thoughts, remember details and stay within social boundaries. All of these skills are needed for healthy conversations.