Dyslexia Archives - More Than Quirky

The Magic of Speechies: Speech Pathology Week 2024

August 29, 2024

It is Speech Pathology Week 2024. This year’s theme is “Communicate Your Way”. Speech Language Pathologists / Speech Language Therapists, really don’t get the recognition they deserve for how much they contribute to the wellbeing of our society, particularly when it comes to neurodivergent children. Despite the name, they do so much more than help people with speech. What Do They Do? Speech Language Pathologists / Therapists (SLPs, or “speechies”) assist a wide range of[…]...

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The Umbrella Term: Are Neurodivergence and Autism the Same?

August 20, 2024

The term “neurodivergent” covers many, many neurological differences. It is not a synonym for autistic, nor for ADHD. However, it does cover these neurotypes and therefore saying “Joe is neurodivergent” if Joe is autistic is accurate. That doesn’t mean, however, that you are being clear and specifying that Joe is autistic. You could equally be assumed to mean that Joe has depression, or Joe is dyspraxic, etc. “Neurodivergence” or “neurodivergent” have increasingly been used as[…]...

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Not Just Dancing Letters: Dyslexia

May 7, 2024

Like many (most?!) neurodivergencies, dyslexia comes with all kinds of incorrect stereotypes and assumptions. It wasn’t that long ago that the belief was that dyslexic people simply experienced letters jumping around the page, or the occasional letter presented in mirror image. What is now known about dyslexia is far more detailed, provides far greater understanding of the disability, and gives better direction for support and potential improvement. Is Dyslexia a Disability? In Australia, under the[…]...

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Celebrating Neurodivergent Strengths

March 18, 2024

As neurodivergence is frequently viewed using the medical model of disability, focus is primarily on problems. Impairments, inabilities, difficulties. Meltdowns, learning differences, problematic stims. However, as perception moves more and more towards the social model of disability, so too can the focus not only on the fact the majority of supposed disability is due to society, but that there are benefits. Many neurodivergent traits are strengths, both to the individual, and within a neuronormative society.[…]...

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Doing Hard Things: Ready to Fall

November 29, 2023

There is often an instinct in play to protect our neurodivergent kids from failing. There are enough unavoidable hurdles in their lives to feel like it’s fair, or a good decision, to knowingly launch them towards another one. Particularly one that looks too big, or looks a lot like one that has tripped them previously. But all people – neurodivergent and neurotypical – learn from challenging themselves to do hard things. Sometimes these changes and[…]...

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The Best Incentive: Happiness

March 31, 2023

There are many tricky elements of neurodivergence that can – and potentially should – be addressed, without this being perceived as forcing neurotypicality or not being neuroaffirming. Usually, the measure of this can be whether overcoming this hurdle is of benefit to the neurodivergent person’s self-esteem and happiness. This might include helping a person with dyslexia learn to read to the best of their ability to allow them to succeed in neurotypical society, or teaching[…]...

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Q&A: Which Health Professionals for Support?

March 14, 2023

Q. What health professionals do I need to support my neurodivergent child? Mum of boy aged 5-8 A. Neurodivergent people benefit from the support of a number of health professionals. I strongly discourage jumping headfirst into this potential support. Assessment and confirmation (“diagnosis”) If your child is undiagnosed, and you believe/suspect they might be neurodivergent, your first step is your GP. This in itself is not always an easy approach. You may well experience dismissal[…]...