Neurodiversity 101: talent + opportunity= success

This week I just had to do more than one newsletter in Celebrating Neurodiversity Week!

After chairing panel sessions with parents and educators in the past two days it has made me think about the importance of seeking,guarding and chanelling strengths.

If you are a parent then your kids amazing skills may not always quite fit in with school structures. But their specific interests, novel ideas and views on the world could be the person with next innovation in tech, or the one who becomes a future comedian.

What do you think about the 'super talent' narrative?

It concerns me a little that we overly focus on the 'super talent' narrative as it can lead us to have a narrow view of potential based on stereotyping.

Our brains have billions of different connections. They are not in neat boxes. Dyslexia, ADHD, Autism, DCD, DLD, and Tics do not come alone.?Co-occurrence ?is the rule rather than the exception. (Read the link).

Two people with Dyslexia will be different. One may have Spelling challenges and have access to a spellchecker and another no computer at all... another Dyslexia+ADHD, and another Dyslexia+DCD and another Dyslexia+ADHD+DCD for example.?Dyslexia and Developmental Language ?Disorder also often co-occur as you can see by this picture above.

Can we really attribute a specific set of skills to ALL people with one single diagnosis or condition... e.g everyone who is dyslexic thinks the same way?

Are we associating skills with neurodiversity like we do with astrolog y?

There are problems with taxonomy or a narrow labelling approach and one label never describes millions of individuals. If 10% of the population are dyslexic and we believe all people who are dyslexic are creative, and all people who are on the autism spectrum are good at IT, and all people with ADHD are comedians...( we don't!!) ..... that means there are a lot of people who have none of these qualities...

..... another few things

1. Some people don't meet a threshold/cut-off for a diagnosis - does that mean that those who fall ‘below’ a ‘line’ are not going to have any talents or skills because they don't have the 'label'

2. There is huge inequality i n access to all health services because of social and cultural differences - waiting lists operate everywhere especially for conditions like ADHD and Autism Spectrum Conditions and who gets to the front of the queue has a social discord.( Services for adult DCD/Dyspraxia are almost entirely absent... what about their talents?).Not all people with Autism want to work in STEM and not all people in STEM are autistic.

3. People should be hiring for your skills and competencies but hiring success is also inequitable. You need to know the magic passwords to get through the process... someone who knows you/ how to answer questions on a form/ what are the special words that get you up a computer algorithm .

4. We are all neurodiverse and all of us are different in the things we CAN do and CAN"T do and some of this will be constrained by the world we live in now or in the past. This includes opportunity to try out different things and fail ( easier when you have parents supporting you)!The environment we are in often has a huge influence on whether we can recognize, develop, practice skills, and optimize them.

5. Access to jobs - if I can't walk and don't have access to an electric wheelchair I may have to sit at home even though I may be highly skilled. There is a?disability employment gap ?and and this is not about a lack of talent.

6. Misunderstanding in who you and what you can do reduces your opportunity to show how great you are.We see this in kids being excluded from school because they can't sit still, write quietly or take turns. A diagnosis for many, remains a privilege rather than a right. We can sometimes let 'behaviours' overshadow us seeking out talents and interests.

Some people do have strengths

Popular media portrayals suggest that individuals with Autism are more likely than the general population to be good at STEM (Moore 2006 ;?Morton 2001 ;?Ross 2006 ;?Safer 2012 ). Yet, strong evidence to support such a stereotype remains somewhat scant. A presentation from Prof. Simon Baron-Cohen described people who have found work in STEM have better systemising aptitudes (pattern recognition/seeing how things work) which is an associated autistic trait. Is there also some luck or social differences in who navigates their way into these jobs as well?

A meta-analysis of the research about?Dyslexia and creativity ?for example also came to the conclusion that "the current findings provide limited support for the idea that individuals with dyslexia are?more?creative, and that past evidence of this relationship may be limited to adult samples."

In one set of studies, an opposite effect was found such that individuals with dyslexia were less creative than their peers without dyslexia. In another set of studies, no significant differences were found between creativity scores of groups with and without dyslexia.

In the US, the?Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics ?has researched science skills in people with dyslexia.Professional astrophysicists with and without dyslexia were tested for their ability to spot a particular characteristic in a black hole.

“The scientists with dyslexia … were better at picking out the black holes from the noise, an advantage useful in their careers,” said dyslexic astrophysicist Matthew H Schneps in an article for the journal?Scientific American ."

In contrast one study ?showed lots of similarities between autistic people and those who are not diagnosed. These results showed that autistic people think as quickly and as rationally as non-autistic people.

Growing number of presenters,comedians and actors are coming forward and sharing with us that they are neurodivergent ..

Stephen Wiltshire , the talented artist is autistic.?

Max Park ?is a world champion in the Rubik's cube and is also autistic/someone on the autism spectrum.

Johnny Vegas at 52 was diagnosed with ADHD in 2022 and he said 'it all makes sense now"

There were 10 comedians who described themselves as on the autism spectrum/autistic/having ADHD at the Edinburgh fringe in 2022.

Rory Bremner is vocal in this space and describes the great bits (and bad bits) of having ADHD. He talks about feelings of plate spinning, and also the wonderful ability to hyperfocus and engages your attention. He describes how when we can work with our strengths we can make such a difference but the downside if your brains work differently.

Lucy Hobbs has been a great advocate for bringing neurodivergent creative talent together in London and run a variety of events under the Future of ND label over the past few years. She is running a live comedy night on the 28th March.

Neurodivergent artists and scientists

We are starting see a range of wonderful artists presenting their work and also talking about their experiences too and organisations like Dyspla promoting the talents of neurodivergent creators and "celebrate and develop the Neurodivergent Aesthetic.".

“There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.” ― Aldous Huxley

We also have Science and Art coming together which is really exciting in so many ways and also highlighting the talent of neurodivergent folk in STEAM s ubjects(including the arts). (STEAM?encourages creativity, critical thinking and problem solving, but also has?consequences on the students’ interests and future careers.) Professor Sara Rankin is one of these wonderful people promoting this work.

In a World Economic Forum report (2022) they state :

"There is evidence of links between dyslexia and creativity, entrepreneurship and attainment in sport" highlighted in the journal?Psychology Today ?by neurodivergent academic Robert Chapman.

Do you end up in a job because:

• Less choice/no choice/lots of choice?
• Someone has supported you and mentored you/given you a chance?
• You do/ don't have networks?
• Your aptitude and skills have been able to be showcased- good fit?
• You have gained specific qualifications and have a 'trade'?
• Luck?

In order to show off your skills we sometimes see those that succeed also have a leg up too. A mentor or an ally can make all the difference in gaining opportunities. I see so many people who are equally capable as others but because of the challenges and barriers in the recruitment systems, they miss out on gaining and sustaining the jobs they would prefer to be working in.

So why do some ND people succeed more...

Some key explanations have been proposed for why individuals with neurodivergent traits may end up in some jobs/or have some skills more than others.

The compensation hypothesis

This posits that individuals with dyslexia undergo compensatory neurological development in other brain structures to counteract the challenges they have been caused by dyslexia i.e. when one or more areas of the brain have some challenges other areas compensate. This leads to strengths in some areas.

The early choice hypothesis

This approach suggests that higher levels of creativity among individuals with dyslexia, for example, arise due to practice effects i.e. if you are not so good with using words that you start to adopt non-typical methods early on, such as using pictures rather than words, to process information. This relies on others providing the right setting for you to thrive as well.

No choice hypothesis

I am also adding the?'no choice hypothesis' .This is the reality that some people have no choice and need to take any job they can get and.. end up doing jobs that don't fit their skills.

Not all people with Autism/on Autism Spectrum want to work in STEM and not all people in STEM are autistic!

The avoiding hypothesis

This one is a pragmatic solution where you try to choose a course or job that avoids the challenges you have rather than specifically focusing on your strengths.

I sometimes see this in construction/care where someone may have chosen that because there was less written work for example or you were assessed more on your competencies relating to the job itself.

The possibility of success happens when we get the right fit.

Identifying your skills is one thing but also having the opportunity to showcase your skills are two different things. When we see some children on the autism spectrum who have good systemising skills and introduce them to STEM subjects if they can use these skills we can see some children flourish.

What do we need to do?

• Be realistic. Not everyone has a 'super talent' but they will have some strengths, and interests that if garnered will give them a better chance of success. Seek out interests, talents and skills. Let your children try different activities to see what they love to do.
• Be evidence-based - we need more research to understand the routes into different careers and what makes a difference.
• Creating the environment to show talents - Good career matching means finding the place where you fit best but it is not only about the job, it is also the environment we are placed in. Having?allies is also important to allow you to progress and feel that you belong.
• Ensure inclusive and equitable educational and employment processes- someone who believes in you, gives you a chance, sees potential can change lives...
• Showcase role models in all areas of society to show what is possible and stories that can align to other people's life experiences

The blog author

I am Amanda Kirby, CEO of?Do-IT Solutions ?a tech-for-good company that delivers web-based screening Neurodiversity and wellbeing Profiling tools and training that help 1000s of people deliver person-centered solutions relating to neurodiversity and wellbeing.

I am a mixed bag of experiences and skills and have 25+ years of working in the field of neurodiversity. I am a medical doctor, Professor, and have a Ph.D. in the field of neurodiversity and founded and ran the Dyscovery Centre for more than 20 years.

I have very personal multi-generational experiences of being neurodivergent with my wonderful family.An article this week gives a bit of a?personal look at neurodiversity ?I was voted one of the top 20 Thinkers by?HR magazine for 2022 !

Theo Smith and I wrote the UK award-winning book?Neurodiversity at Work?Drive Innovation, Performance, and Productivity with a Neurodiverse Workforce and we have a weekly podcast Neurodiversi-Tea which started last week.

My 10th book has come out called?Neurodiversity and Education ?.

***City and Guild Neurodiversity Index came out last week - please read, share and act.***

NOTE: The wonderful?ADHD Foundation ?has launched information on their amazing and conference on?June 16th ?in Liverpool.

**Don't miss out and get your tickets before they are quickly gone.**