What Is Neurodiversity?

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Neurodivergent children, families, and educators can teach us to notice forms of communication.

Listening more intentionally begins with noticing before interpreting and meeting people where they are.

Visual communication systems like PECS open essential pathways; non-verbal resonance extends beyond symbols.

Gratitude to Dr. Andy Bondy (PECS) and Dr. Jack Naglieri (ASRS) for their personal guidance and support, and for their international leadership on behalf of children and their families.

Human minds are remarkably diverse. How we process the world, receive comfort, and reach out to one another cannot be flattened into a single standard. In writing our book, this idea is a thread that steadied and focused us. We see a truth that sits at the center of our lives and work.

Today, neurodiversity is a visible part of our shared human landscape. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 1 in 31 children in the United States—about 3.2 percent—are classified as autistic. Behind that percentage are millions of individual children, each experiencing and interacting with the world in their own way.

Living with a child with autism can bring extraordinary strengths alongside very real challenges, and those experiences look different for every autistic person and every family. For our family, this is personal. Autism is part of our family, through a daughter and granddaughter we love deeply.

Our experience has made questions about communication........

© Psychology Today