What Is Neurodivergence?

Whenever a student is struggling, here's where I always start, and I try to ask it gently: what's getting in the way of learning for this student right now?

What does neurodivergent mean?

At its heart, neurodivergence is about differences in how people process information: how we perceive, think, learn and focus, and how we take in everything going on around us. Rather than treating those differences as flaws, the idea sees them as a natural part of human diversity. Behind it sits a simple, kind thought: there's no one right way to think, learn or behave, and different doesn't automatically mean something's missing.[6] What the word can't tell you is who someone is, or what a student is capable of.

It helps to know that neurodivergent isn't a clinical term, so you won't find it in any diagnostic manual.[1] The idea took shape in the 1990s, when autistic people started finding each other and, together, finding words for what they were living through.[2] What it offers us is a lens, a way of looking at human differences and at the barriers our surroundings sometimes put in people's way.

Which differences are we actually talking about? The ones most often named are ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyscalculia, auditory processing disorder (APD) and dyspraxia (DCD), and dysgraphia and Tourette syndrome often make the list too. It all started with autism, and the idea has since widened to take in differences like ADHD and dyslexia.[7] If APD is new to you, it affects how the brain makes sense of what the ears pick up. Dyspraxia, also called developmental coordination disorder (DCD), affects how a person plans and coordinates movement.[3]

Each of these words describes something different, so it's worth keeping them apart rather than using them as if they meant the same thing.

What neurodivergence isn't

Neurodivergent isn't a catch-all for any behavior that seems a little unusual, and it's never the whole story of a student. No kid is their diagnosis. A word for how someone's brain processes information is never a verdict on their worth, and knowing that a student is dyslexic or autistic tells you surprisingly little about what they're good at, what they need, or who they are as a person. Neurotypical, for that matter, doesn't mean better, more normal or more valuable.

No label, however useful, ever replaces a professional evaluation. What I'd truly love is for you to see your students as so much more than a diagnosis, because once you look a little closer, you'll find ways to shape your teaching so it fits them better.

Neurodivergent and neurotypical: what's the difference?

Neurodivergent describes people whose way of processing information differs from what's commonly expected, while neurotypical describes people whose processing sits closer to those expectations. Both words simply describe. Neither one is a judgment.

Not sure which words someone prefers? You can always just ask.

A school system built for another era

Many of the school systems we know today took shape in the 18th and 19th centuries. That's when states began making school compulsory, paying for it through taxes and staffing it with trained teachers, with Prussia as an early example.[4] The classroom most of us picture, one teacher leading children of the same age through the same material at the same pace, came a little later and spread through city school systems in the second half of the 19th century.[4]

You may have heard that schools were designed like factories, to turn out obedient workers. Education historians say that “factory model” story is too simple.[4] School also taught children to read, write and do arithmetic, and to find their place in society. Even so, a lot of the structures from that era sit uneasily with the demands of today's digital world.

Back then, psychology didn't even exist as a science of its own. It wasn't until 1879 that Wilhelm Wundt founded the world's first institute for psychology, in Leipzig, Germany.[5] Our way of talking about different brains is much younger still.

In the 1990s, autistic people meeting in online communities such as the email list Independent Living (InLv) worked out the idea of neurodiversity together.[2] The Australian sociologist Judy Singer wrote about it in her 1998 honors thesis, and the journalist Harvey Blume used the term in print in 1997 and 1998.[2] Singer hoped it would promote equality and inclusion for “neurological minorities.”[6] From there, the idea grew into a movement led by neurodivergent people themselves.[2]

My personal take

I'll be honest: our school system worries me. It simply wasn't built for kids growing up with social media, the internet and artificial intelligence. (That's my personal view, not a historical fact.)

Many of the students in your classroom are learning in a world where information moves fast. They chat with friends, play and look things up online. School, meanwhile, often still runs on fixed schedules, identical tasks and one pace for everyone, and that's not the fault of the teachers working so hard inside it.

I dream of a school where being different is never treated as a disruption, a school that gives every student a way in that fits, clear structure to hold on to, and a real place in the group.

When the classroom turns into a pressure cooker

These days, a single classroom brings together a huge range of needs, experiences and learning profiles. You probably know the picture: a restless room, constant interruptions, students working at wildly different speeds. So much has to happen at once, and there often just isn't time to meet every moment as calmly as you'd like. That's how a classroom turns into a pressure cooker, for you and your students alike.

What takes the pressure off? Clear routines, information students can see, and predictable transitions go a long way. Try breaking tasks into small, manageable steps, and make room for quiet, for movement, and for different ways of showing what students know. When things get hard, look at the whole situation, not just the behavior in front of you, and gently ask yourself which demands might be piling up for this student right now.