I found out that I was hypermobile before I found out I was neurodiverse. I was working in primary care at the time and had been dealing with horrible, debilitating shoulder pain for years. Finally, I went in to see a physical therapist, who told me that my...
When I was growing up, if you were fidgeting with something in your hands—for example, while doing classwork at school—the perception was that you weren’t paying attention. I remember being reprimanded as a kid for making 3D pyramids out of post-it notes while...
It’s no secret that children feel a lot of big emotions. Most children will rather quickly learn how to express those emotions in a socially acceptable way. My child was not one of those children. My child—like so many neurodivergent children—was prone to huge...
April is National Autism Acceptance Month, and it’s great to see so much attention around autism awareness and acceptance. In recent years, I’ve definitely seen the way society talks about autism shift—but we still have a long way to go to destigmatize this...
Why can’t children just “do as we say” and follow our rules? Put on your shoes. Turn off the TV. Do your homework. Take a bath. They’re simple commands! However, for some children even the simplest commands are often met with meltdowns, defiance, and even aggression....