Empowering strategies for neurodivergent kids, with DJ Nicholson
Mar 04, 2024One of the things I really enjoy about being an adult is being able to figure out what I need to be happy and functional. It has taken me a while to be honest, but I'm grateful to have the autonomy to know what I need and be able to integrate the things I need into my life.
Our kids often don't have enough life experience to be able to tell us what they need to be more happy and functional, but we can start to figure things out just by observing what they are already doing!
In this week's podcast/YouTube episode, I'm talking with DJ Nicholson about strategies that help empower our kids, including things they may already be showing us they need without even knowing it.
Here's a clip from the episode:
One of the things that you said, they see other kids doing the right thing, or they know that they're not doing the same thing that everyone else is doing. Ideally, I would love to see an educational system where we don't expect all kids to do exactly the same thing at the same time in the same way. So one of the things that I like to suggest, both to teachers and to parents, when they're... when they're kind of sitting around that IEP table is to... is to understand that not every child is going to do well sitting in the blue plastic chair.
And so whether it's blue, or black or brown, in schools we all know what that is, that standard classroom chair, that it's okay if you have someone that stands up or sits on the floor, and that we give all kids opportunities to be in the classroom in spaces that help them be their very best self, help them be independent and help them stay regulated and centered. That when we give kids options for flexible places to be, and we can normalize that to me is a game changer.
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