Back To School for 2025
These are my recommendations, in no particular order, to help you navigate the first week of back to school.
Another Merry ND Christmas
Transitions, surprises, unexpected changes, and social expectations can easily overwhelm ND nervous systems. Christmas is synonymous with family traditions including moral and social expectations which can be a perfect storm for overwhelm and meltdown. Consider ways to reduce the overwhelm by asking ND friends and family what supports they might need.
Gestalt, Echolalia, Hyperlexia, and Scripting
In my previous blog I talked about gestalt processing. A gestalt is a multi-word chunk that a speaker hears, stores, and uses as a whole before having knowledge or awareness of its internal structures e.g., phonemes or meaning. Autistic learners are likely to be gestalt processors repeating language in chunks to communicate (echolalia) and also are likely to be able to recognise words as whole words without having to break them down into sounds (hyperlexia).
Gestalt, Echolalia, Hyperlexia, and Scripting
One of the defining features of neuro divergent learners can be found in the way language is processed. Typically, language is learned or processed via learning speech sounds (phonemes) and letter patterns (graphemes).
If you are autistic however, chances are you learn in a different way. Typically, language is learned in chunks (gestalts), that are stored as a whole and repeated (echolalia) in order to communicate.
Neurodiverse Affirming Teaching Practices - Part 1
On her second day in the class, Rachel’s teacher explained that the class will ‘write’ about their holidays. The class was provided with ‘writing’ books that consisted of blue lined A4 exercise books.
Rachel stared out the window remembering her holiday at the beach with her family. Her teacher’s loud reminder to start writing abruptly brought Rachel back to her classroom. She looked down at her page and saw a sea of blue lines.