Neurodivergent students have many strengths!
When celebrating the talents and creativity of neurodivergent children, look for ways to make it part of your homeschool
Every student has a gift and sometimes it might or might not be an academic one.
For our struggling and neurodivergent learners, it is important that we explore their gifts and allow them to develop them. It is helpful if you as the parent are able to help guide her in exploring her gifts.
In talking with neurodivergent adults, I have discovered that they often find themselves in career paths that lean in the direction of their strengths. Usually, it is unintentional that they naturally learn to work around struggles and move into areas of strength.
I recently had the opportunity to speak with an adult who went through school and college with an undiagnosed reading disability. It wasn’t until his own child struggled with reading that he realized he had struggled with reading as well. In his mind, school was always hard but once he had some clarity on his child’s disability, he began to understand his own disability and why school had been so difficult.
He said that when it was time to go to college, he chose accounting as a major. I commented that for someone who struggled in school, he had chosen a hard major. His response to me was, “I chose accounting because I knew I would be working with numbers and it required little reading.”
I was struck by this because with no outside help, he had managed to work around his reading disability and he didn’t even realize it!
Sometimes we might find that our child’s talents lie in areas other than academics. Allow them to explore that too. Neurodivergent children can excel in art, solving puzzles, working with their hands, using their imagination, reasoning skills, remembering details of stories that are read to them, and thinking outside of the box to name a few.
Pay attention to the way they like to spend her free time, this might give you some insight into areas that you want to explore and develop.
Developing a strength in your child that they can work on and develop over the years will do wonders for their self-esteem. It will also probably help determine their path forward once they enter high school and beyond.