Exam: Fred flies an aeroplane at 30,000 feet for 150 miles, whilst eating 4 canteloupe melons. He is transporting seventeen elephants to his Uncle Derek. He departed at 5 am. How much does Aunt Nellie weigh?

A neurodivergent brain processes information differently to someone classed as neurotypical, and this is reflected in thought, behaviour, sociability, learning, attention, mood, and other mental functions. But how can you adapt your teaching approach for neurodivergent students in the classroom? Here are four points to consider: Listen to Understand Allow your neurodivergent students the space and time to rise to your expectations — just don’t be disappointed if it takes a little longer. They may just exceed them in style. Adapt Your Teaching Style The word neurodiversity includes all of the many different ways of thinking, learning and processing information that we see in humans. I have dedicated my life to changing this. My organisation Connections in Mind, which is a community interest company, works with schools to help them to better understand neurodivergent young people and supports professionals to help young people to understand their brains and different brain states better so they can be kinder to themselves and those around them. The schools we work with are changing the way they interact with students on so many levels but most importantly the behaviour policies which, as clearly indicated in the article, cause so much psychological harm to vulnerable young people.This section is the meat and potatoes of the whole book. There are 14 chapters dedicated to various mathematical topics. It’s intriguing that the focus is on the numerical side of things rather than on more abstract concepts like probability or shape and space. Students are given a better chance of grasping the material that is being presented thanks to the use of visual aids and activities that require them to use multi-sensory approaches. Lessons are highly interactive, which ensures that students are actively involved throughout the whole process of learning. Students will be able to put their newly acquired knowledge to the test with the book’s plenty of practise problems. What does a neurodiversity affirming approach to social skills mean, and why do some approaches to social skills teaching need updating? school #universities #students #community #training #educationreform #autism #executivefunctions #neurodiversity #neurodivergent

Every child deserves to feel that they belong in school and are understood by the professionals responsible for their care. Parents are often told that they must put more pressure on their children or that they aren't being strict enough. They're told to use 'tough love' but when they try, things get even worse. What's going on? Why are young people reacting in this way - and what can we do to help? A neurodiversity affirming approach to social skills is one which appreciates the preferences, interaction styles and communication priorities of neurodivergent individuals, and places the same value on these as the preferences, interaction styles and communication priorities of neurotypical individuals. Autistic people are often described as having difficulties with social interaction and communication, and most report that they find it challenging to process and understand the intentions of others within social interactions. However, this problem goes both ways - studies have found that neurotypical people also find it difficult to read the emotions of Autistic people. This was first described by Dr Damien Milton in the early 2010s as the double empathy problem. I teach a L3 Teaching Assistant Apprenticeship Program and all my TAs have to pass level 2 functional skills in Maths and English before the end of the program (or have a suitable alternative qualification.). One of my TAs is neurodivergent and is struggling with the functional skills maths. I saw a meme not so long ago that perfectly captures her view on arithmetic.For a long time, much of the emphasis of social skills teaching has been on supporting neurodivergent learners (in particular Autistic learners) to learn how to interact, socialise and communicate in the same way that neurotypical people tend to. Although this has usually been done with the best of intentions, the more that neurodivergent voices are listened to and learnt from, the more we see that this can in fact cause even greater challenges. Neurotypical children have been able to develop social skills in the way that comes naturally to them, and not expected to alter their social interactions to suit their neurodivergent peers. Neurodivergent children on the other hand have been expected to learn a whole set of challenging rules that do not come naturally and that can feel difficult and uncomfortable, and have been given the message that their own preferred ways are not good enough and need to change. This can cause masking, be detrimental to mental health, and ironically make them feel less confident in social situations and in interactions and communication with others. We can all learn maths, we just need the right environment, the right support and the right mindset I found your presentation both hugely informative and surprisingly comforting - there is a lot to be said for knowing you are not alone, that there are people out there who understand. The double empathy problem talks about the idea that autistic people DO actually have social skills. They might look different to neurotypical social skills. The way that a person interacts with other people, the way that a person has conversations. What is deemed okay. And acceptable and rude. The way that body language plays into it. All of these factors contribute to the way that autistic communication can be different from neurotypical communication styles.”

Further chapters of the book focus on factors and primes, directed numbers, indices, ratio and proportion, algebra, equations and inequalities, and even quadratics. How many more young people need to lose their lives to the unconscious bias we have about neurodivergent traits before people really sit up and listen? When it comes to acquiring mathematical knowledge, certain adjustments are required for neurodiverse students. The conventional approaches to education are ineffective for many people, which may result in feelings of exasperation and inadequate performance on the part of the student. The author of this book has collated the strategies for teaching that are particularly suited to the needs of neurodiverse students, and they have presented it in this volume. It was a brilliant webinar and every part of it resonated with different experiences I have had with all three of my children.

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GCSE Maths for Neurodivergent Learners is out now! Find out more about what this invaluable book has to offer, here. These beautiful infographics from @neurowild_ also illustrate the double empathy problem, and the differences that we might see in the social communication styles of Autistic and neurotypical people. Here are our top tips and useful resources for making your social skills teaching neurodiversity affirming: The term ‘neurodiversity’ was coined by Judy Singer, an Autistic sociologist, in the 1990s. It is the idea that there are many natural variations in the ways that human brains function. Singer argued that traits of some conditions such as Autism, dyslexia and ADHD, which were previously seen as deficits, are in fact normal variations in the brain. People with these neurodivergent traits may have different strengths and challenges to neurotypical people.