Neurodiversity is a term that is often misunderstood and can hold a lot of stigma. We caught up with one of our Forensic Psychologists in Training, Adelle, to find out a bit more about what neurodiversity is and how Pebbles works to embrace all neurological differences and how we help the young people in our care to identify their superpowers.
There are three classifications we use when discussing neurodiversity:
1. Neurodiversity – this term covers everyone and is simply a way to describe the spectrum in differences of how our brains work.
2. Neurotypical – the most common brain type.
3. Neurodivergent – a community of people who often have diagnoses such as ADHD, ASD, Dyslexia, learning disabilities, sensory processing disorders and FASD, to name a few.
In the UK, 15-20% of the general population are classed as neurodivergent and within Pebbles in Scotland, 53% of the young people we support have a diagnosis that falls under the neurodivergent umbrella.
I have been working at Pebbles for the past five years, the last four of which have been within the psychology team.
I was diagnosed with ADHD a few years ago. ADHD is a condition that affects your dopamine, a neurotransmitter, which helps your brain communicate with the rest of your body. Dopamine is linked to your motivation, movement, reward system and memory and people with ADHD have lower levels of dopamine compared to neurotypical people.
Before I got my diagnosis, I had a suspicion that I was a bit different – I was quite particular about the way I did things and was a queen procrastinator. My colleagues supported me to pursue a diagnosis because it was starting to negatively impact my life.
After a long process, I was diagnosed with combined ADHD. This means that I experience both the inattention and hyperactivity traits of ADHD. Some people may only experience one of these areas.
Getting my diagnosis has helped me to support and be more understanding of others. It also allows me to give first hand advice around the diagnosis process to our young people and care teams.
A big part of the work we do is supporting our young people in helping them understand their diagnosis, if they have one.
Everyone experiences neurodivergence differently and these differences are especially noticeable between males and females. Males tend to be more disruptive and externalise this, whereas females are good at hiding this, also known as masking. This is reflected in diagnosis rates, with boys being more likely to be diagnosed than girls as it can be easier to identify.
Support for our young people comes in many different forms, including one-to-one psychoeducation to help them understand neurodiversity, CBT, helping with sensory needs and advocating on their behalf. It’s important that we take an individual approach in offering support as not all young people have the same needs or preferences.
One of the key things we do is help reframe neurodivergent traits as superpowers.
For example, one of the young people we support struggles with communication and social situations, but they wanted to get better at joining in on conversations. We worked together to find their superpowers which were thriving with structure and having a good memory. We used these superpowers to create scripts for different topics of conversation that they were able to memorise and use in practice. This helped them to become more confident when joining in on conversations and gave them the confidence they needed to speak about the challenges they face when interacting with people in social situations.
Sometimes our young people would prefer to learn and be supported by their care team rather than through our psychology team and that is absolutely fine. In that case, the psychology team supports the care team to ensure they are offering high levels of support through ‘the other 23 hours.’
Raising awareness around different diagnoses and training is key. We offer teams the time through consultations to discuss neurodevelopmental disorders.
We tailor everything to the young person in question and welcome our young people to also attend the training. We help to debunk myths and stereotypes around neurodivergence.
Another main area of support is educating the care teams on the diagnosis pathways and how to advocate for young people when meeting with healthcare professionals, which can often feel daunting.
However, not all young people have a diagnosis. We understand the current challenges of healthcare systems and the pressures involved. Therefore, we encourage teams to continue providing the same level of support and empathy for any difficulties the young person may be experiencing. For example, if a young person has poor attention in class, we can work with the education system to better manage this by minimising distractions and ensuring that the material being taught is engaging for the young person.