How to Support Neurodivergent Students
As we come to understand more about the complexities of the brain, scientists, psychologists, and doctors are approaching neurological functioning with a greater appreciation for natural nuances and variations between individuals. We know now that differences in neurological functioning don’t always fit neatly into easily set categories — and that’s okay! In fact, understanding brain function on a fluid spectrum rather than as a rigidly defined set of conditions allows doctors, therapists, and educators to meet children’s needs more effectively.
What Does it Mean to Be Neurodivergent?
The Cleveland Clinic defines “neurodivergent” as:
“A nonmedical term that describes people whose brains develop or work differently for some reason. This means the person has different strengths and struggles from people whose brains develop or work more typically. While some people who are neurodivergent have medical conditions, it also happens to people where a medical condition or diagnosis hasn’t been identified.” (1)
Neurodivergence is both a concept and a movement. As a concept, neurodivergence is simply the idea that brain function exists on a spectrum, no two brains are exactly alike, and brain function varies naturally across individuals. As a movement, neurodivergence helps us understand that the variations in brain function we see in people with conditions like ADHD, OCD, autism, and dyslexia aren’t inherently a deficit or abnormality. There’s an ongoing discussion within the neurodivergent community about how to balance celebrating and normalizing neurodiversity with acknowledging the suffering that neurodiverse people experience.
You likely have a few neurodivergent students in your classroom, some diagnosed with a specific condition and some undiagnosed. Of course, each of these students will require a unique set of supports according to their very unique brains! However, there are some basic tenants you can follow in order to better support the neurodivergent students in your class.
Use Explicit Instruction
Like many of the strategies in this list, explicit instruction can benefit both neurodivergent and neurotypical students. However, it tends to be particularly helpful for neurodivergent students, who may not make the inferences necessary to fill the gaps about what their teacher expects from them when given vague instructions. For all students, explicit instruction can reduce cognitive load and allow them to focus on learning rather than the logistics of completing a task.
When developing your explicit instructions for lessons, reflect on your own assumptions about what is explicit or implied. Think carefully about any gaps you left in your direction and observe your students in action to see where they didn’t pick up on directions you assumed wouldn’t need to be explicit.
However, it’s also important to consider where neurodivergent students may take your direction literally when you intended it to be general. For example, educator Nicholas Provenzano describes why he chooses words carefully in his blog on neurodivergence for Edutopia:
“A common phrase, ‘This should only take ___ minutes to complete,’ can cause serious anxiety for a student if it takes them longer than the set time. Instead of giving a time frame, let the students work, and go around and check on those students who might struggle. Describing tasks as easy is another thing to avoid. If a student struggles, they will feel bad about themselves because it was supposed to be easy.” (2)
Trust Your Students and Expect Them to Succeed
Work to create a culture of self-advocacy, where it’s expected and normal for students to be vocal about their needs for learning. Trust is also important — your classroom should be a place where all students feel respected as individuals and trusted as capable, competent owners of their learning journeys. If that all sounds a bit lofty, take it one step at a time and remember that a culture of self-advocacy and trust is never a replacement for structure. You and your students deserve to learn in an environment where boundaries are enforced. It’s just about normalizing the idea that every learner is capable of success and can be an advocate for their needs.
Maintaining high expectations for every learner is a good place to start in building a culture of trust. Communicate to all students, including neurodivergent learners, that you have no doubt of their high capacity for growth and success. In fact, maintaining high expectations for all learners is a key pillar of equitable education. It helps combat unconscious biases and even contributes to the dismantling of inequitable systems.
Provide Options for Communication and Participation
Many neurodiverse students have communication differences. Neurodivergent people are sometimes interpreted as abrupt or direct by neurotypical people. They may not relate to the jokes their classmates tell or they might prefer to talk in detail about a single topic that interests them rather than engage in small talk. These are just examples — communication differences vary from student to student.
Advocates for neurodiverse students encourage educators to accommodate communication differences rather than asking neurodiverse learners to change the way they communicate. A neurodiverse writer for Harvard Business Review puts it this way:
“The research-backed view, emerging in recent years, is that NTs and NDs are merely speaking different, but equally valid, social languages.” (3)
As an educator, you’ve likely had an experience where you’ve noticed that one of your students relates differently to their peers, and as a result, seems to feel excluded. Do your best to foster a culture of respect and kindness where missed social cues aren’t the start of bullying or exclusion. (Of course, there’s only so much that you can do to monitor social interactions between students — but even the smallest displays of kindness toward a student who feels excluded can be transformative for their confidence!)
When possible, create opportunities for neurodiverse students who have a special interest to practice skills or demonstrate their learning involving their favorite topic. It’s also important to model active listening. When communicating with neurodiverse students, repeat back what you understood and be mindful of your body language. Make eye contact only if the student is comfortable doing so.
Special education consultant Dr. William Lane suggests simply asking neurodivergent students what they need:
“You must talk with your neurodivergent students first. Provide an opportunity for them to share their experiences in a comfortable and considerate environment. Listen to their perspective, understand their struggles, and ask, “How can I help?”
Not only does this approach better amplify autistic voices and experiences, it leads to more effective accommodations and programs.” (4)
Try Multimodal Instruction
While the concept of learning styles is a myth, it’s true that neurodivergent (and neurotypical) students can benefit from learning in multiple modalities. Literacy expert Dr. Jan Hasbrouck explains multimodal instruction this way:
“Multimodal instruction involves having the learner engage simultaneously or in close sequence with the material using two or more of their sensory “modalities”. For example, a student using manipulatives during phonics instruction may be engaging their visual, auditory, and tactile modalities. The term multimodality is currently being used to replace the older term “multisensory” because multisensory instruction sometimes promoted instructional practices (such as having students trace sandpaper letters, or form letters or shapes in rice trays in shaving cream) have not been confirmed as helpful in more current research.” (5)
While researchers are still working to understand precisely why multimodal instruction is effective, we know it has to do with the way brains process information — multimodal instruction seems to help students focus attention on information and commit it to memory.
According to Digital Promise:
“Instruction in multiple formats allows students to activate different cognitive skills to understand and remember the steps they are to take in their literacy work. Instruction can be given using text, visuals, gestures, or audio to facilitate retention in Short- and Long-term Memory.” (6)
Multimodal instruction helps dyslexic students strengthen pathways in the brain that involve processing necessary to read. For students with ASD that have difficulties with auditory processing or sensory integration, multimodal instruction can help them focus their attention. Be sure to work closely with parents and guardians of students with specific, severe sensory challenges to ensure any multimodal environments or activities you introduce are aligned with the student’s needs.
Explore Universal Design for Learning
If you haven’t already, consider how Universal Design for Learning (UDL) could be a fit for your classroom. Created by the educational nonprofit CAST, UDL is “a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn” (7). Developed based on research in the learning sciences, UDL asserts that people function differently and have different needs across three core areas: engagement, which addresses the “why” of learning, representation, which addresses the “what” of learning, and action and expression, which addresses the “how” of learning. There’s so much more to learn about UDL that we can’t even begin to cover here. For more detail, see:
Based on this high-level understanding of UDL, it’s clear how it can be beneficial for neurodivergent students — it embraces cognitive differences among individuals and presents a framework for educators to reach all learners despite those differences.
Support the Whole Learner with Learner Variability
Learner Variability looks beyond variation in cognitive functioning to also consider variations in students’ content area abilities, social and emotional needs, lived experiences, and backgrounds. It maintains that a student’s learning cannot be separated from the context or situation in which it occurs. Barbara Pape of Digital Promise, the organization that created the Learner Variability Project, writes:
“It is a recognition that all students differ, and learning sciences research shows that these differences matter for learning. In some cases, the term is tightly defined to mean any student struggling with a learning difference that rubs up against the expectations of the sameness of school. But, learner variability, as defined here, embraces both students who struggle and those who thrive. Why? Because of the natural variability found in each person, in school and beyond.” (8)
To apply the principles of Learner Variability in your classroom for the benefit of both neurodivergent and neurotypical students, check out Digital Promise’s Learner Variability Navigator, a tool that helps educators find research-based resources to support the whole learner:
For more on cognitive science, brain-based teaching strategies, and reaching all learners, see:
References
(1) Neurodivergent: What it is, symptoms & types. Cleveland Clinic. (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2023, from https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/symptoms/23154-neurodivergent
(2) Provenzano, N. (2022, September 27). 6 strategies to help neurodiverse students fully engage in class. Edutopia. Retrieved March 24, 2023, from https://www.edutopia.org/article/6-strategies-help-neurodiverse-students-fully-engage-class/
(3) Goulet, J. D. (2022, October 5). Stop asking neurodivergent people to change the way they communicate. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved March 24, 2023, from https://hbr.org/2022/10/stop-asking-neurodivergent-people-to-change-the-way-they-communicate
(4) Lane, W. (2020, March 10). Three simple ways to help your neurodivergent students succeed. Medium. Retrieved March 24, 2023, from https://drwilliamlane.medium.com/three-simple-ways-to-help-your-neurodivergent-students-succeed-215814652f1
(5) Hasbrouck, J. (2021, August 23). Understanding multimodal instruction in prek-5 literacy. Medium. Retrieved March 24, 2023, from https://medium.com/inspired-ideas-prek-12/understanding-multimodal-instruction-in-prek-5-literacy-5d6973c9fb7c?source=friends_link&sk=fd3735595e7e9f1bdeea3e77d5eee09e
(6) Digital Promise. (n.d.). Multimodal instruction. Learner Variability Project. Retrieved March 24, 2023, from https://lvp.digitalpromiseglobal.org/content-area/literacy-4-6/strategies/multimodal-instruction-literacy-4-6/summary
(7) CAST. (2022, February 8). About universal design for learning. CAST. Retrieved March 24, 2023, from https://www.cast.org/impact/universal-design-for-learning-udl
(8) Pape, B. (n.d.). Learner variability is the rule, not the exception. lvp.digitalpromiseglobal.org. Retrieved March 24, 2023, from https://dpdev.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Learner-Variability-Is-The-Rule.pdf
