Neurodiversity
What is neurodiversity?
Neurodiversity encompasses the range of ways human brains are wired. People with dyslexia, autism or ADHD have a brain that is wired differently, meaning the way that person learns and processes information will be different from most of their peers.
Around 1 in 7 people in the UK are neurodivergent. Understanding the unique, often spiky, profile of strengths and challenges neurodiversity brings is absolutely crucial for children’s self-esteem and success in education.
Importantly, it is now widely acknowledged that neurodiversity can bring amazing talents such as creativity, originality, high levels of intellect and problem solving. Many of the most influential people in the world identify as neurodivergent; unique talents combined with hard work and a growth mindset can be a recipe for enormous success!
How does this affect my child at school?
Being neurodivergent can be stressful and confusing for children, who may see themselves as ‘different’ or ‘not smart’ compared to their peers. It can be immensely frustrating for an intelligent child to struggle repeatedly with the same spellings or times tables or for a child with autism to understand the social nuances around them. There is a significant overlap between individuals with neurodiversity and those that suffer from anxiety, low self-esteem and other mental health issues.
Neurodiversity also affects executive function skills such as time management, concentration, planning, organisation and emotional regulation. Without intervention and mentoring, this can make it hard to keep up with the academic and social demands of school and children can fall behind.
How can we help?
Neurodiversity requires an individualised approach with learning being tailored to your child and their unique brain. At Orion Education, our lessons are carefully tailored to your child’s specific strengths and challenges. Our biggest goal is to build self-confidence and self-belief in learning as this is key to long-term success and well-being.
Our tutors act as mentors in helping your child develop a growth mindset and understand how they learn as well as identifying and praising their strengths and talents. Learning is broken down into manageable chunks and adapted carefully to their preferred learning style, filling in gaps and reinforcing key skills and concepts.
As neurodiversity also affects executive function skills such as time management, concentration, planning, organisation and emotional regulation helping with these areas and learning techniques to deal with these challenges can be enormously beneficial. By mentoring as well as teaching, our tutors help your child develop coping strategies that don’t just help them survive at school but start to thrive.
