This episode explores a nervous system responsive approach to teaching in the classroom, highlighting the importance of prioritizing connection and regulation to optimise children’s nervous systems for learning.

Key Take Aways

• Identifying behavioural signs children are outside of their window of tolerance.
• Effects of stress on the hippocampus and short-term memory.
• Connection and regulation as the foundation for learning.
• Building Connection with Students
  • One on One time - Developing empathy and understanding of each student’s unique experiences.
  • Welcoming emotional support tools like toys and sensory items.
  • Importance of micro-connections.
  • Empowering self advocacy in the classroom.
  • Check ins.
• Supporting Regulation
  • Working with Ots and using sensory profiles to inform sensory accommodations and supports in the classroom.
  • Examples of classroom accommodations to reduce sensory and cognitive demands.
  • Providing opportunities for cognitive overload recovery.
  • Play as a powerful tool for nervous system regulation.

This Week’s Recommendations

• Instagram Account: @a_different_spectrum
• Emotional Wellbeing and Learning Plan
• Self Advocacy Communication Book
• Quiet Corner inspo on Pinterest

In this episode we’re taking a closer look at our brain’s structures and functions, the impact our experiences have on our nervous system and the implications for learning and engagement in the classroom.

Key Take Aways

Dr. Dan Siegel’s Hand Model of the Brain

• Visualizing the brain’s structures using the hand
• Cortex, limbic system, and brainstem explained

Brain Integration and the Upstairs/Downstairs Analogy

• The brain as a two-story house: upstairs (cortex) and downstairs (limbic system and brainstem)
• Importance of brain integration for learning and engaging with others

Factors That Disrupt Brain Integration

• Cognitive overload and environmental stressors
• The "cliff-hanger" analogy: prefrontal cortex losing control

Flipping the Lid

• The stress response: Fight, flight, freeze, fawn

Window of Tolerance

• Introduction to the Window of Tolerance
• States of hyper-arousal and hypo-arousal
• Impact of stress on learning and engagement in the classroom

• Differences in window size and stress management
• Impact of trauma, chronic stress, and neurotypes on the window of tolerance

Self Care for Teachers

• As adults, the importance of prioritising our own nervous system.

Recommended Resources

• Dr Dan Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson’s book ‘The Whole Brain Child’
• Dr Dan Siegel’s Hand Model of the Brain video
• Perth Children’s Occupational Therapy Facebook page, Instagram account, and Downloadable Resource: Regulation Strategies for Teachers

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In this episode, we continue our deep dive into executive functioning, focusing on how executive functioning processes develop differently in neurodivergent students, including dyslexic, ADHD, and autistic kids. We explore the key executive functioning processes—working memory, impulse control, and cognitive flexibility—while sharing practical strategies to support students in the classroom.

Key Take Aways

• Recap of Executive Functioning
  • Definition of executive functioning system.
  • Key processes: impulse control, cognitive flexibility, and working memory.
  • Causes of executive functioning dysfunction.
• Executive Functioning in Dyslexic Students
  • How dyslexic brains process written language.
  • The role of working memory in reading and spelling.
  • Supporting working memory development.
  • Technology accommodations: speech-to-text and text-to-speech.
• Executive Functioning in ADHD Students
  • Differences in brain development for ADHD students.
  • Impulse control and its impact in the classroom.
  • Accommodations for differences in impulse control development.
  • Strategies for developing impulse control.
• Executive Functioning in Autistic Students
  • Cognitive flexibility and the attachment to a desired process and outcome
  • Accommodating cognitive flexibility differences in the classroom.
  • Strategies for developing cognitive flexibility.
• Whole-Class Executive Functioning Strategies
  • Teaching executive functioning explicitly.
  • Visualisation and planning.
  • Mindfulness.
  • Reflexive questioning.

Recommended Resources

• Alison Clarke’s SPELFABET site for literacy resources.
• A link to Kristy Forbes’ website for learning more about PDA.
• Tera Sumpter’s ‘Planting seeds with reflexive questioning’ digital resource.

See this podcast in pretty pictures by following Nat on instagram - @the_audhd_speechie

Learn more about what Nat does by checking out her website - www.gospeechpathology.com.au

Our executive functioning system is a set of cognitive processes that allow us to independently engage and interact in our world and, for our school aged kids, in the classroom.

Key Take Aways

• A quick discussion of Monotropism.
• Exploration of the Executive Functioning System as a set of cognitive processes.
• Introduction to three core processes: Working Memory, Flexibility, and Impulse Control.
• Six of the key executive functioning skills: Time Management, Task Initiation, Emotional Regulation, Organisation, Planning, and Self-Reflection.
• Impact of cognitive and sensory inputs on executive functioning performance.
• Examples of how different executive functioning challenges might manifest in students’ classroom behaviors.
• Prefrontal cortex development and its role in executive functioning.
• Neurodivergent students' unique executive functioning challenges.
• Emphasis on understanding, connection, and collaboration over traditional behaviour management strategies.

The week's Recommendations

• Dr Ross Green's Lives in the Balance Website
• Harvard's Centre for the Developing Child Executive Functioning Resources
• Tera Sumpter’s book The Seeds of Learning: A Cognitive Processing Model for Speech, Language, Literacy, and Executive Functioning.

See this podcast in pretty pictures by following Nat on instagram - @the_audhd_speechie

Learn more about what Nat does by checking out her website - www.gospeechpathology.com.au

Welcome to Episode 1! In this first episode, we dive into the Neurodiversity Affirming Model - what it is, why it matters, and how it differs from the traditional medical model.

Key Take Ways Covered:

• Introduction to the neurodiversity affirming model and how it fits within the education system.
• Comparison between the medical model and neurodiversity affirming model.
• Explanation of key concepts within the neurodiversity movement.
• Prevalence of neurodivergence in classrooms (just how many neurotypical students are in your class?)
• Practical resources and recommendations for teachers and clinicians.

This Week's Recommendations:

• Neurowild's 'Neurodiversity Cupcakes' Infographic
• 'The Brain Forest' by Sandhya Menon
• Bumper: A Whole Body Learner
• Minds Of All Kinds Are Learning Here - Classroom Door Display (Freebie!)

References

• https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2789926

• https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/children-youth/australias-children/contents/health/children-mental-illness

• Prevalence of Developmental Dyslexia in Primary School Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

• Developmental Language Disorder | NIDCD (nih.gov)

I’m Nat Willacy, Autistic ADHD speech pathologist, teacher and host of The Neurodiverse Classroom podcast. The neuro-affirming movement and better understanding neurodivergent brains is my SPIN (that’s autistic speak for special interest) so join me as I deep dive into a brain based approach to supporting and empowering all children in the primary classroom.

I’ll be unpacking the paradigm shift our world is making, away from the medical model of autism and ADHD to a neurodiversity affirming model, and how that applies to the education space. I’ll be exploring the executive functioning system of the brain and the role executive functioning skills play in learning at school for both neurotypical and neurodivergent students. And I’ll be drawing on the teachings of some of the great minds in this space to highlight the importance of prioritising the nervous system to support the wellbeing, development and learning of the students in your classroom.

It’s my hope that by tuning in to the Neurodiverse Classroom, school leaders, teachers, education assistants, allied health professionals and anyone working with children in schools will be empowered with knowledge, approaches, strategies and supports that just feel right, that just feel easier, and that are more affirming and more rewarding for everyone. Our classrooms are made up of all different kinds of brains and when we truly recognise and honour that, each and every student can blossom and grow in their own unique and beautiful way.

So join me on the Neurodiverse Classroom Podcast and click subscribe today!