The world of supports for our neurodivergent child can feel huge and overwhelming. Who does what? How can they help? How often should my child see them? How many supports are too many supports?

We want to do the best for our children, but is providing EVERY support the right answer? And can informal supports also have a place in helping your child?

We chat to David Trembath of CliniKids, the clinical service of The Kids Research Institute Australia, about how to put your child at the centre of these decisions so you can be neuroaffirming, supportive and help your child be the best they can be.

Triple P (Positive Parenting Program) recently launched Stepping Stone, a program specifically designed to help parents and carers who’s children have additional support needs. So what is Triple P and, most importantly, what is Stepping Stones? And how can it help?

Triple P was created in Australia to empower parents to raise an incredible next generation of children. It’s now available in over 30 countries across the world and has seen incredible success.

But when your parenting has to look a little different, can Triple P help? We learn a whole suite of skills that are specific to our neurodivergent child, so a program developed for parenting neurotypical children is not likely to provide the correct fit. And that’s why they’ve just launched Stepping Stones.

We chat to its creator Professor Mat Sanders about how and why they created Stepping Stones, how it’s different and how it can help.

Neurodivergence can also come with high occurrences of other conditions and complexities, these are referred to as comorbidities.

Today we discuss the most commonly occurring conditions - what they are, how they appear and how to spot them. Covering both mental and physical health conditions, this can seem daunting and overwhelming but, as they say, forewarned is forearmed, and, in Leah's own words, understanding these conditions helps us change the statistics and management for our children and those in the future.

Leah talks to us not only from her experience running Heale Collab, but also from her own lived experience and shares some incredible knowledge that we can bring into our observation of our own children.

We all know the old adage of You Are What You Eat, but how true is this for our neurodivergent children?

Having a regular healthy diet when you are neurodivergent can provide a whole range of challenges. Sensory preferences, digestive discomfort, anxiety about food and other issues can make getting proper nutrition really tough.

But what are the benefits of finding ways to inject certain nutrients into your child’s diet?

Can nutrition have an impact on our child’s brain health and ability to manage their energy and regulation? And, on the flip side, what happens when a child’s diet is overlooked?

We talk to dietician Eleni Georgiou about where to place your energy when trying to get your child to eat well, where you will get your most bang for buck and what to just let slide.

We get right into the guts of all things food.

Any parent will navigate challenging behaviours from their children almost every day? But what happens when those behaviours are more frequent, extreme or developmentally inappropriate? How do we build fulfilling relationships with our children when their social and emotional language can be so different to ours?

We chat to Chelle Taylor of Blossomtree Psychology about the grit and muck of parenting, about the days when when it all feels too hard and about how to change the lens on making connections with your neurodivergent child.

This is the first episode in our Taboo Topic themed episodes and we look forward to bringing you more real and unfiltered conversations about the tough stuff.

So what are Learning Disorders? Let’s talk Dyslexia, Dysgraphia and Dyscalculia.

How do we define them? How can parents and teachers identify them? What myths do we need to bust about them? We explore the every day challenges that these disorders can create, methods for identifying and supporting, and how we show our children that there are so many ways to be smart!

Join us for this in depth discussion with Natalie Trigg, the Director of Thrive Specialist Resource & Community Centre and President of its governing charity, Thrive Teach Nurture Grow Inc.

We also want to send a HUGE congratulations to Natalie and the team for their recent recognition. Thrive TNG has just been awarded Australian Dyslexia Association certificate is in recognition of Educational Centres in Australia providing exceptional services for dyslexia and related challenges. This award is very rarely handed out so is an incredible honour showing just how much work Thrive TNG does to support young people with dyslexia.

We cover a lot of loaded definitions on this podcast, and Giftedness is pretty high up there in terms of being incorrectly represented and misunderstood. So let’s get real and talk about what Giftedness actually is, the various types of Giftedness, and how to support your child through it’s challenges.

We also delve into the term 2E, what it means and how it appears. We discuss the challenges of people seeing the behaviour rather than the child and how to support them.

Dr Susan Nikakis, Vice President of the Victorian Association for Gifted and Talented Children (VAGTC) and author of numerous books on educating gifted children, brings her passion and knowledge to this conversation.

This is the final episode of Season 2.

Use the power of language to give you strength to get through those tough times.