A Bolton business introduced training sessions for its workforce to recognise and celebrate the different ways people think and operate to make it a welcoming workplace for all. Neurodiversity Celebration Week is underway and is aimed at raising awareness around neurodivergence within the workplace. To mark the week, Thornton and Lowe the Bolton town centre based tender writing and bid management company introduced training and new policies for its workforce, around 25 per cent of which are neurodiverse. The post Bolton business recognises and celebrates the different ways workers think and w ..read more

Breaking Ground’s latest episode discusses the experience of being neurodiverse in the construction industry, and how a neurodiverse team can make your organisation more effective. In this episode of the Breaking Ground podcast, host Steve Hadley chats to Balfour Beatty finance analyst Rebecca Penn, Knight Piésold senior engineer Martin Griffin and Plowman Craven head of client engagement Gary Evans. Neurodiversity is a complicated concept and can be often hard to define. But as Griffin explains: “To me neurodiversity is the way we think, process, move and act. It’s like comparing an automati ..read more

All consumers are getting hit hard by inflation, especially in the height of the high-spend holiday season. But, according to Dr. Andrew Kahn, Psy.D, for the 70 million Americans with Learning and Thinking Differences (LTDs), some of the challenges they may face with impulsivity and information processing can make this holiday season even trickier to manage. Kahn is a licensed psychologist specializing in working with individuals who think and learn differently. He is the Associate Director, Behavior Change & Expertise at Understood.org, a nonprofit focused on supporting the millions of A ..read more

If you are concerned because a child doesn’t seem to be learning as well as you would expect, it’s a good idea to talk to the health visitor, nursery or schoolteacher. They will be able to talk to you about how the child seems to learn in different environments, and whether they share your concerns. If they agree that the child is learning at a slower pace or in a different way than others, they will know how to access extra support and advice. Cognition and learning difficulties encompass a wide range of needs, including moderate learning difficulties (MLD) and severe learning difficulties ..read more

Matt Hancock controversially joined ITV’s I’m a Celebrity, arguing that he wasn’t doing it for the money, but to promote dyslexia awareness. Manchester’s Be Broadcast has collated the data to see whether the serving MP and former Health Secretary actually made any difference during his time in Australia. According to agency, peak discussion of dyslexia during his appearance came not from the show, but a BBC Sounds podcast on Dyscalculia and described as “a cousin to Dyslexia.” However, it had nothing to do with Hancock. Read more at: https://www.prolificnorth.co.uk/news/manchester-news/2022/1 ..read more

Dyscalculia is thought to affect 6% of the population but many people have never heard of it. The learning disability affects a person’s ability to understand numbers and is considered to be part of the same family as dyslexia. Read more at: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/disability-63513393 The post BBC Reporter Rose has dyscalculia, which means she has trouble making sense of numbers — BBC News appeared first on Ability Today ..read more

Students with a diagnosis of dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, ADHD and Autism are frequently afforded additional time at school or college to complete exams. This is because exams, designed to measure long term memory and the ability to draw rationale conclusions and arguments, are taken in circumstances that rely heavily on handwritten literacy, sitting still, and performing to order. The extent of knowledge examined is a good predictor of future performance, but the exam conditions themselves are not. This is why they deserve extra time for people with hidden disabilities, and indeed all d ..read more

Neurodiversity is a term that covers a number of lifelong conditions that around one in seven of the population are living and working with, according to Johnny Timpson OBE, financial inclusion commissioner and co-founder of the Group for Autism, Insurance, Investment and Neurodiversity. Being lifelong conditions, all are defined as disabilities. It is a concept that while we all vary in terms of our neurocognitive ability (memory, ability to concentrate, time management, organisation skills, reasoning, communication) and have strengths and weaknesses, for some of us the variation is more pro ..read more

Neurodiversity is a deeply personal experience. Going through life with a neurocognitive difference – such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia or dyspraxia – affects your entire way of being in the world. Even within individual conditions such as ADHD, the presentation of symptoms is extremely variable. Many of these conditions also co-occur, meaning that an autistic person is also likely to have ADHD, and someone with ADHD is likely to be dyslexic. Combined, these conditions can have an entirely different presentation than one or the other experienced alone. Aside from the widely-known ti ..read more

Everyone is different. There is no single “right” way when it comes to how we think, learn and behave. Neurodiversity is a concept that describes these differences, their strengths and their challenges. It is also a social movement working to reduce stigmas around the conditions associated with them. So what does it mean to be neurodivergent? What is neurodivergence? Neurodivergence is a term originally attributed to the 1990s sociologist Judy Singer. It is a non-medical umbrella description of people with variation in their mental functions. Neurodiverse conditions include autism, dyspraxia ..read more