poems of the neurodivergent experience

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One of the poems in the collection is called ‘Alice in Reception class’ (p34). The (probably neurotypical) teacher approaches Alice and asks her what she’s painting. When Alice replies ‘Splodges’, she seems disappointed. When the next teacher comes along and asks the same question, Alice says ‘Fireworks?’, and this time the teacher is delighted. As a result, ‘Alice notes: ‘The answer they want/isn’t what is – it’s what isn’t’ (2017, p34). I love this uncovering of the difference between how the neurotypical adult sees the world (and art), and the autistic child’s perception. Joanne Limburg expresses similar thoughts in her interview in 2017 ( here ):

However, it would be unfair and perhaps enraging to suggest this is an easy utopia to create. It’s easy to worry that permitting – or rather, encouraging – children to self-advocate and offering support on a universal-design basis without clinical diagnosis would make your classroom into a free-for-all. Crucially though, we just don’t know much about what a classroom that really delivered on the principles of the neurodiversity paradigm would look like. How much of the difficult behaviour teachers struggle with in class right now is motivated by children trying to hide their difficulties, or push adults away because they don’t feel they can be trusted? I love the detail in this, and the anthropomorphism of everything. Even the air is ‘as puffed out as the robin’s chest’, suggesting the pride and excitement of spring. Jonny Cotsen. Image credit: Jorge Lizald I’m thrilled that, as part of Culture In Quarantine, these pieces will be brought to life across BBC platforms. It’s imperative that D/deaf, neurodivergent and disabled professional artists are supported to carry on making brilliant work, as the constraints and continuing effects of this pandemic threaten to silence their vital creative voice.” — Lamia Dabboussy, BBC Head of Arts Johnson, M. and Rutherford, L. (2019). An Autism Evidence Based Practice Toolkit for use with the SCERTS™ Assessment and Planning Framework . This post comes from a position of curiosity, interest, and respect, together with affinity and allyship, and I hope this comes through. All views are my own unless attributed to someone else. Affinity with nature and animals: Dara McAnulty

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GTCS (2020). Understanding neurodiversity in the context of equality and inclusive practice. A professional guide for teachers. I think you would like the chestnut tree I met in my walk. It hit my notice suddenly, and I thought the skies were in blossom. Then there’s a noiseless noise in the orchard that I let persons hear’ (2011, p172). Walker, N. (2021). Neuroqueer Heresies: Notes on the neurodiversity paradigm, Autistic empowerment, and postnormal possibilities. Autonomous Press

I started to judge myself for these responses and wished that I was different or more ‘normal’. But through writing poetry, I’ve learned to – at times – love how finely tuned and sensitive my senses are. About: Kate is a stand up poet from the North, who has been poet in residence for Radio 4’s Saturday Live, the Glastonbury Festival and the Great North Run. Her latest collection ‘The Oscillations’ is out now from Nine Arches Press. Silent World is a musical short film using rap, spoken word and BSL sign-slang featuring ‘Signkid’ as a central character and musical narrator. The film will creatively explore the ‘SILENT WORLD’ that has intensified and deepened for people in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead, the focus on strengths is more healthy – and more aligned with the natural variability that is central to neurodiversity – when considered at a group level. Neurodiversity brings collective strength to the table, drawn from variability in experience, helping to drive innovation and empathy – two cardinal features of the evolution of humanity. In the classroom, a focus on collective strengths is apparent when the class celebrate their ability to get along together and their willingness to accommodate each other. As a teacher, one might celebrate the variety of ways in which pupils have approached a creative writing task – ‘look at all these amazing poems – everyone has approached the assignment in their own way!’ – rather than selecting the ‘best’ examples based on a set of metrics which not all will meet. Only after working with neurodivergent learners for several years did I fully realize the special reciprocity between poetry and autism. I had been conditioned to expect a connection between autism and STEM subjects, but being a poet I was eager to experiment. Five years ago I co-founded Unrestricted Interest, an organization dedicated to helping neurodivergent learners transform their lives through writing. The results have been staggering. Not only do autistic writers have a unique penchant for poetic language, but many of them, especially the minimally speaking and nonspeaking among them, possess their own intrinsic idiolects and choose poetry as their central means of expression.I was only diagnosed ADHD this year at the age of 58, so I’ve never had a ‘radar’ in respect of recognising other neurodiverse writers. For you, what is the relationship between being autistic (or neurodivergent) and your creative practice? Successful, inclusive education needs to cater to the naturally occurring variability that is an inevitable part of humanity. An expectation of varying needs and resources to accommodate those should be baked in to our school systems, rather than overlaid as optional extras. A simple example of this is for every classroom to have a cupboard of accessories freely available to help cater to varying needs: wobble cushions for hyperkinetic children to sit on and wiggle; noise-cancelling headphones for sound-sensitivity; stim toys to help induce focus; egg-timers to help structure independent learning time. Universal design can also help to create a neurodiversity informed environment. Classrooms should be fitted with dimmer switches as standard, and visual timetables should be posted up for the whole class, rather than being doled out to individuals with identified needs. Flexible seating arrangements – the option to stand or sit on a beanbag or yoga ball – are another example of the application of universal design.

When the arthritis in my hands got worse a few years ago, I stopped being able to write by hand. When it suddenly got a lot worse last year, I worried about even being able to type. People helpfully told me about voice recognition software. “But the point of writing is so I don’t have to talk,” I told them. Elle McNicoll (2021) Show Us Who You Are. Knights Of. Her first book, A Kind of Spark (also from Knights Of) is going to be made into a BBC series. The Cat, The Mouse And The Sausage, an animation of a Grimm’s Brothers fairy tale by award-winning filmmaker Joel Simon. Surveys have found that the majority of autistic people now prefer the identity-first term ‘(is) autistic’, while the general public, and family and friends tend to prefer the person-first term ‘with/has autism’ (Rhiannon, 2020, p23), Rhiannon prefers ‘(is) autistic’, and explains that because autistic people are ‘born wired differently’, ‘there is no separation of the person and the autism’ (2020, p25). So I will use the term ‘autistic writers’ and even ‘autistic writing’ to reflect this identity throughout the post. Strengths and differences in neurodivergence Twelve D/deaf, neurodivergent and disabled professional artists based in England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland have been commissioned to produce new film and audio works for BBC platforms this summer.The Face It comedy drama monologues reveal how two women feel about their faces in the modern swipe-right world, and the unexpected impact of wearing Covid-19 face masks. Meet straight-talking Leonie who has an acquired facial difference and ambitious Abbey, who’s no longer prepared to be overlooked. However, I do read and tend to write, quirky, unsympathetic characters who struggle to fit in. Capable, privileged, single-minded characters, especially those with support groups they can rely on, I can’t identify with. People often assume that poetry is always autobiographical or confessional but there’s fiction in poetry too. In my notebooks, my imagination can run wild in support of a neurodivergent world. Efforts to correct atypical development onto a more neurotypical pathway, or to encourage children to blend in, cannot be considered neurodiversity-informed. For example, many schools require a child to sign a 'behaviour contract' after a period of exclusion as a pre-condition for returning to school. This is an unacceptable approach for a neurodivergent child who isn't 'behaving' but is simply 'being'. Another common example of this in practice involves the teaching of “social skills” based on neurotypical norms to autistic children. Most egregiously, this is sometimes recommended as a solution when an autistic child is being bullied at school – a devastating neglect of duty of care to the autistic child, when the focus should clearly be on changing the behaviour of the bully. In moving away from a normative model of education support, it is important to permit variability in outcome as well as process. Children are not just following their own paths, they are headed to different destinations too. A child who is struggling with handwriting may not need more time to get it right – give them the option to get really good at typing instead.