-: People that are neuro divergent are limited
versus just being different, a natural form of variation.
And so disabled people then said,
well, hey, we need to move to a social model.
And this social model says that,
you know, it's not, it's not me.
It's not the disabled person,
the autistic person, the ADHD person,
or the person in a wheelchair, it's society.
So when we have curb cuts,
we've all heard that or elevators or things like that,
people that are in a wheelchair can access places
where otherwise they would be left out and excluded.
So for neuro divergent people,
it's not their,
it's not their brain that disables them
as much as society, right?
So maybe the decibels everywhere you go,
which actually there's been studies that show
that in restaurants they've come to harmful levels
for everyone's hearing leaves those people out,
or maybe how we communicate leaves out autistic people.
So the right space model is gonna say,
hey, well, let's focus on people's rights.
So for gay, for LGBTQIA people,
how do we focus on their rights
and make sure that they have the same rights
as everyone else.
And then the affirmative model says,
let's just take a non tragic view to all of this
and focus on what people can do
and focus on their strengths.
So we'll move right into some of these.
So ADHD usually is either inattentive, hyperactive,
impulsive, or combined kind of thing.
So inter inattentive, you aren't focusing.
You're, you know,
you're not able to focus, hyperactive, impulsive.
You're not focusing, but you're more hyperactive.
Okay.
But the problem with all of these
is that you have an attention regulation issue, right?
So they're not actually able to regulate their attention.
They want to, they want to start on their project
or students do.
They want to read their homework,
but they just can't quite make themselves do it,
but they can regulate themselves in some other ways.
So maybe they fidget,
because if you do two things at once,
like if I'm on Zoom and I play solitaire,
I can actually pay attention better
then if I'm just on Zoom,
because I can focus on something slightly mindless,
which will help me focus on something else, okay.
So that helps.
And exercise, if you can exercise a lot,
especially if you have that hyperactive ADHD,
that helps a lot.
Okay, so some people think ADHD is, oh, a squirrel.
And I have to admit it is sometimes for me
or this glazed over sort of lazy thing,
but they're not lazy.
They're trying, the struggle is real.
They get a lot of stigma,
a lot of relationship issues,
because people think they're just not trying.
Hey, why didn't you take the trash out?
You never take the trash out
in relationship or whatever it is.
Or in school you're not doing well.
You're not trying, right.
So why aren't you doing well?
And so there's a lot of shame and a lot of frustration then
that they're frustrated with others
and frustrated with themselves.
And so they're really struggling,
but what it actually is not, it's not lazy, right?
It's a neurochemical and a structural issue in the brain.
And without getting into all the brain stuff,
I'll just say that dopamine is really low.
And so you need to get those dopamine hits.
And so you can get the hit from stimulant medication, right?
So it might sound weird if you're hyperactive
to get a stimulant medication, but it helps regulate.
It brings up the dopamine.
So it regulates you,
or you can get that hit by exercising or fidgeting, right.
So there's other ways to, to regulate attention,
but they tend to be really time blind.
So maybe a student for example is like,
oh, I got an hour to go, I got an hour before class.
So I got plenty of time.
I can work on a little bit of homework.
And then all of a sudden they're like, oh, dang,
it's three minutes till, I'm gonna be late for class.
Or they just don't know how long it will take them
to read or do a project.
And you might think, well, you're 20 years old.
Why don't you have this figured out yet?
Well, because the structure of their brain
and the chemicals just aren't there.
They can't help it, okay.
And another place where they struggle
is executive functioning and actually all
neurodiverse people struggle on some of these.
So maybe working memory,
especially for dyslexic,
you can hold something in your working memory for like,
you know, five to 10 seconds.
And so if you're hearing a lecture
and you're trying to take notes
and write and hear,
and you struggle with hearing
and converting language and writing,
oh my gosh, that's a huge problem.
Or maybe, you know, we, some of us,
we have everyone struggles with some of these things.
You can't find your keys or your phone or whatever it is.
But also if you're ADHD,
you might have some more emotional sort of things.
Besides the frustration
you would have rejection sensitivity.
So getting that feedback in class
can be really hard on you.
And so we'll talk about ways to do feedback as well.
But yeah, task initiation,
like I already said is also a big thing,
but ADHD people have really, really awesome strengths.
So they're creative, they're engaging and charismatic.
They're adventurous.
They have lots of interests.
Think like JFK, Robin Williams, Richard Branson,
Jim Carey, Bill Gates,
Simone Biles just talked about her ADHD.
And so did Michael Phelps, right?
So they can do really great things
if they're supported.
And we focus on their strengths.
Dyslexic people, we think that their issues
are all about reading and writing
with wavy things and transposed letters.
But also they hear language, you know,
they can kind of transpose how they hear it as well.
So there's those things.
There's the working memory
that I mentioned and there's left right disorder,
which I have, but I'm not dyslexic.
So like, you don't know you're left from your right,
no matter how hard you try, no matter how old you are,
it just doesn't come automatic.
You have to stop and think about
which way is left and right.
Not that big of a deal,
but these other things can make it really hard
for these students, like I said, to take notes in class,
it's just a big struggle.
It takes way, way, way more effort for them
than it does for another student.
But we'll talk about how to help them.
Meanwhile, they also have really cool strengths.
They can visualize things in 3D thought
and problem solve and lateral thinking,
and they have really great
imaginative storytelling capabilities.
And then there's autism spectrum disorder,
which some people have said that it's rising so high
the diagnosis rates that it's an epidemic.
Well, it's not in the water.
It's not pollution.
It's also not vaccines.
It's this genetic thing that occurs in utero
as you develop and you're born with it
and you have it all your life,
but the diagnosis rates have been really low
and we're getting really, really better
at understanding what it is
and how to diagnose people, especially women,
and then hopefully especially black people.
So we used to think that, you know,
there was four men that were autistic to every one woman.
And now recent research, like just,
just recently said that it's possibly just three men
to four women that women
may actually autistic women
may actually outnumber autistic men,
but it's not your stereotypical "Rainman" savant,
Sheldon Cooper kind of view of autism.
That's not really what it is.
It's a genetic neurodevelopmental difference.
Just like these others, it's structural issues in the brain,
especially the wiring that leads to a processing difference.
So you process information differently
and therefore you give information differently.
And it's a neurobiological thing.
Like your skin is even different,
because there's lots of nerves in the skin, right?
So it's a nervous system thing and a structure thing.
So you process information different
and a big thing is sensory.
So they can be sensory issues are very different.
So things can be super loud and painful
or too bright and painful.
And you may seek sensory or avoid sensory.
Or you may be a bit of both,
or you may be one one day and one the other.
So you're not always the same.
And so it just, it just depends.
And then in terms of communication,
that's a real issue,
because communication again,
is information coming in and information going out.
But the thing is, is that neurotypical people,
when you speak, you have all nuances,
saying, idioms, things like that that are spoken
as well as all these nonverbal nuances
and implied things that are not spoken.
And as an autistic with sensory issues,
you can only pay attention to so many things at once.
No matter how old you are,
no matter how long you've practiced,
your brain just does not do it.
So you can only hear the words
and maybe see a few things.
And maybe you can replay some video later
of the conversation,
but you're still not really gonna catch
any of those things that weren't said
or those implied things because your brain has never
been able to catch that.
You can't do it.
And then same with when autistic people speak.
We speak with just our words.
Yes, we can have inflection and we can gesture.
I'm Italian, I can gesture.
So we can gesture and speak
and we can see that as well,
but we're not gonna apply anything
that's not there or have some agenda of the future.
Because we can't think that far in advance.
We can just manage to get out what we're getting out
with the words that we're saying.
So there's a lot of miscommunication that happens.
And our students really need us to understand that.
We need to understand that they don't mean anything.
They're not being rude.
They may be blunt and honest,
but they're not trying to be rude at all.
They're probably horrified if they are
and they would like you to help them.
So for example, in a study, a student said,
I get so passionate and wound up about some things
that I can go from, you know, one to 11
and people have to tell me, hey, hey, you hit 11.
You need to go back to four.
And maybe that's a horrifying thing
for a neurotypical to hear,
but for an autistic we're like, yay, great.
You told me what to do.
Awesome.
I got it, right.
Because they're not gonna get it on their own.
So they need our help
and they can also have because of these sensory issues,
restrictive and repetitive interests and behaviors.
So we, you can get a narrow focus
like people with ADHD as well.
You can hyper focus on something
or not focus at all.
And so, and you can have these,
you know, you can rock, you can be a leg jiggler.
I was a huge leg jiggler growing up or other stems.
And what that, what they're doing
is regulating their sensory,
regulating themselves.
So if someone is stemming,
they probably have to do it
to regulate overwhelmed,
to keep them from being overwhelmed.
So they don't have to get up and leave.
Yes, you can tell them that the way
that they're stemming distracts other people,
and they'll try to find something
that doesn't impact other people
like pressing fingers or pressing legs together,
but it's something they need to do.
It's not a fidgeting, not to pay attention.
It's a fidgeting to stay there
and to pay attention.
Okay, so autism spectrum is a spectrum
and people think of it as linear
with low functioning to high functioning.
We don't like those terms,
low functioning to high functioning,
because somebody could be nonverbal,
but be very high functioning everywhere else.
Or somebody could appear to a neurotypical person
to be high functioning,
but really, really struggle in many other areas.
So it's a spectrum of how things impact you
and you can be in and out of this spectrum
like this ASPI rads test, right?
You can be kind of in and out of neurotypical
or neurodiverse aspects.
So again, they have their strengths.
They care a lot about social justice issues,
not so much tied to norms,
unless they're really, really trying to mask
to avoid stigma and avoid bullying.
They tend to not be judgemental.
Very honest, amazing long term memories.
Many can find patterns very easily.
Some have really cool,
wish I had these things, synesthesia like you,
like you feel or taste a color
or you have senses that meld together.
So they can have other things.
And so they have, neurodiverse people have lots of strengths
and lots of challenges,
but it's good to focus on the strengths,
because they can do amazing things,
amazing things for society,
amazing things themselves,
just like everyone.
They should reach their full potential.
And so there's neuro divergent scientists
and inventors and Nobel prize winners
in medicine and everything.
So there's entertainers, there's Justin Timberlake.
There's I don't know.
There's all kinds of people, right?
Artists, musicians, everybody.
So they can do great things.
But the communication a lot of times
feels like another language.
Like they're trying really hard.
And so are you,
but you misunderstand them
of the autistic person or the neurodiverse person.
And they misunderstand you.
Like I talked about.
So they need bridge communicators people.
And if they wanna bring one to talk to you,
please be accepting.
They're doing that so they don't get overwhelmed,
so they don't shut down.
So they make sure they understand what you're saying
and they make sure what they say to you, you understand.
So please allow them to have a bridge communicator.
And if you get good at understanding,
please volunteer to be one.
We need more advocates and allies.
Just like with LGBTQIA people.
When we had the little ally stickers everywhere,
we still do, neurodiverse people need you.
They need you to be an ally.
Our students need that.
So there's similarities and differences
among all of these.
When, whether they have issues with executive functioning,
attention regulations, sensory issues, processing speed,
memory, language, emotions, like rejection, sensitivity,
and all of these things.
So how does it present in our classroom?
So they can be unorganized
or they can be an inattentive
and sort of have resting Bitch face
and seem not interested at all.
Or they can be the student who's like
answering every question,
talking to you before and after class,
asking constant questions, just so excited.
But at the same time, they could be really stressed out.
So they can be a mix of all of these things.
But what they need from us, is they need acceptance.
They need acceptance, not denial,
not please don't say things like,
well, everyone's a little bit autistic or a little bit ADHD.
I don't know why we do that with autism.
We don't say everyone's a little bit diabetic
or a little bit vision challenge.
Don't normalize it.
Don't say things like you don't,
you know, or dismiss, like you don't look autistic
or you seem fine or you can't be,
because you're intelligent and you're speaking to me
or whatever thing,
or you're not just like my nephew that I know that is,
because every autistic person is different
and they all have different challenges on the spectrum.
And every ADHD person is different.
Every there's like seven kinds of dyslexia.
So it's all different.
So don't dismiss, don't use stereotypes.
They are individuals and please be kind
and help them not feel shame and not feel stigma.
The students I have that have autism and ADHD,
they expressed a lot of concern about stigma
and about being bullied.
So we need to have a growth mindset
with them and everybody, right?
So Carol Dewitt talked about that.
We can encourage people to work on their strengths,
but also not label them as their strengths, right?
Don't say you're so intelligent.
So you got this because that doesn't set them up
to do the work.
Set them up to know that they can do it,
that they can achieve and emphasize the effort.
They need you to talk in the language that works, right?
Like, so use your pronouns.
Use identity first language.
I am autistic.
I have ADHD.
I am not a person with it.
I don't carry my autistic bag like my carry on bag.
It's not like I'm with female.
So we prefer that language,
because that's part of the identity
and help them have a healthy identity,
help them communicate.
Like I talked about reduce that stigma,
that institutional trauma by helping them.
And we're gonna talk a lot about
a lot of these things here
and some specifics for the classroom.
So have high expectations.
So this is from Griffin and Pollack study in 2009,
where a dyslexic student said
I've had some really nasty comments from lecturers before.
I've been told before that I couldn't get above
a certain grade because I was dyslexic.
When I went to see the lecturer about my essay,
he told me there was no point aiming
for anything higher because you're dyslexic.
So that's just not a very affirming kind of thing.
And so you can see that these students
really face a lot of stigma.
And part of that is educator's attitude.
So we need to move beyond just knowing that it exists
to really having awareness and knowing how to help, right?
So what they need us to know too,
is that traditional accommodations aren't enough.
So usually they give people extra test time
in a separate room.
Well, if you're struggling with attention in the classroom,
that isn't really gonna help you learn the material, right?
And a lot of times they send you to a room
that's still distracting.
My students have said they put people in a hallway
or an office.
Well they're not in the classroom,
but they're in a very distracting place
versus in a room without windows.
And so we can do many other things.
We can recognize spoon theory.
So one, so it's from disabled people.
Apparently there was a conversation in a restaurant.
And so they said,
it's like having 12 spoons.
If you have a chronic illness
or a disability like this,
where, you know, getting ready in the morning
may take somebody one spoon,
but may take a chronically ill
or neurodiverse person, three spoons.
And then they go to work and that,
and they had a lot of meetings.
So two more spoons are gone.
Then they had a really tough meeting with someone,
four spoons are gone,
then there was rush hour traffic,
more spoons are gone.
They get home.
They're too tired to make dinner.
All their spoons are gone
and they even use some for tomorrow.
So for tomorrow they're spent.
They're T-Rexing.
They can only maybe hold a remote or something.
they're just spent for the day.
So, you know, recognize that there
is a thing for spoon theory and it's real.
It's not like you say to somebody with a migraine,
well, you don't, you didn't have a migraine yesterday.
So why do you have one today?
If they're overwhelmed and they've used up all their energy,
they've used up all their energy
and they're trying, they would love, love, love
to have all their energy and be able to do things,
but they just can't.
So they need a lot of structure
to help reduce the amount of cognitive load
that they're using in other things to save that energy.
And we're gonna talk about that
and they need really unambiguous communication,
ambiguity kills, because then they're using all these spoons
to try to figure out what in the hell happened
and what somebody meant by something.
So try to be very clear
and again, be a bridge communicator.
So how do we create an inclusive classroom?
Well, faculty are the architects of our courses
and our classrooms and we can build inclusion
into every aspect of our course.
We can increase engagement while we do this,
increase learning wellness, empowerment,
help positive identities
and reduce the need for accommodations.
Accommodations actually bring stigma.
They perpetuate the myth of a disability as a deficit.
And so we want to use universal design
and targeted universalism as John Powell would say
to bring everyone up to the same level,
to make sure that everyone can exceed
and meet the course objectives.
So these methods actually blend perfectly
where each pedagogy can inform the other
to make an inclusive outcome.
And they don't just work for neurodiverse students.
They work for the rural kid
or the athlete or the international student
or the single parent who's really struggling.
And so they work for everybody.
They start with a safe place
and they include structure everywhere,
everywhere in our classroom.
Everything we do, we can increase the structure.
And so culturally relevant pedagogies,
we know some about,
but there's a great paper about it
that I've referenced in here
with neurodiversity and strength based learning
and social, emotional learning
to really emphasize empowerment
and social, emotional learning is about building
those soft skills of having people
be able to take other people's perspectives,
that relational kind of work
that employers really want our students to have.
And it's so important with science communication as well.
If you can understand the other person's point of view
and take their perspective,
you can better communicate your points.
You can better get across why biodiversity is important
or why climate change is important
and why we need to work on it
versus getting shut down
when you don't have that other person's perspective.
So a safe place, we need to learn names.
I know some of you have huge classes,
but you could use like little name placards, right?
Inclusive language everywhere.
Have in your syllabus diversity statement,
but include disabled students.
And in particular include neurodiverse students,
because we don't know you're including us
or you even know what it is, if you don't mention it.
Include yourself if you feel comfortable.
Make yourself a little more human
and represent diversity in our materials, right?
We we know about that.
Have really supportive feedback,
which we'll talk about later.
Minimize distractions in your room.
You know, if there's a lot of noise going on or anything,
it's gonna tax people and use up those spoons,
overwhelm them to the point where they don't learn anything
or have to leave.
Acknowledge that people struggle at times.
Send reminders about due dates.
I used to think, oh my God, they're in college.
Do I really have to send them reminders all the time?
Yes, because why not, right.
Does it really hurt?
Send them reminders?
I like reminders.
I tell everyone to nag me politely.
I appreciate it.
Send notes if they did well on something
as well as if they didn't.
You know, hey, I noticed you struggled on this.
Let's meet and see how I can help.
Actively listen.
You know, really listen.
I tell students to do that when we talk about networking.
Don't think about what you wanna say next,
but really listen.
Don't dismiss, use safe icebreakers the first day.
Like instead of just having people introduce themselves,
they can pair up and they can talk to each other
and then introduce the other person.
Because it feels much safer to talk about someone else
than to stand up and talk about yourself.
And so universal design tells us
to have multiple means of engagement.
The why do we wanna learn, the motivation.
The multiple means of representation,
how we present and teach the material
and then multiple means of action
or how we assess it, like tests and things.
So multiple means of engagement
is a lot of persuasion theory really?
It's how do we make this relevant to the person?
If, if you're a rural farm kid,
how do we make study about ecology relevant to you?
If we can make you connect to the material
via an emotion like emotions engage people
or disengage people.
If I want people to learn about snakes or bats,
if I don't address their fear first,
they're never gonna learn about bats
and how really cool they are if they're just afraid.
So I have to address that first, their emotions first.
Same with the motion of, oh my God,
I have to take this class because it's required.
This sucks, right?
So we need to engage them and make it interesting
so they really wanna learn.
And we can use active learning to do that in structure.
So active learning,
some things are besides things we can do in class every day,
project based learning.
So my students have done lots of parks projects
where they do backpacks for adventure
or they do experiential learning.
They go teach for six weeks of a semester
or many other things.
I have tons of ideas I could share.
So when you teach, vary the presentation of your content
and break things into chunks.
Talk less, do more.
The more you can break things into chunks, the better.
So we learned that during the pandemic, right?
We learned that people only have maybe 10 minutes
that they'll watch a video max,
but it it's the same in class,
about 10 minutes and they might start to wander.
So teach some stuff,
take a break and make them do some stuff.
So even in my writing class, sometimes I have to lecture.
I don't try to lecture a lot anymore,
but sometimes I have to.
I have to teach them the material.
And so, excuse me.
And so I will break into chunks
and stop and say, okay, write this sentence
or write a title or write a description of a program
or get in groups.
We all know, think, pair, share, too.
When we do that kind of thing,
it's really important for that processing speed
for everybody,
but especially neurodiverse people
to give them time to think first.
So if you ask any question,
hopefully not yes or nos,
but things that make them think,
count to 10 in your head and then let them answer,
give them that processing time.
But the more you can break things into chunks, the better.
So when I was developing a three hour course,
I was like, oh my God, three hours.
I, how do I not make this boring, right.
I was remembering things from three hour seminars
from grad school where I would have
to start pinching my arms up and down
so I could still pay attention.
So I wrote the material up in chunks.
You know, we read articles and we come to class
and students lead discussions.
We have student led activities
and I lead activities and we do all different activities.
And the three hours flies by
and this active learning and breaking things into chunks
is so important because what are they gonna remember?
I was telling Larkin earlier that you know
the opening of this,
we did the Prairie chickens
and I had ornithology class back in like 1989.
And I still remember the active pieces.
And I still remember that Doc Osborne
did the Prairie chicken dance for us in class, right.
So I will always remember that.
So be active and do different things,
because those are the things that people remember.
They may not remember everything
about biodiversity or genetic code.
So you have to think about what do you want them to remember
and learn to do.
So it's just like backwards design, right?
We go back to our objectives and we say,
what is really important for them to be able to do?
They're not gonna take a test in a workplace.
So what is it that we really want them to get out of this?
And cognitive load theory says,
we have to break these things into chunks,
because we only hold so much in our short term memory,
maybe seven things.
And for only maybe 10 seconds
and for an person who's ASD,
they may have trouble finding those key points.
So redundancy becomes really important, right?
So we don't want too much on the page.
We wanna use bullets or too much on our PowerPoint.
We want to make sure that they can pay attention
to the key points and not have the key points
sort of boggled into everything else.
And then split attention effect.
Oh my gosh, that's so important,
because people with ADHD and autism
have problems task switching.
And so if you keep trying to make us switch a task,
like look at one thing, then another,
look at two kinds of things at the same time
and go back and forth, our brain wants to explode.
It's just such a struggle.
And so try not to make someone look at a chart
and read something, like back and forth at the same time.
Try to be aware of those things.
And because you don't want students also to say,
oh my God, I'm done.
My brain is full.
I can't learn anymore.
I saw that when I was in grad school,
taking those seminars and love that.
So how do we, when we deliver our information,
we wanna make sure that the visual processing
and the audio processing are aided.
So we wanna use visual timetables instructions.
We wanna be really specific
and use step by step instructions in order.
For dyslexic people,
it's really important to use San serif font,
to not underline or use all caps,
because that makes the letters blur together more.
Sans serif font there's even a dyslexia font,
but Sans serif like, you know,
our aerial or something helps a lot.
Reduce glare by not having black and white.
So if you print things or you have a PowerPoint,
try not to have a black and white.
On most of mine,
I made the background slightly off.
So be aware of clutter and having too much on a page
or too much on a PowerPoint.
Allow people to verbally rehearse
and to have that processing time.
So for example, there might be an auditory delay.
So if someone talks, a lot of times,
I might say what.
It took me a long time to realize what this was.
I thought it was deaf or something sort of,
but knew I wasn't deaf, because I hear.
So they may say something and I ask what,
because I didn't really hear it.
I heard like Charlie Brown's teacher, wa, wa, wa
and then five seconds later
I go, oh and my brain decoded what they said.
So give them some time between things,
especially when you ask a question,
so slow your pace and give that time.
If someone says, what, repeat what you said,
don't simplify first and change the words,
because then you're making them process even more
when the processing occurs.
So just repeat, then wait, then simplify.
Okay.
So say what you want,
not what you don't want.
Same with for your kids, right?
Say what you want, not what you don't want.
Be aware of any metaphors and idioms and jokes and sarcasm
that people might not get.
And it's the same for people
who are English language learners, right?
So we wanna be aware of those things
that people might not understand.
I remember when I first moved to Nebraska
and people said skinny or like herding cats a lot.
And I was like, what?
And I remember I just focused so much on why would they,
why would they say like herding cats
instead of what they were saying?
So I missed a lot of the conversation,
because I was focusing on that saying.
So use for fewer words when you can.
Provide visuals everywhere you can.
Give notes prior to class.
Again, I know people might struggle with this.
I did thinking that well then that means
they won't take notes in class.
They won't pay attention.
No, it means they won't split their attention
between taking the notes and listening to you.
They'll actually be able to listen to you more.
So give those notes prior if you can.
And again, gives them time to process and count to 10.
That's so huge.
So with your multiple means of action and expression
have multiple low stakes assignments if you can.
Imagine a student who you've got two to four tests
in your class and they bomb one.
Oh my gosh, their anxiety is already so huge.
So if you can have multiple low stakes assignments
and reduce the major, the stakes
of the major papers and tests,
that's really helpful to everybody
and multiple low stakes assignments.
Think about it.
So if you cram for tests, I know I did.
And there would be four chapters to read
and you didn't read 'em until a few days before.
You're not gonna end up learning much after retaining much.
I know my students say that sometimes
when I've asked them, they forget everything
the minute they get up and leave from the test.
So if you get them to read a chapter
and then take a quiz,
that helps a lot more.
Plus it gives them more grades
and reduces the stakes of those big tests.
And if you give them everyday grades,
because you're making them do things in class
and then you're providing a grade for that,
that helps a lot.
So I teach a writing and communication class
and it gives people lots of anxiety,
because they have to give a presentation,
couple of presentations and they have to write,
but we have multiple every day, almost
low stakes assign assignments as well as some quizzes.
And that helps their grades so much.
So that even if they struggle,
but hopefully still learn what they're writing, right.
They're not gonna bomb the class.
They're still gonna do well.
So, and then be flexible.
And I think, I mean, the pandemic has taught us this, right.
Be flexible because things just happen.
And it's okay if you focus on those learning outcomes.
When I was a grad student the last time,
I had my wisdom teeth taken out
and it didn't go so great.
I got dry socket and I was out for a few weeks.
It sucked.
So, but I was taking psychometric theory with Dave Miller,
who we called Stats God, and I missed a test.
And he was like, you know what?
You're a good student.
I've had you before.
You've done well on your other assignments.
I'm not even gonna make you take that test,
which I was just astounded,
but he was like, the test isn't important.
It's what you're getting out of this class
and what you're doing and what you need to learn
for what you will do.
It was such a huge lesson.
So focus on those learning outcomes
and think about other ways that people can do things.
So here's some places where neurodiverse students
really, really struggle.
So they really struggle with group work.
Well, we know most of our students,
or a lot of our students anyway, do,
it's a huge area of complaining, right?
But we all want group work.
It teaches great things or it can.
So the thing is though,
we just tend to dump them in groups
and have them figure it out for themselves.
And that's where issues come in.
And some neurodiverse people especially end up
doing all the work because they're high achievers,
but yet low, low social abilities to talk to people,
especially to have confrontation.
So if you teach students how to work in groups
and say, you know, for example, when you get in your group,
introduce yourselves, tell everybody your strengths
and assign roles for the groups.
So if you know the project and you're gonna do this,
and these are the possible roles,
we'll assign those as roles
and have those students get into groups
and pick based on their strengths.
And maybe you can have them turn things in
based on those roles.
Another thing you can do is,
is have them peer grade their partners.
And that helps a lot with any kind of anxiety
over what their partners are gonna do or not do.
For class participation,
can you think about other ways
that they're super, super anxious that they can participate?
Can they participate during office hours?
Can they use a chat box?
You know, Zoom is really great because people,
students will use the chat box
a lot more than they would've called out things in class.
And there's actually chat box kinds of forums things.
Can they email questions before or after class?
That is very helpful.
Can they, can you suggest other materials
that they may want to use.
For presentations, teach them how to give a presentation,
talk to them about it
if you've ever had stage fright or were worried,
relay that to them.
That helps a lot.
It helps a lot if you're anxious
to know that someone else struggled with that
and how they had to deal with it.
So teach them how to present
as well as how to reduce that stress.
So we talk to people about not memorizing,
because if you memorize and then you,
you forget something while you're talking, oh my gosh,
the stress of that, right?
So consider maybe allowing them
if they still can't do it to pre-record
or use Zoom or present to you or the TA.
But I know with teaching them how
we've never had a student not do it in the years,
we've been teaching communication
and then think about, does it really need a presentation?
And then with big projects, people with ADHD and autism,
they're not likely going to work on it till the end.
They're gonna put it off.
They're gonna procrastinate.
They can't make themselves do it right.
They're time blind.
They can't think about how to schedule it.
So break it up into incremental deadlines.
If it's a big research project,
maybe first the topic is due.
Then the hypothesis, then the lit review.
And if it's a different kind of project,
maybe giving them templates.
And I struggled with that for a bit
thinking, well, they gotta figure this out by themselves
or they're seniors, they can do this.
No, not always.
So for my zoo, senior zoo class,
I give them a template of how to write a business letter,
how to write an accreditation inspection report,
how to do their shaping plans for training
and different things.
So give them a template.
You know, it's a lot better
if they use their cognitive energy and their spoons
to do the actual assignment
and think about the actual assignment
and think about how to structure that assignment
and they can use that structure elsewhere.
So I think it's a good idea
to give them that structure whenever, wherever you can.
In your syllabus, on your canvas page,
in their assignments, just loads and loads of structure,
you probably can't give too much structure.
And then with these big projects,
consider a strength based approach.
If you have a student in your class
that they're an art major or marketing major,
well, how can they adapt what you need to do
for them, right.
That benefits them.
If it's a grant writing class,
well of course, don't make them write,
if they're a health student,
don't make them write a natural resource grant, right.
And then offer pre-grades in our communications class.
And all my other classes I offer pre-grades
and it's such a low stress way
and a better way to give feedback, right?
So they, if they do their paper
and give it to you beforehand,
you might think it's a lot of work,
but it's really not so bad.
You scan it quickly.
And you say, hey, in an email back,
and it's easier to write these emails,
because they're looking for what to fix.
Fix this, this and this and in this way
and you'll have a much better paper
and get a much better grade, right?
Or pay attention to the rubric here.
You missed doing this part.
So it really helps.
And then with class structure,
it can help to a lot of times we like,
you know, run up to the end.
We leave announcements about due dates
and assignments to the end,
but it can help if you do that at the beginning.
So at the end, students are getting anxious.
They're thinking about packing up.
They're thinking about if they got a bus to ride
or whatever it is.
On our campus they gotta ride buses between east and city.
And so, you know, they want it,
they need to hear those announcements
clearly and not in a rushed way
and not when there's noise of other people packing up.
And so give those announcements early on
about what's due versus waiting till the end.
And then so at the end of your,
when you think about your assessments,
think about how they can communicate their science.
So traditionally we only think about papers,
presentations and posters,
but maybe there's other weights.
Maybe they can do artwork or poetry
or music or a song list,
a playlist or photography or video
or plat based in time lapse program
does some amazing storytelling that really benefits science,
but it's not a paper and it's not a science poster,
but it's very valid, very important
and helps communicate science.
You know, as scientists,
we're not always that great at communicating our science
and getting the word out, right,
about what we do and what we discover.
And so maybe some of our students,
if they were doing work that worked with their strengths
with our science could help us do a better job
of communicating our science.
And so maybe they could work on outreach as well.
Lesson plans, social media, podcasts,
or even marketing posters.
We had a student who wanted to do marketing posters in class
and they were really cool.
So think about that.
And so as an example,
really quickly from an environmental health course
of one of my teaching partners, Martha Rhode,
she does this environmental health course
and she has them, of course describe what she wants
in terms of knowledge and the population
they're impacted by an issue.
And the students can create artwork.
Like this is a project about mica in cosmetics.
And so the student made this artwork,
they also had their presentation about it.
And they talked about the issue
and used this painting that they did,
what a great way for the student to connect
with that issue and this material,
and really learn versus forcing them
to write a research paper, right?
Here's another one from a student
who watched a documentary "More than Honey"
and painted this.
In each little thingy here
means something like the truck is transportation of fuel
and the little guys or mites that the bees get
or the pesticides that are used, right?
And so again, they made a presentation and did all this,
but they were able to really connect
in a way that emphasized their strengths
and that was relevant to them.
And, you know, they connected these topics
in a way that will make them remember it
for a long, long time
and help them communicate science.
And so finally, feedback.
So we can do feedback in a way
that is very structured, that talks about mastery.
It's focused on mastery, right?
So instead of just focusing on what you did wrong,
of course we can give a nice sandwich, right?
You did this great, but you need to,
but you did this wrong.
Instead of saying, but you did this wrong,
we could say, here's what you need to fix
to make you really have mastered this, right?
You could write your introduction better
by focusing on this.
You could organize this differently
by maybe swapping these or making sure this material
is with that material, right?
So give very structured feedback.
And then that helps with that rejection sensitivity
as well as not making them have this ambiguity
of, well, your paper's terrible.
It wasn't organized.
Well, what does that mean?
What did I do wrong?
How can I organize it better?
They literally will not know
how they can organize it better
until you point it out to them specifically.
And so that is also really important.
So just a few tips.
There are some great apps out there
to help people with executive functioning.
If you're into that.
There's a Chrome extension called Speechify.
I just learned about it.
So I haven't tried it.
And apparently you can make it
have different voices and accents.
So it will read aloud any of your texts.
You can again, broaden your diversity statement
to counter any stigma and talk about it.
You can send follow ups and emails and reminders.
You can offer assistance and you need to offer it
over and over and over and over,
because maybe the first time you offer it,
students are still afraid.
And they don't really know if you're serious.
Maybe the second time,
they're like, well, he offered again,
but I don't know.
Maybe by the fifth time you offer,
they're like, wow, he's serious.
He really does wanna help me.
I'll take him up on that.
And then that first day info sheet,
Brian Dewsbury mentioned this, right?
So it has strengths.
So make sure you ask what people's strengths are
as well as you can add their learning needs
and their preferences and their goals for the course.
So maybe they tell you, hey, I learn better this way,
or I'm really interested in these things
and you can help them focus on their strengths.
If you help them focus on their strengths and interests,
that goes a long way to making a connection.
And then I just wanted to point out some quick videos.
They're like three to seven minutes long
that can really explain some things better.
I think you guys get access to this,
but if you don't, I can make a handout.
So any questions.
-: If you wanna raise your hand
or put it in the chat,
we'll get the questions to Lisa.
We've got time for a couple questions here.
Thank you very much, Lisa, a lot of great ideas there.
One thing that I'll ask,
I'm thinking about like a study abroad course,
or even a domestic study tour
where students are in a van,
in a bus for a long time together.
Maybe they get up at six o'clock in the morning
and they have breakfast.
They're out doing activities all day.
They get to dinner time
and they're still at like a campsite or something.
Think of those 12 spoons you talked about.
Suggestions for people that lead those types of trips.
That to give people some space perhaps.
Are there-
-: Oh, from me.
-: Yes, sorry.
Well, I just, is that,
based on what you were saying about the 12 spoons,
is that, I'm imagining the students running outta spoons
by the end of the day.
-: Yeah, so they're tired.
It's all been new.
It can be really overwhelming.
And so it's good to have downtime, right?
So instead of packing everything filled with activities
until 10 o'clock at night or whatever,
let them have downtime and build that into your schedule.
And that would be really helpful.
Or maybe just even say,
if you have a lot of things to do,
if anyone needs any downtime at any point,
I really understand.
So just get with me
so we can work some in for you
or just excuse you from some activity.
-: Terry has his hand up.
-: Yeah Lisa,
so I can imagine in a classroom,
let's say 40 or 50 people,
you might have this broad sweep of people
with the different conditions that you define.
And then how do you manage that collectively?
How do you, do you make the assumption
that all of these sort of categories of people are out there
and you're gonna meet their needs,
plus other people.
I mean, how do you,
how do you manage that collectively?
-: I think there's this sort of maybe perception that
if we do these things to help certain people,
we disadvantage people who don't need those things.
But really, I think if you offer a lot of structure,
you're not disadvantage anybody.
They still get to learn the same material.
You're teaching the same material.
The only thing you're really doing
is adding lots of structure,
like follow ups and templates
and a clear schedule and maybe breaking
that information into chunks,
which is something we're not all used to doing
and doing some active learning,
but there's just loads of research
that says that if we break things into chunks,
it really helps everybody.
So a great question,
but yeah, there's people out there like that,
but I don't think any of the techniques,
I don't think experiential learning
like a field trip or getting students do service learning
disadvantages anyone, or you don't need to know
if they're autistic or ADHD, right.
I didn't know I was for forever.
-: So it's just good pedagogies then.
-: I mean yeah, yeah, exactly.
Better way to say it.
-: Thank you.
-: And let's take one more question here.
Megan has our hand up.
-: Thank you so much for your chat.
I really enjoyed it.
I was wondering where on campus
neurodivergent students might be able to find support.
So I know that a lot of times we suggest they go
to the disabilities resource office,
but it seems like the support
that is often provided are just those,
it's really, it seems limiting.
So it's just the extended time on exams
and things like that.
And so where, I don't know if you,
if you would have any suggestions
on where one students could get support
and two faculty and staff could get additional training,
would that be counseling services
or I was just wondering if you had any ideas?
-: So yeah, those accommodations just aren't enough.
And a lot of it is because our staff in those offices,
don't really, the word on executive functioning
and other things, other ways to help students
just now starting to get out.
And a lot of counselors don't really know that much
of how to help people.
They're not very versed in neurodiversity either.
You have to find someone who's a specialist.
And if you're a female, a specialist that can recognize that
as well as the aspects of how that plays out.
So you really gotta find a good ally
that knows what to do, or that is willing to learn.
So I've had two allies here in my department.
One is my boss and one is someone who sadly just left,
but I'm trying to recruit sort of others,
but I educated them as well.
And so if you have a neurodiverse student
that needs your help and approaches you,
ask for them to help teach you how to help them.
And that would go a long way,
but there are colleges and there is a college autism network
list, serve and program
that has biweekly meetings and things.
And if you want any more information,
I would love to help you.