Neurodiversity introduction

Unlock your team’s genius. @GeorgFasching www.GeorgFasching.com
Neurodiversity Series
Disclaimer: I’m not a trained ‘expert’, got interested in learning about this and would
like to share with you some of what I came across in >120 hours of my own time.
1

Neurological Diversity
• Awareness, appreciation &
understanding that:
• Brains are differently wired
• People are different
• Neurological conditions we’ll cover
are life-long
• Strengths can be boosted and needs
met, through education & support
2

What’s the ‘neuro-spectrum’?
• Experience, processing, and
coordination of:
• Language
• Movement
• Social
3
ASCADHD
DCD NT
DL
• Emotion
• Focus
• Cognition
• Sensation (+ less well understood ones)

What we’ll cover for each
• Name of condition
• Needs
• Strengths
• % Living with it
4

NT - Needs
• Easily distractible
• Obsessively social
• Flushed with emotion
• Societal propensity to
uniformity
• Suffers from deﬁcit of
attention to detail
5

NT - Strengths
• Somewhat higher cognitive
ﬂexibility
• Intuitively navigate social
situations
• Somewhat higher emotional
intelligence
6

% living with NT
• Quite common condition
• ~70% of population
7

NT = Neuro(logically)-Typical
• Being neuro-typical has its
own strengths and needs
• It is a very common condition
8

Thank you!
9
Spot the NTs?

Attention Deﬁcit  
Hyperactivity Disorder
10

Attention Deﬁcit Hyperactivity Disorder
• Developmental condition delaying
maturation of brain sections related to:
• Hyperactivity Vitality
• Impulsivity Spontaneity
• Distractibility Dynamically attentive
11

% living with ADHD
• ~3-5% to ~7-9% of the population
• ~60% of children grow up living
with noticeable ADHD markers
12
Leads to over-diagnosis (esp. in U.S.A.),
where children don’t get enough free play
time, and exercise outside of school

Needs
• Checklists
• Task speciﬁcity
• Active engagement
• Stimulation
• Not necessarily medication to
make them compliant!
13

Strengths
• Neoteny (playfulness,
spontaneity, humour)
• Task-switching/roaming
attention
• Openness to change
• Drive for activity
• Energy
14

Thank you! Any Qs?
15
Spot those with ADHD?

Autism Spectrum Condition
16

ASC -Deﬁnition
• Autism Spectrum Disorder Condition
• Sensory sensitivity
• Social (below)
• Verbal/non-verbal
• Repetitive/stereotyped activities
• Lorna Wing’s ‘Triad of Impairment’:
- Social Communication 
- Social Interaction 
- Social Imagination
17
“Autism & Asperger Syndrome”, The Facts, 2008 
Simon Baron-Cohen

ASC - Needs
• It’s complicated: “If you’ve met one
person with autism; you’ve met one
person with autism.”
• Hyper and/or hypo sensory sensitivity
- awareness is key
• Emotional awareness
• Non-verbal doesn’t mean  
non-communicative
• Then cover social triad
18

ASC - Strengths
• Honesty
• Non-judgmental
• Deep interests
• Huge potential
• Full of surprises
19

% living with ASC
• 1 in 42-168 people
• Of these 1% have ‘Classic
Autism’
20

People with ASC …
• make sense of the world (and
You!) differently
• are different, not less
• relate to you differently
• have feelings too!
21

Thank you!
22
Spot the
people with ASC?

Asperger Syndrome
23

Asperger Syndrome
• Speciﬁc condition on the Autism Spectrum
• Tend to have deep smarts, few street
smarts though
• Low INTUITIVE non-verbal skills
• Sensory sensitivities
• Verbal skills
24
Hi! I’m Michael,  
the Aspie Comic.
http://www.aspiecomic.com/

Aspie - Needs
• It’s even more complicated: “If
you’ve met one Aspie, you’ve met
one Aspie.”
• Sensory sensitivity awareness
• Recharge-time in proportion to
social analysis exertion
• Learn social skills
• Help with anxiety, depression
25

Aspie - Strengths
• Independent tireless pursuit of interests
• Divergent thinking, creative logical non-
linear problem-solving
• compassionate, loyal & honest
• considerate and reﬂective
• happy in own company
• keen to learn
• punctual
26

My Mix
• Auditory hypersensitivity
• Somatosensory sensitivity
• Aphantasia
• Alexithymia
• Weak working memory
• Hyperlexia
• Social ‘games’ & oddities
27
• Deep interest: how people work and
work together
• Spidey-sense for tension
• Attention to detail
• Driven to learn & improve
• Do no harm
• Do things well
Georg 1st 
Aspie 2nd

% thriving with AS
• <1% of the population
• ~3x in attractor areas!
28
HollywoodSilicon Valley

Thank you! Any Qs?
29
Spot the Aspies?

Dyslexia
30

Dyslexia
• ‘Learning difﬁculty’ that
neurologically affects skills of:
• Reading
• Writing
• Grammar and punctuation
31

% living with dyslexia
• ~10% of the population,
sometimes cited as up to ~20%
• ~3x in attractor areas like art
schools
32

Needs
• Rarely visual distortion
• Traditionally believed to be an issue of
visual processing, by the power of fMRI
now thought more likely related to
visual-to-sound processing of phonemes
(44 in English)
• Reading help: time, font, ruler, different
media
• Writing help: auto-spell-check, grammarly
33

Strengths
• Holistic perception
• Visual-spatial skills
• Out-of-the-box-thinking
34
Because: Non-dyslexic left
hemisphere usually bigger, so in
dyslexic brains, the right
hemisphere is relatively bigger.
Art & Design 
Mechanical

Thank you! Any Qs?
35
Spot the dyslexic?

Dyspraxia
36

Dypraxia
• ‘Developmental Coordination Disorder’
that neurologically affects skills of:
• Gross-motor
• Fine-motor
37

% living with dyspraxia
• ~10% of the population
• ~2% stronger forms (then also
impacting speech)
38

Needs
• Peer’s awareness aka not get
picked last in school!
• More time & support to develop
• Occupational therapy
• Speech language therapy
• Perceptual motor training
• Active play
39

Strengths
• Unsure about neurological
compensation, so strengths are
secondary:
• Read more
• Chat more
• Play more
40

Thank you! Any Qs?
41
Spot the dyspraxic?

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