10
ADDRESSING NEURODIVERSITY WITH CROSS-CULTURAL FAMILIES
Each student is a unique individual, with varied cognitive and processing functions that influence the ability to take in new information, behave in an acceptable fashion in social settings, develop meaningful relationships, and communicate effectively through verbal and nonverbal means.
The growing acceptance and understanding of individual differences in American society have built a conventional foundation for addressing these obstacles, giving educators and families some grounding for discussions and mutual support. However, families from different cultural backgrounds may either lack awareness or have misconceptions around their understanding of neurodiversity, creating true challenges for effective communication and student well-being.
This chapter provides an overview of common neurodevelopmental disorders and how families who hold different cultural values might perceive them differently. We review some ways educators commonly differentiate instruction to accommodate for neurodiversity and provide advice for how to effectively communicate these methods to cross-cultural families. Given the sensitivity of the topic of cognitive functioning and processing ability, these can be highly charged conversations, and must be approached with care and compassion.
WHAT IS NEURODIVERSITY?
Despite the linkages with cognitive disabilities, everyone in fact has some measure of neurodiversity. For example, there is no specific measure of classroom concentration, implying that a teacher cannot use a single student as a point of reference when it comes to knowledge retention in a classroom setup. Some students may be able to process the information faster than others, but that does not mean they will have similar abilities to retain the same information.
That said, there are true challenges when working with students with neurodevelopmental disorders. This book is not a comprehensive guide for addressing students with neurodevelopmental disorders and should not be utilized in place of guidance with trained counselors and psychologists. For general reference, we provide a brief synopsis of neurodevelopmental disorders commonly diagnosed within students. Recent increases in diagnoses have been attributed to the improved ability of medical and psychological practitioners to recognize and address issues.
AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER (ASD) AND ASPERGER SYNDROME
While ASD is not regarded as a learning disability, it affects learning for the affected persons. Students with ASD usually have difficulties with joint attention, using eye contact and bodily gestures to share their experiences with others. The complications can make it challenging for the students to develop communication and language skills. The students may struggle with sensory processing and may avoid sensory input. The students may excel in logical thinking ability, memorizing and learning information, or learning to read at a very early age.
Asperger syndrome is often linked with autism, as a neurodevelopmental condition with somewhat similar (though lessened in intensity) characteristics, including difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication and restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests.
ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER (ADHD)
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a medical condition that impacts brain development and activity, affecting attention, sitting ability, and self-control. The common signs of ADHD include inattentiveness and ease of distraction. Students with hyperactivity become restless, easily bored, and impulsive by acting too quickly before thinking. Students with ADHD usually have difficulty focusing, paying attention, or working hard on their schoolwork. Unless properly supported, students with ADHD symptoms have problems coping with repeated cycles of negative thoughts and worries, irregular lifestyles, self-dissatisfaction, and low self-esteem. Negative attitudes toward neurodiverse students lead to stigmatization, significantly impacting their academic performance.
DYSLEXIA
Dyslexia is a learning disorder that involves difficulty in reading due to challenges in identifying speech sounds and learning how to associate with others. The condition affects parts of the brain that process language. Students with dyslexia usually have difficulties recognizing and manipulating the sounds in language. The students have difficulty decoding new words, making them have reading, writing, and spelling challenges.
DYSCALCULIA
Dyscalculia is a learning disability in mathematics. Students with the disorder usually have difficulties performing calculations, weak mental arithmetic skills, and a poor sense of numbers and estimation. Students with dyscalculia usually find it difficult to learn math in the classroom as they have trouble doing basic mathematical calculations and memorizing timetables.
SPECIFIC STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING NEURODIVERSE STUDENTS
Neurodiverse students often have specific sensory, cognition, and social and emotional needs that require differentiated instruction from teachers. The following are instructional strategies related to each category.
Diverse learners with sensory needs may require physical activity or be sensitive to specific noises and textures.
- Allow students to wear headphones or earplugs in the classroom as needed to create a comfortable working environment for them.
- Be conscious of your speaking volume as a teacher.
- Be conscious of background noise and, if possible, figure out ways to control it.
- Give students timed breaks to physically move around a couple times throughout the class. Instruct them with movements that involve the whole body, like jumping jacks.
- When dealing with activities or tasks that require students to interact with objects that have a certain texture, provide alternate options so students with texture sensitivities are able to participate and learn as well.
- Keep fidget toys and weighted materials on hand in the classroom that students can use as needed.
- Replace fluorescent lights with lamps in the classroom (if allowed by school administration).
Diverse learners with cognition needs may require teachers to consider their memory, organization, and ability to process information when designing curriculum.
- Clearly state the learning objective before and after each lesson.
- Organize information through color coding.
- Utilize fonts that are easy to read in presentations and handouts.
- Create activities that are short and interactive.
- Relay information in smaller chunks.
- Stay flexible about timed tasks, as some students might take longer to process information and feel paralyzed by the stress of timed activities.
SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL NEEDS
Teachers should consider the social and emotional needs of certain diverse learners when creating curriculum and adjusting the classroom environment.
- Allow students to choose who they work with during group work.
- Allow students to choose their own seats.
- Provide activities for practicing social skills.
- Affirm and reaffirm often that the classroom is a safe space to ask for help.
- Assign students with social and emotional needs a buddy in the class to provide individual support when needed.
- Clearly communicate specific expectations for each activity or lesson.
- Be conscious of the signs a student is becoming agitated or overwhelmed and figure out “calming corners” or other compassionate methods of response ahead of time.
ADDRESSING NEURODIVERSITY WITH CULTURAL SENSITIVITY
The Individuals with Disorders Education Act (IDEA) of the United States enables children, teenagers, and young adults aged 3 to 21 years to receive free public education if diagnosed with a recognized learning disability. The education act also mandates that schools provide learning environments, activities, and evaluations tailored to individual student needs. It is thus not unusual for instructors to have a class with various learning preferences and skills, such as children with varying cognitive capacities, hyperactivity, and emotional challenges. Maintaining a balance between impartiality, offering a fair and outstanding education to all, and adjusting to individual learning needs has become increasingly challenging for instructors.
This challenge can take on untold complexities when involving families from cultures with differing core beliefs or preconceptions around neurodiversity. One illustrative example comes from Marina's work with “Jonathan,” an exceptionally talented and sensitive Korean teenager. Jonathan was raised in a stereotypically traditional Korean household, with a businessman father who expected his son to follow a similarly high-paying and prominent career field.
Both of Jonathan's parents were intensely focused on his academic success and believed the school and teachers should be foundational partners in pressuring him to succeed. When Jonathan's school counselor told his parents that he believed Jonathan exhibited signs of ADHD, they were shocked. Given their core beliefs in the lofty role of teachers, this diagnosis seemed to Jonathan's parents to be a poor excuse for being unable to adequately manage student behavior. For them, the concept of hyperactivity and information processing differences were translated into a lack of effort on Jonathan's part.
Jonathan's parents left the meeting disappointed in both the school and their son. Altering their conception required taking another tact entirely, first highlighting his creative abilities and empathic nature. Jonathan's attention disorder was then framed as a result of overtiredness due to high efforts expended on classwork, with counseling and medication posited as a highly socially acceptable and “American” intervention.
The immediate stigmatization seen in the example of Jonathan's parents worsens the gap between what is needed and the available resources to ensure the neurodiverse student's success. Therefore, the first step for classroom educators is to ensure efforts are made to develop awareness among parents and create a sense of inclusivity and understanding.
This can require a gradual approach, as one educator interviewed for this book from a Swiss school noted that the United States was easily 50 years “ahead” of the rest of the world in terms of comfort around discussing neurodiversity. She mentioned a key learning point for her around caution with making assumptions about what a parent might want for their neurodiverse child. This learning moment came when she asked the Filipino mother of an autistic child what her hopes and dreams were for her child's future. The educator made an error in expressing her assumption that the parents wished for her child to become independent. Given the tight familial bonds within Filipino culture, making reference to the child ever living alone was taken as a sign of disrespect and completely outside of the frame of reference for the family. From this incident, the educator learned to keep her approach toward open-ended questions only, using the parent's responses to frame all subsequent queries.
There are times when English language learners have been mistaken for students who require special ed, drastically changing the child's trajectory, both in terms of the child's relationship with the family and even its society as well as within their own academic paths. A school not having had many students learning English as a second language mistakenly interpreted the student's blank stares to questions and slow thinking (what they perceived but the child was translating long texts in his head) as needing special ed. Many parents of such students cannot advocate for themselves, either because of the language barrier or because they lack social capital. Unfortunately, some of those students are then placed in programs not appropriate to them, leaving parents feeling helpless.
USING A STRENGTHS-BASED MODEL
The strengths-based model is a holistic method of teaching that focuses on an individual's strengths rather than their deficits. With regard to neurodiverse students, this means taking their natural capabilities into consideration when designing a curriculum, pedagogy, lessons, and even the classroom environment. The result is a learning environment that allows the student to thrive both academically and socially, two important goals of any education setting. Highlighting the first can be particularly important when working with students from East Asian backgrounds, while noting the social benefits can be more attractive for families holding Latin American cultural values.
The strength-based teaching model for neurodiverse students cannot be applied without first knowing how to correctly identify their strengths. In this context, strengths can be divided into two categories: strengths the teacher or parents recognize and strengths the students see in themselves. This distinction is valuable in that teachers can work within the framework of the strengths the student exhibits to design a curriculum that also incorporates other strengths they might not realize they have.
For example, if a student realizes they have excellent reading comprehension, they will likely gravitate toward reading-based activities on their own. However, the teacher might also note they excel at solving math problems. The teacher could use their natural tendency to enjoy reading and leverage it, introducing reading-based math exercises to further develop their math skills. This way of creating curriculum takes the student's strong points into consideration.
The following categories represent numerous areas in which students can show strengths.1 Each category also includes examples to demonstrate the kinds of things that can be included. Keep in mind that this list is not exhaustive, but a starting point to simplify identifying student strengths.
Personal Strengths
- Finds finishing tasks empowering.
- Good sense of humor.
- Excels working independently.
- Easily learns from mistakes.
- Strong sense of integrity.
Social Strengths
- Loves talking in front of groups of people.
- Finds it easy to trust others.
- Loyal friend.
- Good manners.
- Natural leader.
Emotional Strengths
- Strong sense of empathy.
- Does not let emotions cloud judgment.
- Optimistic attitude.
- Trusts their instincts.
- Good at cheering up others.
Communication Strengths
- Great at explaining complex ideas to others.
- Asks questions when they don't understand something.
- Accepts constructive criticism without taking it personally.
- Persuasive.
- Great storyteller.
Logical Strengths
- Excels at solving math problems.
- Makes accurate estimates quickly.
- Easily calculates numbers in their head.
- Loves playing mind puzzles.
Physical Strengths
- Great dancer.
- Excellent balance.
- Physically strong.
- Great at team sports.
- Very physically flexible.
Literacy Strengths
- Excellent reading comprehension.
- Large vocabulary.
- Excels at writing across genres.
- Fast reader.
- Easily picks up on themes and symbolism in literature.
Creative Strengths
- Plays a musical instrument well.
- Excels at drawing.
- Easily comes up with new ideas.
- Naturally imaginative.
Cognitive Strengths
- Very organized.
- Pays close attention to detail.
- Great at thinking ahead.
- Great at multitasking.
- Excellent memory.
Technology Strengths
- Conducts effective internet searches.
- Easily navigates new technologies.
- Knows how to code.
- Excels at video games.
- Excels at graphic design.
Spiritual Strengths
- Sees the beauty in everyday things.
- Loves thinking about life's big questions.
- Feels a strong sense of religious faith.
- Practices meditation and/or yoga.
- Strong sense of morality.
Visual-Spatial Strengths
- Excellent at reading maps.
- Easily able to fix things.
- Good sense of direction.
- Completes jigsaw puzzles with ease.
Miscellaneous Strengths
- Great cook.
- Good at managing money.
- Excellent sense of fashion.
- Natural entrepreneur.
- Great with animals.
Communicating these strengths to parents can be a powerful method to set a strong foundation as part of the conversation around alterations to curriculum and teaching methods. Certain of these strengths may have more saliency with particular cultural values, including the linkage of spiritualism with Native American and Middle Eastern cultures, and social and communicative strengths with Latin American and African cultures. However, the level of individual variation amongst parents and students would push most attempts at this linkage into assumptions at best, and stereotyping at worst.
Instead, this book recommends educators use this model to draw out strengths the parents themselves have observed, building a comprehensive model together. A curriculum that uses the strengths-based model can only be made effectively on a case-by-case basis. That being said, designing a curriculum template that is easily adaptable to different strengths can be useful, particularly when considering tweaking specific parts of lesson plans to fit the needs of larger classes. For example, a teacher might set up various learning stations in the classroom to allow all different types of students to learn in the way that suits them most. Another example is including flexibility in student projects.
Finally, educators may find that the different ways they design the classroom, specifically meant to adjust teaching methods for neurodiverse students, benefit the whole class. In this way, the strengths-based instruction model demonstrates the effectiveness of novel and unconventional teaching strategies throughout the greater system of education, showing that sticking to the standard pedagogical methods is not always best.
CREATIVITY IN TEACHER PEDAGOGY: DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION
Differentiated instruction goes hand-in-hand with the strengths-based model of teaching. Together, these instruction models have the potential to transform the classroom into an inclusive place where all students can thrive. Combining the openness and flexibility of curriculum design in differentiated instruction and the focus on student strengths over deficits in the strengths-based model truly places student needs at the forefront of education. Focusing on student needs, particularly considering the neurological spectrum that widely diversifies student needs, ensures each individual student is given a real opportunity to succeed academically.
Quality differentiated instruction requires modifying core elements of teaching, including content, process, product, and effect. These elements derive from three areas of student needs, which vary from student to student: readiness, interest, and learning profile.2 One way to think about how to modify instruction based on student needs is to adapt different aspects of teaching to variation between students.
For example, some students might struggle to listen to a teacher who talks and moves around simultaneously. Other students might have the reverse issue, where they have a hard time focusing on a teacher who sits still during instruction. In an environment where teachers must develop strategies not just for individual students but the whole class, having students with these two opposing learning types presents a problem. Awareness of the needs of neurodiverse students provides the opportunity to resolve the issue, whether that means being creative about instruction methods or seeking administrative support.
When communicating these differentiated methods to parents from different cultural backgrounds, particularly those with a more collectivist mindset, a useful tactic can be to make reference to how the methods were designed to assist other students. One educator working in Thai schools interviewed for this book noted that she always found it best to give all examples as related to other children and other success stories. She found that karma played a substantial role in the families’ views toward disabilities, as they could be convinced immediately that a previous incident was reason for the current disability. By relating the observed neurodiverse characteristics and pedagogical interventions to other students “from her experience,” this educator was able to impart necessary information without setting the parents on a path of shame or nihilism.
The substantial challenge around communications with families around neurodevelopmental disorders makes these experiences an optimal time to utilize the services of fellow educators from different backgrounds. One counselor interviewed for this book noted her work with a Pakistani family whose child had severe cognitive processing issues. From her perspective, the family was not ready for the level of work needed, instead seeking a “quick fix” for what they saw as primarily behavioral issues. The counselor engaged other colleagues from her school from similar cultural backgrounds to join the conversations, which helped to “hook” into parental values.
Ultimately, every parent wants to see their child safe and happy. Neurodiversity can be a frightening concept to introduce to parents from cultural backgrounds with low levels of understanding and acceptance of what differences naturally exist. Educators who are required to impart these messages to families should make full use of their empathic abilities, considering how the message may be received, and utilizing all available resources to move forward.
SUMMARY
Neurodiversity in the classroom can present a clear set of challenges for educators. Implementing strengths-based instruction together with differentiated instruction allows diverse learners to thrive, as these models prioritize student needs at the core of the curriculum design. Communications around neurodiversity with parents from different cultural backgrounds can be among the most difficult endeavors for any educator to undertake; each conversation requires understanding, empathy, and respect.
INTERACTIVE SELF-PRACTICE EXERCISES
- Choose one cultural background that is well represented in your classroom. Consider how you would start a conversation about neurodiversity with families from that background, including what online resources you could make reference to.
- Write out a list of students currently in your class. For each student, list their strengths according to the groupings in this chapter. Consider how you might alter your classroom dynamics and assignments to differentiate instruction amongst these strengths and convey these strengths to parents.
EFFECTIVE CONVERSATIONAL POINTS
With a colleague, discuss experiences working with students with neurodevelopmental disorders.
- How have these experiences made you a better teacher?
- How have these experiences made you a better person?
- What stories from these experiences might be valuable to share with families who might have little understanding of neurodiversity?
NOTES
- 1. Armstrong, T. (2013). Neurodiversity in the Classroom: Strength-Based Strategies to Help Students with Special Needs Succeed in School and Life. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
- 2. van Geel, M., Keuning, T., Frerejean, J. et al. (2018). Capturing the complexity of differentiated instruction. School Effectiveness and School Improvement: An International Journal of Research, Policy, and Practice 30: 51–67. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09243453.2018.1539013#:~:text.