June is ‘Neurodiversity Month’ at Levelling the Playing Field so we’ve invited Professor Amanda Kirby, CEO of our strategic partners Do-It Solutions, to explain why neurodiversity is such an important factor for those working with children in community sport and physical activity settings, and/or within, or at risk of entering, the Criminal Justice System.
Let us begin with a statistic that demonstrates why neurodiversity is important for anyone working with children and young people in prevention, diversion or criminal justice settings: 60-65% of individuals in youth offending have some kind of speech, language and communication challenge (also known as Developmental Language Disorders) which have often been missed or are undiagnosed.
For 10 years, my company Do-IT Profiler has screened people for neurodivergent traits in order to identify their strengths and challenges so they can be supported at a person-centred level. We build up a personal profile which allows support staff to understand each individual’s traits from day one.
Neurodiversity is the way we all process, think, move, act, speak, see, hear and listen differently. Everybody is neurodiverse, but some of us diverge in the way we do some of those things. Traits and conditions associated with neurodivergence are, for example, ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia, autism, Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) and Tourette’s. It's common for people to have more than one of these conditions that overlap with each other.
The reason these traits are so common in children and young people who find themselves in contact with the Criminal Justice System is often the impact of not always being able to engage in education, due to not understanding or not being understood (that could be in reading, spelling, writing, speaking or being less able to process information). Frustration from this can lead to behaviours which, because they haven’t been appropriately understood, can get them into trouble. Soon the young person becomes recognised for their behaviours but the underlying reasons for those behaviours are not always considered.
Alongside this may be other factors which add up and cause cumulative adversity. Children who have offended are also more likely to have been excluded from school, thus they may have missed out on more education, understand even less, and get into further trouble. They may also have been more likely to have been in care and moved around the educational system. This becomes a messy mix where it can be hard to untangle what outcomes have been caused by the individual’s neurodiversity, what’s down to adversity and what’s a combination of the two.
We know that children who are at risk of neurodivergent traits and also experience adversity are at much higher risk of showing challenges with learning and communicating, for example, compared to those from a supportive family and who have teachers who understand their needs and have adjusted to them accordingly.
Professor Helen Minnis, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist at the University of Glasgow, has found that those who are at risk of having neurodivergent traits and have suffered Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are six times more at risk of having three or more neurodivergent conditions. The combination is a toxic mix.
So, what adjustments can frontline practitioners make to help their participants avoid these pitfalls? Unfortunately, children don’t come neatly labelled, so often you can’t tell whether they’re neurodivergent or not. With this in mind:
- Think about the way you communicate. Always check for understanding - and don’t assume that a nod means yes!
- Accept that your communication style may not be always understood by others
- Demonstrate what you want done in different ways and then you’ll meet more people’s preferred communication styles
- Slow down your instructions. If you speak too fast, some people can’t process the information
- Never use ‘behaviour’ as diagnosis. It’s a form of communication, so check why somebody is behaving in that way
Making assumptions about your participants’ ability to understand and act upon instructions is best avoided. It has been mooted that about 50% of people in prison have a reading age of seven or below. Some of those may be neurodivergent and have dyslexia, some may not have English as their first language, some could be both! So, presenting and demonstrating information in several ways will widen the ‘bell curve’ and effectively reach a higher percentage of your audience.
Making things as accessible as possible is the golden rule. Neurodiversity and the adversity which it can bring for these children is a messy combination that’s personal and variable. When approached with awareness and understanding, though, positive outcomes are more than achievable.
Do-It Solutions are Levelling the Playing Field’s National Steering Group partners. We are using their platform to record data on participants which will feed into our evidence base of best practice. This evidence will form the basis of advances in policy, practice, and future investment.