(upbeat music) >>Welcome to a World of Difference: Embracing Neurodiversity.

I'm Darryl Owens.

Plato's timeless wisdom, "Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle," rings especially true for neurodivergent children.

These young minds, which think and learn differently, face a unique set of challenges.

Not only do they often struggle to keep pace in traditional classrooms, but because of their learning differences, they also tragically become targets of bullying.

A recent study published in the Journal of Attention Disorders revealed that nearly half of children with ADHD are victims of bullying.

Other research confirmed children with autism are disproportionately targeted by bullies.

It's a harsh reality that highlights the urgent need for greater understanding and compassion.

On this episode, we'll hear from a family across the pond that's battled this challenge for generations.

Next, our panel of national experts explores the roots of bullying and offer practical advice for parents to protect their neurodivergent children.

And you'll meet our latest difference maker, a branding guru who's leveraging his creative genius to help rebrand dyslexia.

First, Helen Read shares her heartbreaking story of her son, a bright child with learning differences.

His experiences with bullying in the United Kingdom schools expose the harsh reality that neurodivergent children often confront worldwide.

(upbeat music) >>Well, having ADHD, overall, I would say it's quite good.

It helps a lot with things which other people normally find a lot, much harder, but it also has its, it also has its weaknesses as well.

For example, a lack of focus, sometimes zoning out, and also a lack of control over emotions.

>>My youngest son is James and he was diagnosed with autism and ADHD about six years ago.

It wasn't exactly a surprise to us because James is the youngest of three.

So I've got two older boys, Ben and Joe.

They are now 26 and 24, and both of them were diagnosed with neurodivergent conditions and ADHD in childhood.

So really by the time number three came along, we were pretty much assuming that he would also be neurodivergent, and if you could be relaxed about such a thing, we were very relaxed about it.

I mean, my experience has very much been learning about how this all works, is that really the biggest challenge is, you know, getting a diagnosis, getting medication is something that I think is very important and has worked very well for my boys, but also kind of making sure the environment and the school is working out well for them and intervening as necessary.

When James was younger and certainly before he was treated, he used to get very upset about things, very passionate.

We were worried about that because obviously it's one thing to do that at home, it's not great to do it at home, but we love him and he can do anything.

However, if he's that reactive and sensitive at school, of course, bullies love to find people's weak points, don't they?

And if somebody's going to be reliably super upset, if you say something small to them, it's quite a worrying thing.

>>Well, I first realized when I was being bullied was in year four.

What they would do is, for example, they would tease in class.

They would just spread rumors and just say things out loud trying to offend me like on purpose, loudly.

Bullying made me feel anxious, depressed, and a bit and quite frustrated and confused.

I've found a couple different ways to cope with it.

One is just to try to talk to people about it, which is something that I didn't do in primary, which in a way was good, both good and bad.

So it made me a lot stronger, but it also was a bit tough in my like self-confidence and, you know, self-esteem, et cetera.

>>You know, it is sad to see your happy little boy suddenly sad, suddenly kind of worried, suddenly, you know, it's bringing up things that children shouldn't have to think about.

You know, what's my life gonna be like?

You know, is everyone in the school gonna turn against me?

Am I gonna have to change?

These kinds of questions, it's very sad to hear your son saying that, but I think that really James has come through that and he's stronger, he's more resilient.

He's got a very good sense of who he is and an awareness of his ADHD.

>>Through various encounters through my life, I've learned to wear thicker skin and made my ADHD a conduit to try to make myself a lot more stronger.

>>Well, I've tried to address his ADHD and also the bullying concerns, primarily, by being very upfront and as much as possible involving him.

He knows about his ADHD.

He's done online courses in it.

He knows about the benefits, he knows about the difficulties.

He chooses to take his medication.

I don't have to force it on him.

He knows that it helps him to listen in school.

He knows that it's important for his future, and he also knows that he feels calmer.

My hopes for James' future are obviously mainly that he has a happy life.

He achieves his potential.

I think all three of my boys are, they're never any, you know, they're the same now as they were when they were babies.

I don't think you can or should want to kind of sculpt someone in a different direction from the way they naturally are going.

And yeah, I hope he carries on being, as, you know, sensitive, rounded, interesting, fabulous person that I hope he continues on that direction and more so.

(upbeat music) >>Next, our panel of national experts discuss the root causes of bullying and provide actionable tips to help parents empower their children to face the world with confidence.

(upbeat music) Andrea Lovanhill is CEO of Committee for Children, a leading advocate for child safety.

Drawing on personal experience with bullying, she champions programs like Second Step fostering social emotional skills in children through campaigns like bullying initiative, Captain Compassion, she empowers students, families, and schools to create safe and supportive learning environments.

Dr. Nicki Nance is a seasoned mental health expert and Associate Professor at Beacon College in Leesburg, Florida.

Beacon is America's first accredited baccalaureate institution dedicated to educating students with learning and attention issues.

They focus on workplace and domestic violence, relationships and anxiety.

She has been featured in numerous publications and media outlets.

Previously, she owned a mental health practice and has contributed to academic journals and encyclopedias.

Octavia Neal is a skilled trauma therapist and program leader at Kaiser Permanente.

She specializes in adult psychiatry and provides short-term individual and group therapy.

With a background in working with children with autism and a passion for holistic mental health, Neal has developed and implemented comprehensive trauma programs.

She's a licensed marriage and family therapist with advanced training in trauma focused therapies, brain spotting, and perinatal mental health.

Currently pursuing a PhD in mind body medicine and functional nutrition, Neal is dedicated to integrating these approaches in her practice.

And we're going to begin our conversation today with Andrea Lovanhill.

What are some of the specific traits or behaviors of neurodivergent children that often make them targets for bullying?

>>Thanks for having me, Darryl, and thanks for that question.

I always like to start with just a definition of bullying because I think it's a good level set for folks that aren't as familiar with the topic.

So when we talk about bullying, we're talking about repeated negative behaviors toward a child or group of child where there's an imbalance of power, and that can be social power or physical power.

It can happen in a lot of different ways.

It can be verbal, it can be physical, it can happen online, it can happen on the playground.

But most often those children who are targeted for bullying have some sort of perceived difference, and that can be physical, it can be religious, it can be about their ability.

For neurodivergent kids, this can be because of things like communication style differences, learning challenges, difficulty with social cues.

There can be a host of things that really, you know, increase their likelihood to be at risk of bullying.

And studies show that over 60% of children and adults on the spectrum face bullying, and that kids with ADHD are nearly twice as likely to be bullied as their peers, especially by middle and high school.

So those are some of the factors that are at play.

>>So Dr. Nance, are there societal misconceptions and biases that contribute to bullying of neurodivergent children?

>>Absolutely, and when you say societal, I always think of how many generations it takes for something to be absorbed into society.

So even just a generation ago, our attitudes about anything, anybody that was different in the academic setting was it's set in stone by, you know, by clumping everybody as slow or retarded, not really looking at neurodivergence, but looking as difference as being less than.

I would say also that our, the misconceptions about for everybody, not just the neurodivergent, is that if there's not some physical kind of contact that there, it's not really bullying and it doesn't matter.

And kind of an attitude of the old attitude, sticks and stones may break my bones, but the fact is words can hurt, can do damage, and that's slow to change.

And I think a lot of kids don't feel welcome to say to adults that they're being bullied.

And unfortunately, bullying has become part of our colloquialism, so sometimes, you know, I'm so glad that Andrea gave such a nice definition, 'cause that's what a lot of people need to know what that is.

>>Alright, thank you.

So Octavia, are there ways that traditional classroom settings and teaching methods contribute to bullying of children with learning and attention issues?

>>Yes, definitely with the standardization of curriculum, you also have the standardization of behaviors too.

We ask students to sit quietly, have direct eye contact, even within group-based learning, social interactions for students who have difficulties with these things, who may connect with their peers in ways that are considered different, again, based off of those particular environments, how other children are kind of raised and taught in their homes, they will often feel isolated and othered.

And it makes it difficult when it's reinforced by the teacher, in terms of any behavior that is considered disruptive or different is usually highlighted and students pick up on that.

So, you know, even the language that gets taught in the classroom about what's behaviorally expected in terms of, you know, presentation, focus, concentration, and communication, you know, if we don't have more inclusive language or even an inclusive conversation to allow others to have different learning styles, it then teaches other kids in that environment as well that hey, this student is different, and, you know, kids kind of go for that.

>>So Andrea, I'm sure the question many parents have on their minds is how can bullying impact their children in the classroom and also their social development?

>>Yes, well, kids who are bullied are more likely to have lower academic achievement.

That's been really shown in the research.

It's also true that they're more likely to miss school or be reluctant to go to school.

In some cases, some may even drop out of school, so bullying can have serious long-term impacts that persist into adulthood.

We see lower confidence, we see more likelihood to have depression.

And for neurodivergent kids that can be especially damaging, it'll impact lots of their ability to succeed in school.

It can, you know, cause a lack of focus in many children, it increases your risk, so kids are feeling unsafe in that environment.

And one of the things that I really like to let people know is actually bullying has a negative effect on the entire school.

So it's not only the children who are targeted for bullying that see these worse outcomes, kids who are committing acts of bullying see that and also those who are experiencing it as a witness, so if you're a bystander to bullying, you also will have negative outcomes.

So our research is really showing us that these long-term challenges can persist if bullying stays unchecked.

Kids who commit acts of bullying are much more likely to engage in substance use in later life, maybe even move into more difficult behaviors, serious, violent, or even criminal behaviors as adults.

And the bystanders, the kids who are witnessing this can be fearful and you feel helpless.

And some of those bystanders will actually begin to align with those who are bullying so that they don't become a target.

So we know that this is a really serious issue affecting a lot of kids.

When that's happening in a setting and there are neurodivergent kids that are being targeted, the effect you can imagine, not only on the student that's being targeted, but the students who are neurodivergent that see that targeting and understand that, you know, that some aspects of their identity are being used in this way or targeted in this way, that it can have a really negative impact.

And it's a lot of kids that are experiencing it.

So we know that like one in five high school students is experiencing this.

I think it can cause distractions.

It can actually make it difficult to access the skills you need to succeed academically.

It can create even more stigma.

It can affect your social support and the kinds of support you get from peers.

So it's an incredibly important thing for parents and educators to focus on.

It's a problem that we need to solve in these environments so that every child can thrive.

>>Alright, so Dr. Nance, typically when we think about bullying, we're thinking about little kids on the playground, but I'm wondering whether even as neurodivergent kids get older and until later adolescence or even early adulthood, are they still targets for bullying?

>>They're still targets for bullying and they still have echoes of any bullying that they've incurred in the past, which, you know, changes how they are around people and makes them more a target for further bullying.

And they, a lot of time for girls, we're talking about verbal, a lot more verbal damaging in a different way and not so visible to anyone else.

The, you know, from a psychological standpoint, your brain takes emotional pain, it reacts to that the same way it does with physical pain, which is a fight or flight response.

So things that are said become ingrained and that raises anxiety and then anxiety is gonna interfere with both academic and social performance.

And it can become a, you know, a lifelong problem that would not have been there had they not been bullied.

At the emotional level, the levels of shame, and as adolescents become more dependent on their peers, all adolescents, as they become more dependent on their peers, their sense of self-esteem is coming from the response of their peers.

Neurodivergent kids who've had so much focus on them, much more than other kids, develop that shame really quickly, and it just resonates with any self-doubt.

They do become sensitive.

A lot of them just isolate because they are, you know, just sensitive.

They are expecting the worst.

And, you know, shame is, it just kind of evolves, but it's the exact opposite of self-esteem.

So anytime you've, somebody has that idea that they're damaged goods, that's like kind of set in stone for them and really difficult to reverse.

(upbeat music) >>Watch the full Ask the Expert segment on our website at awodtv.org, if you wanna learn more about this topic.

You can also watch or listen on Facebook, YouTube, or on your favorite podcasting platform.

(upbeat music) Now let's meet our latest difference maker.

For years, dyslexia has been misunderstood.

As Gil Gershoni sees it, dyslexia is not a limitation, but a launchpad for extraordinary ideas.

Gershoni is flipping the script on dyslexia, rebranding it as a hyper ability.

And Gershoni isn't watching the campaign from the stands, he's taken the show on the road helping to lead the charge to challenge the status quo and inspiring millions.

(upbeat music) >>Some of my advice for parents with children with dyslexia or for that matter, with any differences, which is all of us, is see the beauty within our children.

Let them know that you see their gift, because if you see it, they will see it in your eyes, and with that type of support, with that type of love, it's easy to overcome anything, dyslexia or not.

Hi, my name is Gil Gershoni.

I'm the Founder and Creative Director of Gershoni Creative Agency and Dyslexic Design Thinking.

So I was born and raised in Israel and I grew up in a small town outside of Tel Aviv.

I moved to the United States in my teens to Connecticut and had to learn English at 14 and then struggle with dyslexia and struggle with learning another language and reading and writing in another language.

Sometimes people ask me, "Are you also dyslexic in Hebrew?"

And the answer is, I'm dyslexic regardless of the language, it's the way I think, I'm dyslexic through and through.

It's been quite challenging, but the benefits of that early on experience is I learned how to try hard to apply myself, and how to learn to get the content in different ways, in different mediums.

And as soon as I was able to either hear the story or see the story or illustrate the story, I was able to understand not only the content, but the story behind the story.

So the Dear Dyslexia Postcard Project started about a year ago where I was looking at the intersection of dyslexia and identity, and I wanted to focus not about the disability of dyslexia, but the strength of dyslexia.

I wanted to ask children of all ages, like, what do you love to do, what gives you joy?

Because that's also your dyslexia.

And we invited children to fill in postcards, six by nine, and a little prompt on top that says "dyslexia is to me," and they had to fill it with a single word and then illustrate or express those feelings to go along with it.

You know, it started with few postcards, but to date we have over 1,500 postcards from all over the world.

You know, children as young as six and as mature and as senior as 82 participated.

And the postcard keep coming.

I gotta tell you, it's been just phenomenal success to see this dyslexic community at large expressing their strength, their differences, their challenges, but the most important part is to be seen as this global communities of hyper ability superpowers, people that see the world differently and are celebrating their gift of dyslexia.

(upbeat music) >>I'm proud to be dyslexic because to me that means that I have a superpower that is different than traditional superpowers.

>>I'm proud because of my dyslexia, 'cause when I was at public school, I was my own person and I wasn't like everybody else.

>>I'm proud to have dyslexia because at first I kind of felt like I wasn't like really smart or didn't, wasn't really a great learner, but then when I came to this school, I realized how many people actually had dyslexia and it's just helped me a lot, and I'm very proud to be dyslexic.

(upbeat music) >>The first thing to understand is that I don't see it as an issue.

You know, I see it as just the way I see the world.

And when I lean into my gift of dyslexia, my ability to negotiate everything around me, then it's more of a practice like anybody with a gift, so you hone your skill.

I've done it since I was a little boy and I've learned how to look at the world around me and find ways around the perceived non-negotiable constructs.

It's difficult to read and write because I look at letters as negotiable symbols.

For most folks, these are non-negotiable symbols that when you read a sentence, you just get the story.

For me, every time I see those characters, my mind and my imagination, you know, goes to many places, so it's a little difficult to read and write, but you take the same so-called disability and you apply to anything else I do and it's a hyper ability.

I was sophomore at college, I was at the guidance counselor's office and the phone rang and the person behind the counter says, "There's somebody on the phone that's looking for a designer to design the Miami Grand Prix in Miami.

Do we know anybody?"

And of course, with the same tenacity, I say, "I can do it."

I picked up the phone, I talked to the gentleman on the phone and I said, "We can absolutely do it."

Hung up the phone and the first thing I says is, I had no idea what, how to do it and what to do, so I called a couple of my friends and we started to sort of plan how to do it.

We executed the project with him, we start to work with him for years in other sports events, merchandising, all sorts of different campaigns, and that was really the beginning of my agency.

I just love what I do.

I mean it's, every day is so much fun.

My goal with the Dear Dyslexia Project is to shed light on the strength of the dyslexia mind, to bring awareness to this dyslexia thinking, and to celebrate this community locally and globally.

It's amazing to see children of all ages from 6 to 82 expressing the gift of dyslexia, showing you not just telling you how I think like a dyslexic and celebrating it.

So for me, being part of this People's Art project is a transformative experience, and I invite you all to check out the online gallery.

If you haven't yet, download the template from our website, send it to me.

I'll make sure that it's scanned in, that we can keep creating this narrative of the power of dyslexic thinking.

(upbeat music) >>Congratulations Gil Gershoni for making a difference.

And that does it for this edition of a World of Difference Embracing Neurodiversity.

I'm Darryl Owens, see you back here next time.

You can watch episodes of a World of Difference on the Beacon College Facebook and YouTube channels, and on the show's website awodtv.org.

The website also provides tip sheets and other resources for your parenting journey.

You can watch the show from the PBS app available on your favorite streaming device, and you can listen on your favorite podcasting platform.

Thank you for watching and supporting A World of Difference.

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