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

I'm Darryl Owens.

It's been said that before you judge someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes.

But when the person being judged is neurodivergent, it's often hard for neurotypical peers to even find those shoes, let alone slide into their moccasins.

For children who are often conditioned to mock, marginalize, or misunderstand anything that strays from the so-called norm, it can be especially tough to find common ground.

Why does a classmate laugh at the wrong time or react in ways that seem unexpected or fixate on something others overlook?

It takes empathy.

And helping neurotypical children and teens develop empathy for their neurodivergent peers is essential to building inclusive classrooms, campuses, and communities.

The good news, with awareness, perspective taking, shared experiences, and intentional modeling, parents, caregivers, and educators can help kids get closer to stepping into those moccasins.

On this episode of "A World of Difference," we explore an innovative online platform that helps neurotypical parents, caregivers, and students better understand how kids who think and learn differently experience the world.

Our panel of national experts shares practical strategies for parents, schools, and communities to nurture empathy and inclusion.

And we meet our latest difference maker, a Grammy-nominated musician who discovered that the most powerful way to help others experience life through his autistic son's eyes was note by note.

But first, we head to New York City where understood.org, a leading advocacy group for families raising children with learning differences is fine tuning its immersive program, Through My Eyes.

This interactive tool lets users experience the world through the lens of kids with ADHD, dyslexia, and dyscalculia.

Because when you see differently, you act differently.

(upbeat music) >>Cheerios.

>>Cheerios?

When do you have dance next?

>>Tomorrow.

>>Tomorrow?

What time?

>>9:30 I think.

>>Oh, is this that special palm- >>Yeah.

>>Class that you have?

Oh gosh, you have so many classes.

>>How do you wanna hold her?

You wanna hold her like this?

>>Yeah.

>>Okay.

Put it under her neck there.

There you go.

(Sebastian chuckles) What do you sing to her?

What do you usually sing to her though?

>>Key.

>>You sing a song to her though, which one?

(Sebastian humming) Hold her like that.

>>My name is Alexandra and I'm in grade seven.

I know that kids who learn differently, like need more help with certain stuff.

If they have a learning disability, they need more help if they can't learn it as fast as typical kids.

>>What's your favorite part of school?

Are you excited to go back to school soon?

(ambient music) >>Eh.

>>Are you?

>>Not today, no.

>>That's right, not today, but when we go back, are you excited to go back?

>>Yeah.

>>Sebastian has his own way of speaking.

When he talks, he'll say, he'll say what he would like you to ask him or what he would like you to say in order to initiate the conversation >>So he doesn't fully understand what's going on at certain times and it creates anxiety.

>>Right, right.

>>So it's hard to see, you know, when he gets anxious, although over the years, it's gotten much better.

I think he's learned to control it much better, but when he was little, the anxieties were, it became meltdowns and that was very difficult.

(ambient music) >>What are some of the strengths that we see that could come from all learning and thinking difference?

Do you see any strengths from friends or people you know who have these differences?

Learning and thinking differences are so commonly misunderstood because people aren't able to see how they really affect real world kids.

For so many of our kids, that leaves them at a disadvantage.

They're misjudged, they're misunderstood, so it doesn't bring out the likely effect of getting them help.

One of the things that we're gonna be doing today is we're gonna be talking about an experience from Understand.

So what I learned from you folks today is gonna help me make this better.

It's so important when you create a platform like this that when you bring in kids and families, that their voices and experience are the first thing that you see.

For us, at Understood so much of what we're doing is using families as the delivery source of where this information comes from.

Our expert team, our teachers, our educators, they're able to help us shape and format what we're doing so the information can be used not just at home with families, but in school in the larger world.

What we do at Understood is create a lot of evidence-based expert-created content that helps people learn about these differences and get it in a way that allows them to feel confident that what they're learning is accurate.

And when we give it to them for free, it makes a huge difference.

And then feeling like, okay, I understand my child, or as a teacher, I understand my students, which makes all the difference in helping them be successful and thrive in life.

Through My Eyes is an immersive digital experience that was created with the purpose of showing those internal experiences of the kids that we platform.

So when a kid has ADHD or dyslexia, people will think often about symptoms.

When you see real kids in real life, what you see is how this affects them.

And using a platform that allows them to do things like watch them go through a daily activity, hear them talk about their lives or have an interview with their parents present, what we're able to do is break down a lot of stigmas by providing real world impressions and information.

>>I learned that people with learning disabilities see and process things different than other people.

It was like hard to think that people with dyslexia like see that every day, just not in a video game.

>>He just wants to be around people.

I mean, we have so much to learn from him and kids like him.

I mean, he has nothing for himself.

You know, he's just happy to be out and experiencing life and connecting with people.

>>The world will be a better place if the other kids can understand what disabled children go through.

It opens up their minds into what, you know, the different types of experiences >>Through My Eyes is unique in the sense that it's a free product that allows kids to access and parents to access this information so that when you see differently, you can act differently.

(gentle music) (upbeat music) >>Next, our expert panel explores the seeds of empathy and provides strategies and tips for helping neurotypical kids understand neurodivergent peers.

(bright music) Bari Levin is a veteran special educator with over 30 years of classroom experience.

Now, as the executive director of the I Am Able Foundation, she uses the power of storytelling and community advocacy to change the narrative around neurodiversity, creating more inclusive schools and workplaces for the next generation.

Dr.

Dana Manzo is the vice president of Student Affairs at Beacon College in Leesburg, Florida, a top institution for students with learning differences.

A licensed mental health counselor, she's an expert in building supportive and equitable campus systems that help neurodivergent young adults thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.

Dr.

Matt Zakreski is a clinical psychologist and author of the "Neurodiversity Playbook."

He specializes in translating complex brain science into practical real world strategies.

Dr.

Matt helps families and educators understand the psychology of neurodivergence, reduce stigma, and build a world rooted in compassion and understanding.

And we're gonna begin our conversation with Bari.

From your decades in the classroom, how did you see neurotypical students' understanding of neurodivergent peers evolve over time?

>>That's an important question to ask because it's changed a lot.

When I first started teaching my classroom, a lot of people did not want to associate with Mrs.

Levin's classroom of being a special educator and the students in it.

And from the time has evolved and I got myself more involved with the school system and the teachers and made myself well known within the general ed classroom as well and I really believe that piece of it really helped.

And towards the end of my career, I ended up doing a lot of talking with students about their own neurodiversity and understanding why they, the big question is why.

Why do they need the extra help or why do they need maybe a fidget?

And so then, and it can expand more in the general ed classroom.

And we created an initiative called the We All Learn Differently where we started the conversation in all the classrooms and it's a video and you could watch the video, and then start conversations.

So there's definitely so much improvement from when I first started teaching.

In fact, my last note is, in fact, I had students who wanted to be in my classroom, which was really unique to see.

>>All right, thank you.

So Dr.

Manzo, at the college level, students are developing their student identities.

And why is it important for neurotypical students to develop empathy for their neurodivergent peers, not just for campus harmony, but for their success in the modern workplace?

>>Absolutely.

College is where young adults begin to define who they are, not just academically, but as people in a community with others.

Developing empathy for neurodivergent peers is essential because it shapes how students will lead in the future.

When neurotypical students learn alongside their neurodivergent peers, they develop patience, flexibility, and emotional intelligence.

Skills that every modern workplace values.

Today's most successful teams are made up of people who think differently.

Companies are actively seeking out neurodiverse talent because it drives creativity and problem solving.

So understanding neurodiversity isn't just about being kind on campus, it's professional preparation.

>>Thank you very much.

So, Dr.

Matt, you're an expert at making brain science accessible.

Can you tell us what is happening inside of a neurotypical child's brain when they encounter a neurodivergent peer for the first time?

>>Yeah, and it's a wonderful question because that's why we ground all this work in brain science because it isn't about the person.

It's really about what's happening in your brain.

So we have these things called mirror neurons.

And mirror neurons watch what other people are doing and they prepare our brain to act in the same way if that behavior becomes necessary.

And neurotypical brains have mirror neurons that work on a very specific cadence.

Neurodivergent brains function at a very different cadence.

So you can imagine, if you were trying to do clapping along, like you're at a concert and the person next to you is just clapping really, really fast, your brain's gonna go, "Well, that's different."

And our brains have a default setting to different is scary and scary is bad, but not all differences are deficits.

So if you can have people be more aware and more open to different cadences of how these mirror neurons function, what you're doing is you're developing the brain stance of curiosity, which leads directly to empathy and inclusion and as we all hope, friendships.

>>All right.

So Bari, your foundation uses storytelling to build empathy.

Can you tell us why storytelling is such a powerful tool in helping bridge the gap between neurotypical and neurodivergent kids?

>>What's really powerful is it's the human connection and you are able to listen, you're able to hear their personal stories, their triumphs, their celebrations, their strengths, and then you're able to think about, "Oh, well, they're not so different from me."

And it also, it helps building empathy.

Storytelling helps build empathy, it helps building understanding, and it starts the conversation.

That's really what's important is starting the conversation, especially during the school years where you could work together instead of working separately and saying, "Oh, well, just because they're neurodiverse, they're different."

No, we wanna celebrate their differences and look at the unique individual strength and how everyone is together.

We just may learn differently, but we are all human connected and have some strengths and some challenges as well.

The other thing is it breaks down the misconceptions and creates empathy for, and understanding.

So the storytelling is a huge piece that really starts conversations.

And once you start that conversation, you could start breaking down the walls.

>>So Dr.

Manzo, around the college orientation time seems a perfect time to try to build empathy among students.

And I understand that Beacon College caters to neurodivergent students, but are there programs out there that colleges can proactively use to build empathy among neurodivergent and neurotypical students?

>>One of the most powerful things I've seen is an interactive program called Project Able.

During orientation, students rotate through short simulations that mimic some of the challenges that neurodivergent peers might experience.

So things like reading text that's visually distorted to understand dyslexia or trying to focus while hearing distracting background noise to understand sensory overload.

It's not about pity, it's about perspective.

And that awareness shifts the tone of the entire campus from day one.

>>All right.

So Dr.

Matt, your book is basically a playbook of strategies.

Can you, let's talk about teenagers for a moment.

What's one play that a neurotypical high schooler can use to bridge the social gap between himself in his neurotypical, a neurodivergent peer?

>>I love that, and so let's think about, you know, we're in high, we're teens, we're in high school, right?

We're walking down the hallway, or you could be walking across the quad in college and you see somebody you know that say they're in your chem class and you say, "Oh, hey," give them the old wave and they don't wave back.

Now, your brain goes to this place of they're mad at me, they hate me.

And we know thoughts lead to feelings and feelings lead to behaviors, and our behaviors reinforce our thoughts.

So if you think this person who's walking towards you across the quad is mad at you, that thought leads to the feeling of, "I'm hurt, I'm sad, I'm angry."

So then you avoid that person.

Now the person goes, "Why are you being weird to me?"

Thus, and then they act weird to you, which thus sort of creates the conclusion, the self-fulfilling prophecy.

So in my job as a psychologist, what I do with kids is we create that experience as a mental exercise and say, okay, your friend's walking down the hallway, you wave at them, they don't wave back.

Now, it is totally true.

The language we use for this is there's a non-zero chance that that kid is mad at you.

You may have screwed up.

But if you only think of one possible explanation, then all the feelings line up behind that explanation and the behaviors flow from those big feelings.

So what we're trying to do instead here is say, "That could be true.

What else could be true?"

Maybe they've got their AirPods in, maybe they're running late for our college students.

Maybe they're a little hungover 'cause they celebrated the basketball team winning last night, or they're on the phone with their mom, or, or, or, or, or.

The idea is the more potential explanations we give people, the lower the emotional intensity gets, and then we become more flexible, and that flexibility helps us smooth out any misunderstandings that may occur in a difficult to understand environment.

(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.

(bright music) Next, let's meet our latest difference maker.

As a boy growing up with ADHD, Chris Redding often felt misunderstood, out of sync, out of place, and playing it all by ear.

That feeling took on deeper meaning when his young son, marching to the beat of his own drum, was diagnosed with autism.

Already a passionate advocate for neurodiversity, Redding was driven by a dual mission to connect more deeply with his nonverbal son and to help the world better understand how his son experiences life.

The result, "Visions Of Sounds," an album of ambient chant, hip hop, and R&B that became a kind of musical Rosetta Stone.

Through stimming rhythms, vocal echolalia, and layered textures, Redding created a sonic world where his son could feel seen and soothed, and where listeners could peer into a window thrown wide open.

A Grammy nomination was a welcome nod.

But hearing how "Visions Of Sounds" has fostered connection and understanding worldwide, that's music to his ears.

(bright music) (gentle music) >>Since my son's diagnosis, my family took the time to really educate ourselves more, not only what diversity means, but what true acceptance means.

My name is Chris Redding, and I am a neurodivergent music producer and composer.

I was diagnosed at the age of 13 with ADHD.

And later in life, I started to realize that I had something called synesthesia where when I hear sounds in music, I would interpret them in as colors and pictures.

>>Getting the autism diagnosis for our son, Christian, has really shaped Chris's approach to music in that it kind of brought back a lot of feelings and emotions of how it was growing up for him being a neurodivergent individual.

- I think what inspired me to want to be more vocal about my neurodivergence and also my son's neurodivergence is the lack of acceptance.

You hear a lot about, you know, neurodiversity and you hear a lot about, you know, autism acceptance, but there just isn't a lot of acceptance in specific spaces.

But I wanted to create this project as a dedication to, let's look at this from a different perspective.

>>Our message with this album and, you know, our advocacy and going out and speaking is just that of love and acceptance.

I'm hoping that we're able to continue to create a world that will accept and embrace neurodivergent individuals, which includes my son.

And it made him take a deeper look into what that means for him as a neurodivergent individual, navigating this world and what it would mean for our son.

All of that came into play when he was creating the album, and it all just came out in those songs.

(Christian humming) >>So sometimes Christian would use something we call vocal stimming, and it's basically vibrational sounds used to express emotions and excitement.

So one of the unique things we did was we incorporated stimming sounds and vocal echolalia.

(upbeat music) It is definitely an experimental project.

It is something that fuses together a lot of different elements.

And so listening to it with an open mind and with an open heart is, I would say, key to really understanding and to experiencing something different.

Art is an interpretation of how you feel and that is the very essence of being neurodivergent.

All of the things that we experience in life and how we process these things are all a part of the experience.

>>To see Chris connect with Christian through music is absolutely amazing.

It's really infiltrated our entire family.

It's how we all kind of communicate now.

Christian's having a meltdown, we put on music.

Even with our neurotypical child, we want them to calm down or anything, we play music.

And so it's just been an amazing thing to see how powerful music is and how it helps us all communicate with each other.

- So when I play "Visions Of Sounds" or any song for Christian, we share that experience because Christian immerses himself into it.

And I'm glad, as a dad, that I could share that experience with him and connect with him on that level.

It's definitely something that's spiritual there.

(gentle music) Throughout my journey, I'm continued to learn more about acceptance, and I'm also learning it even from my youngest son, Cairo, who is, he's neurotypical, but his interaction with Christian, his older brother, has definitely taught me about acceptance as well.

>>As a family as a whole, we began this journey with Christian's diagnosis.

Didn't know a whole lot about neurodiversity.

To be honest, I had never even heard that word.

You know, when you get that diagnosis for a year, we didn't share our story and it did feel like we were the only ones going through this.

So we want people to know that there are so many other parents going through the same things and we're all here for each other.

>>Oh, it's just been such a blessing because I've been able to connect with people all over the world that have shared similar stories and share, you know, their message of love and acceptance.

And I'm just glad to be able to shine that light and to be able to be a voice in that space.

(gentle music) (bright music) Congratulations, Chris Redding, for making a difference.

And that does it For this edition of "A World of Difference: Embracing Neurodiversity."

I'm Darryl Owens.

See you 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."

(bright music) (dramatic music) (upbeat music)