[MUSIC] >>Welcome to "A World of Difference: Embracing Neurodiversity."

You know the names Terry Bradshaw, Tim Tebow, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan.

And you know the glory they achieved on the field and on the court.

But what you might not know is that before all the glory, these athletes often struggle with navigating the neurotypical world as youngsters who learn and think differently, and the list goes on.

Neurodivergent athletes have long excelled in professional sports, yet with the growing embrace of neurodiversity, more and more successful athletes who learn and think differently, including uber-gymnast Simone Biles and the real Aquaman, Michael Phelps, are breaking records and barriers while boldly wearing their neurodivergence around their necks like an Olympic gold medal.

And good thing too, these unmasked athletes are helping children with learning differences discover that neurodivergent youth not only can shine in sports but also score a greater confidence, improve their attention, focus and impulse control, and develop a sense of belonging, and more, even if mom and dad can't help but worry about the intersection of sports and coordination issues, over stimulation, social challenges, and performance anxiety as they cheer on their athletes.

On this episode, we visit a Virginia school for dyslexic learners and a Florida college for students with learning and attention issues whose students strive as vigorously on the soccer field or the basketball court as they do in the classroom.

Next, our panel of national experts shares the playbook for helping kids who learn differently find success and belonging in organized sports.

Later, you'll meet our latest difference maker, an NBA champion who is scoring points for spotlighting his dyslexia and showing dyslexic youth how to fast-break to success.

We begin with a tale of two schools, The New Community School for Dyslexia in Richmond, Virginia, and Beacon College in Leesburg, Florida, which are on the same page with embracing the health, mental, and social benefits organized sports brings neurodivergent athletes.

Chief correspondent Cindy Peterson brings us the story.

[MUSIC] >>One, two, three, Sabers!

[MUSIC] >>An often overlooked element to educating students with learning differences is athletics and fitness.

Beyond the physical benefits, sports cultivate social skills, teamwork, and a sense of belonging.

We stopped by The New Community School in Richmond, Virginia, a school for students who are challenged by dyslexia and related learning differences, to find out more about why they've invested in a top-notch athletic and fitness program.

>>We spent 10 years building a program that would best prepare them for college while keep working on their skills and advocacy skills, strengthening their strengths, and building out all the programs that the other independent schools here in town had so they felt like we're a real school.

When we got here, you didn't see a lot of sportswear with our Sabers on it through town, but now you do.

And I brought on Eric Gobble nine years ago to build the health and wellness program and athletic program that these kids deserve.

And now, this fall, we have eight teams, just like a school across town with 500 students, we have 229 students.

But our philosophy is if you want to play a sport, we will make a team for you.

>>The rates of things like anxiety and depression are so high across every school in the country, but we know that students at LD schools have often an even higher rate of those kinds of things.

And so giving them the tools to handle those aspects, help them to be better people and help them to be better students.

>>As the students discover their athletic abilities, many are finding that the programs help build self-confidence and resilience in an inclusive environment that evens the playing field.

>>I wasn't, like, really looking to play volleyball, but then when I heard about, like, our volleyball team and stuff and, like, the relationships that people made, I was so excited to start playing.

>>I started athletics here, which helped me spread out and make new friends through people I wouldn't really talk to to begin with.

And that also helped me in the classroom to kind of voice more instead of sitting back.

>>With like ADHD, kids need a release of energy.

They're always wanting to move so having sports at the end of the day gives 'em a time and place to go and release.

People might think that they're different, and sports is a way for them to feel like they're in a group and feel normal.

>>Overall, the addition of the athletic program has improved not only the student's experience but ultimately aids in the development of the entire child, inside and outside the classroom.

>>Something that I love about the school now is the culture that we build.

I think everybody here generally thrives in an atmosphere where mistakes are encouraged and where everybody is willing to help each other and lift each other up.

>>They take that confidence back to the classroom, they take that confidence to college and out into the world.

And sports at an LD school adds that confidence element.

>>I think they understand that this school not just helps 'em with their reading, writing, and their math.

This school can really help them be their very best self and ready for their next chapter.

>>Speaking of the next chapter, we stopped by Beacon College in Leesburg, Florida, the nation's first accredited college offering four-year degrees designed around the needs of students with diagnosed learning differences.

Head basketball coach and former NBA player Sam Vincent is in his second year coaching and has already helped catapult the school's athletics department to the next level.

>>The focus for me is, is really a lot of positive reinforcement.

Sometimes they've been told, "No, you can't do this," or "No, you can't do that."

We try to stay away from that.

Yes, you can.

We want to be positive.

We want to give them opportunities to grow.

And so what I know is from being on the court and the curriculum that we create on the court, it forces them to be challenged.

And then we communicate positively with a lot of reinforcement, so they leave feeling tired, energized but like they've made progress.

And that's the most important thing.

We're not concerned about anything other than making progress.

And so by the end of the year, we had kids that were much stronger with their communication skills.

They felt a lot more confident.

Their self-esteem was higher, their punctuality at class improved, and they were just easier to be around.

So we valued that as progress.

Regardless of what was happening on the scoreboard, we felt that individual progress with each player took place.

>>This fall, Beacon College was admitted into the United States College Athletic Association, giving even more opportunities for students with learning differences.

>>It puts us on the map almost 'cause it gives also, like, kids in around the country an idea that they could still go to college and still play basketball and still get their academics straight.

>>Sports can obviously be a great way to bond together people.

And sometimes you might be on a team that you, you know, you might not like somebody or you don't agree with the way they do things.

But it's important to learn how to work together because that's how it is in the real world.

So that's really what basketball does, it gets you ready for the real world out there.

I feel like that's what it's done for me.

>>It's a firm belief that I have that there's a large population globally of these kids who just need an opportunity.

So to be at Beacon and be the leader in the US at providing these opportunities for kids who are neurodiverse, it's just an exciting mission for me.

>>With "A World of Difference," I'm Cindy Peterson.

[MUSIC] >>Thanks, Cindy.

Next, let's meet our experts, who share strategies for making sports beneficial for kids who learn differently.

[MUSIC] Melissa Buffin is a registered and licensed pediatric occupational therapist and creator of the Peace of Mind Parenting Community, which provides families neurosensory-based online resources and courses, community, and live support.

She's a Golden Bell Award of Excellence recipient from the California School Board's Association for Early Intervention Program at Delmar School District.

Dr. Ulrick Vieux is a certified child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist who serves as section chief of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Division at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey.

He has an extensive history in working with professional and amateur athletes ranging from the NFL to middle school.

Gabe Watson is director of fitness and athletics at Beacon College in Leesburg, Florida, the nation's first accredited baccalaureate institution dedicated to educating neurodivergent students with learning and attention issues.

Watson holds bachelor's and master's degrees in physical education and has coached men's basketball at both the high school and college level.

And we're gonna start our conversation with Melissa.

Melissa, movement is the first way that humans learn to interact with the world, so sports seems like a perfect fit, but in your experience, is it common for children with learning and attention issues to also have physical challenges that can complicate their participation in sports?

>>Darryl, such a great question.

The thing that I see as a pediatric occupational therapist the most is challenges with motor planning.

So when that happens, kids sometimes have difficulty with the initiation, sequencing, and execution of a motor plan or a motor movement.

So something that looks simple to us can be very challenging to them.

So if you say, "Oh, go bat the ball at Little League," you know, there's a lot of complex steps involved in that.

So different things that we work on are really using strategies like chunking skills.

I know that's very, very clinical, but basically breaking it down into small pieces, allowing them to feel success, like walking up to the plate.

Where do your feet go?

Where do your hands go on the bat?

That's a huge piece that you can practice.

And as soon as we feel success with that, we can continue to build on it so that community-based sports aren't so overwhelming for kids that have motor planning challenges.

Another quick strategy is visuals.

So when my husband was actually the softball coach for our community, when I would go and help different teammates that I saw struggling, we would put X's on the field exactly where they were supposed to stand or put their feet.

So visual supports can help with that as well.

So it's really that motor planning piece that we can see kids get tripped up on.

But a lot of strategies can foster success pretty quickly as well.

>>All right, and Dr. Vieux, can you elaborate a bit on some of the specific cognitive and emotional benefits that children who are neurodivergent reap from participating in organized sports?

>>Thank you.

And first, I think it's really important for us to kind of define what we are talking about when we're talking about neurodivergent.

Are we talking about specifically ADHD, autism, dyslexia, some learning disorders as well?

So one of the challenges that we have with children that have these what I call special gifts.

I mean, this is what I say to my patients, is that this presentation comes in a spectrum.

So they can be a very challenging perspective that some of these kids may display.

But one of the things that we need to kinda work with is helping these kids deal with the social communication that's important in dealing with sports.

So it gives them an advantage, an opportunity to practice those essential social skills.

Another aspect is actually being active.

Being active is a really important aspect in actually helping contain some of these activities.

Because fundamentally, if you look at ADHD, one of the challenges of people with ADHD is this inability to focus, this inability to, this ability to have so much energy but not necessarily knowing how to put that energy in an effective manner.

And participation in sports due to the organization, due to the importance of following rules, ability to communicate with peers, that is of an essential aspect.

It provides a skill to practice learning these key differences.

>>All right.

So Gabe, can you tell me about some of the common misconceptions surrounding children who have learning attention issues when it comes to sports?

>>Well, I think, like, one of the biggest things is that there are differences.

That they think there's major differences.

For instance, you know, we were tasked two years ago to create athletics here at the college.

And one of the questions that I've got so many times was from athletic directors and coaches, "Okay we've read a little bit about your school, what are gonna be some of the challenges that we face, and what are some of the differences that we're gonna see?"

But I'd let 'em know that our students are just as smart as anybody else.

They're very intelligent, different things like that.

And so sometimes it's just with our students, it's just something they communicate differently or they just think differently.

And so when you're on the court, really you're judged by how you're performing.

And so when you're out on the playing surface and playing, your playing does the talking.

And that's kind of the motto I tell 'em, "We're gonna be just like everybody else."

A lot of our students are way smarter than me, and they correct me all the time when I'm doing something wrong, and they help me.

So there's just learning.

You fear what you don't know, and so you're just really, I spend a lot of time just educating people on what kind of college we are, 'cause, you know, we've never had sports before, so we're really just introducing our college to a lot of different places and really explaining to 'em the misconceptions that are out there that our students are just like everybody else.

>>Okay.

So, Melissa, in your experience as an occupational therapist, are there sports that are better suited to children with learning and attention issues?

>>Well, just like Dr. Vieux said, it really is child-specific and everything different, neurodivergent differences are on a large spectrum, so it is very custom to that child.

However, I would say something that I've experienced the most in my practice is that if a child is struggling or if they're just getting into sports, what we do is we do kind of coach the parent.

Pick something that, of course, the child is interested and wants to, is highly motivated to participate in.

But we do say to kind of look at more of the individual sports first.

So examples of that would be like gymnastics, karate, swimming, where the child is learning the skill and they can really build, again, their confidence in that area.

And then, as they, you know, go on through childhood, if they are interested in sports, maybe after they get some of the foundational skills, like eye-hand coordination and different tasks like that, then they can look at more of the team-type sports where there's a lot more to keep track of, like soccer or basketball, where not only do you have to perform yourself but you also have to know where all your teammates are, where they're going to be in the next five seconds, and then coordinate your movements with them.

So we do coach parents ongoing from a more individualistic-based sport, but still can be on a team, to more complex sports that have more skills going on simultaneously.

>>Thank you.

So, Dr. Vieux, you often hear parents say, "I'm gonna get my kid enrolled in karate so that he can gain discipline."

Can you talk to me about how kids who have learning and attention issues might be able to improve, say, their attention, their focus, and their impulse control by engaging in organized sports?

>>Well, the fundamental issue of a lot of these neurodivergent diagnosis is what we call the dopamine hypothesis.

So there's a belief that what's happening is that there's a lower level of dopamine.

The thing about this with these neurotransmitters, when you are physically active, that actually increases these neurotransmitters.

So it is not uncommon to see a child that has ADHD, after they are participating in a sport, whether it's karate, whether it's running track, whether it's playing football, two to three hours after the sport, they're actually able to focus.

So it just kind of goes back to that understanding of what is actually happening from a chemical perspective.

So I think one of those things that we are speaking to parents actually explaining the neurobiology that is happening when kids are active in sports, that in itself gives an indication of why athletics plays a role.

And going back to what was said, I mean, you do have to understand what is the ideal sport for your child.

I mean, you may have to do some trial and error.

Maybe at first focusing on individual sports where you focusing on some of the abilities the visual abilities that's needed for sports, focusing on that part initially, then progressing to more of the team sports, that can also be effective because one of the advantages of actually working within a team is the ability to kind of understand, learn from other individuals.

Because one thing that you'll see with a lot of kids who are suffer, who have neurodivergent challenges is that these kids are profoundly, profoundly empathic.

[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.

Next, let's meet our latest difference maker.

As the son of a legendary Hall of Fame NBA player, you might assume the good life would be a slam dunk for Gary Payton II.

Yet in grade school, Payton struggled, his self-esteem plummeted, and he began to believe he didn't measure up to his peers.

Then came his dyslexia diagnosis.

It was the answer he needed and the fuel that sparked his competitive fire to press through school, up his game on the court, and fight through athletic disappointments before finally getting the shine on the biggest stage, the NBA Finals.

And after reaching the top, Payton was intentional about not forgetting his journey.

He reaches back to help youngsters like he was, fast break to their own shining moments.

Correspondent Bassey Arikpo brings us his story.

[MUSIC] >>Gary Payton II is a warrior on and off the court.

Like his dad, the Hall of Fame point guard, Gary The Glove Payton, the younger Payton is a defensive-minded baller and NBA champion with the Golden State Warriors.

Off the court, he fights stereotypes and unawareness and embraces young athletes through basketball camps to show that kids with dyslexia can play sports at a high level just like him.

>>I was having trouble in classes on tests.

You know, as I got older, my mom was reading something on the planes one time, and she came across dyslexic, and she was reading all the symptoms.

So she got me tested for it, and she found out that I had dyslexia.

>>As a child, Payton struggled with school and his confidence.

He battled the confusion and frustration that came with having undiagnosed and untreated dyslexia.

However, due to his grit and his family support, he found success working diligently to achieve his goals and dreams.

>>When he found out that he was dyslexic, I just told him that he had to learn different.

And he shed a tear and he said that he didn't want to be dumb.

And I told him, "You're never gonna be dumb, you're just going to have to learn different."

>>I was just wondering why I learned different from everybody.

And once I got older and I realized that it's okay to ask for help.

You know, I had no shame in it, and it actually helped me a long way down the road.

>>After starting at Salt Lake Community College, Payton joined Oregon State University, where he earned the 2015 PAC-12 Defensive Player of the Year honors.

Still, he was overlooked in the 2016 NBA draft, but as he did with dyslexia, he kept grinding on towards success.

[MUSIC] After short stints in the NBA G League with several NBA teams, Payton found a home in 2021 with the Warriors, helping the team to his first NBA championship.

Though athletes with learning and attention issues have been successful in sports for as long as athletes have worn short shorts, rarely do they trumpet their neurodivergence.

Payton has gone a different route.

He has boldly proclaimed his dyslexia, and he uses his NBA platform as a megaphone to bring awareness about the world's most common learning difference through the GPII Foundation, which he started with his family during his first year with the Warriors.

The foundation's mission is advocating for early screening and detection of dyslexia and providing Bay Area parents and students access to resources.

>>We launched Gary Payton II Foundation about two years ago.

I launched it to shed light and to bring awareness with kids with dyslexia.

I didn't want them to wait until I got as old as I did to start getting help now.

>>So we are really big on early screening, early detection assessments.

Assessments can be so costly and so we try to get out in the Bay Area in the community and provide resources not only for students to succeed in the classroom but also outside of the classroom in real life.

>>We wanna give the parents tools to find out what is going on with their children.

>>They actually had the incredible, innovative idea of implementing a partnership with medical providers and hospitals to help provide free dyslexia screening for children.

And it really does align perfectly with our vision to serve kids and empower them with, you know, mind, body, and spirit.

>>So California is one of probably, like, nine or 10 states at this point that don't screen kids for dyslexia.

The state tried to pass a bill to make that just standard.

This is not something that people are putting on the Wheaties box at marketing, but he was out there on the steps of city hall in San Francisco speaking about it, talking to kids, talking to people.

I was like, "Wow."

It passed unanimously in the state senate, and so it's now state law.

He was doing it because he believed in it.

If kids can get the help they need early, then it's gonna save them a lot of challenges and stuff down the road.

They're clear, concise, mission-driven, and they're about the kid.

And, especially in the Bay Area, I mean, GPII is like a legend out here.

>>For individuals navigating dyslexia as Payton is, he offers these tactics from his playbook.

>>I've been knocked down before, you know, with my dyslexia growing up, and now I'm being knocked down with basketball.

It's kind of the same thing.

You get back up, you find out your tools, you ask for help.

If you're older or you're younger and you're asking a older or younger person, like, it's okay to ask for help.

It's okay to get guidance.

Sometimes we want to figure things, stuff out all by ourselves, and you need a good support and good people that are behind you in your corner to help you.

I think if you have that, you may fall down a couple times, just get back up and get back after it.

>>For "A World of Difference," I'm Bassey Arikpo.

[MUSIC] >>Thanks, Bassey, and congratulations, Gary Payton II, for making a difference.

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

I'm Darryl Owens.

I'll 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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