[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.16″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” min_height=”428.6px” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
Note: This article veers off wildly from my learnt writing style of trying to create a cohesive narrative with limiting sentence structure and instead explores the plotlines & images my mind was drawn to over the course of this work, without trying to overexplain my thoughts. In celebration and experimentation of finding my own neurodiverse voice I have made no attempt to \u2018correct\u2019 these to \u2018pass\u2019 as neurotypical\u00a0 – this work is much more how my brain experiences different threads – a single word prompting a jump to a different stream. For a more cohesive (and longer) read- see my <\/span><\/i>resource on the tools and practices<\/span><\/i><\/a> we explored during the course. I have also left other \u2018mini articles\u2019 in the report which I did not have space for here.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n <\/i><\/p>\n <\/i><\/p>\n As a child I was lucky enough to have been homeschooled by my mom, Belinda Merven, who is a truly excellent educator. We would choose how to structure our days- picking from various subjects and topics we wanted to explore based on our interest. We had a curriculum to follow, but if we wanted to hyperfocus on maths for the whole day and do only art the next day it was allowed. Heck, it was encouraged!<\/span><\/p>\n My favourite topic was always science and nature play. Growing up on what I now recognise as a prototype of an organic, polycrop permaculture-styled farm, I had access to an incredible range of nature experiences. If we were learning about trees- we had an adventure to find as many different types of leaves as we could (acacia, lucky bean tree, stinkwood), we would then organise them into categories and learn the names of different leaf types (compound bipinnate, simple cordate, simple oblong toothed), then create trees which were part art project, part botanical illustration. I was fascinated by the adaptation of nature to fit into the environment (how acacias had millions of tiny leaves to deal with hot dry conditions in the South African veld), and by the relationships between different species (the tree providing shelter for the birds who would grow up to eat and distribute the the tree\u2019s seeds).<\/span><\/p>\n Through the contrast of my experiences at \u2018normal school\u2019 I was able to see the stark differences in how most children\u2019s brains were moulded. There was no customisation, niche construction, or design thinking. We were 30 nameless, faceless bodies filling seats, our minds equal and empty to be filled up with history and chemistry and lessons on how to be a \u2018good citizen\u2019 in our fledgling democracy- taught by people who were still grappling with what this meant for themselves.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n My mom\u2019s IT classroom in the High School she taught at, is again a contrast. I feel like many of her students were likely neurodiverse. Unable to cope with the monolithic rote-teaching and being disciplined for not learning in a socially-acceptable way;\u00a0 they would thrive in her relaxed and practice-oriented environment. Although cliche, it seems computers were a safe haven where neurodiverse students could finally feel intelligent because they were allowed to work with headphones on, stim and fidget, and emphasis wasn\u2019t placed on outward social confidence – or who was on the rugby team. Her classes felt more like an office in Google than the learning-by-force of her peers. My mom is now a highly celebrated teacher, with many certifications and awards, as well as teaching IT at one of the most progressive schools in the country – but my measure for her success is the grown men who stop her in the grocery store, teary eyed, to thank her for saving their lives during highschool.<\/span><\/p>\n Working through this course I recognise my mother in her genius of positive niche construction, understanding interest-based nervous systems and using INCUP to motivate her students (and herself), using tools like mindfulness to teach us how to downregulate our nervous systems, always building confidence through a strengths-based culture, creating spaces of belonging – especially for the most marginalised, understanding stimming as engagement with interoception, being trauma-informed and engaging with the challenges she faced through a post-traumatic growth lens. It\u2019s humbling to find the language to describe our shared experiences, and yet still those experiences go beyond the siloed theory into a space of living a deeply connected and vibrant life; and basing life and educational design on deep engagement and connection which results in more honest observation. More than that I can attribute my mom\u2019s genius to her own wildly different brain, and a certain disregard for society\u2019s illogical norms; and I am glad she had the courage to follow her own innovative and creative ways of understanding the world. In this way she embodies what a strengths-based view can do for a person who embraces their own brain-strengths and lives authentically.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s very interesting to be alive in a time when (as neurodivergents) instead of being marginalised, made to feel stupid, or categorised as diseased and disordered; we are being given language to explore and explain the things we have done always, to survive in a world not designed for us. I want to emphasise, we have always done these things. No academic researcher can claim or own the techniques and tools here, they belong to the community and have been co-developed through generations of testing. My own mother is a pioneer in neurodiverse education research, but you won\u2019t find her name on any academic reports (She was also a pioneer as a woman running a financially viable, polycrop, mixed animal, mostly organic, permaculture farm\/homestead; but you won\u2019t find her referenced in any design manual – a topic for another day). Just like her, how many millions of us have contributed to the design and thinking and innovation which makes our world so interesting?<\/span> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I\u2019m moved to make space for giving thanks and celebrating the excellent work of the CoLab in granting me the ability to access this course, to give me the space and time to really dive into the findings and reflections throughout, and to hopefully have created something of deep value which can help us all build self-organised spaces which are more inclusive of all diversities. I also want to thank my co-course-navigation partner Jyo, who through her own brave and defiant voice gave me the courage to explore and reveal my own mind\u2019s workings and musings. It\u2019s been a truly nurturing & healing experience to experience this course together as a marker of the progress we are making, and of how far we still have to go.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Links and references can all be found in the <\/span><\/i>report here <\/span><\/i><\/a>which dives into the tools, practices and theory of the Wired Differently course on how to create inclusive workspaces for neurodiversity. Please do explore this resource – if terms here are unfamiliar they can be found there (as well as many links for further reading on this fascinating topic). You may need to become a CoLab Member (it\u2019s free!) to access this.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Lastly thanks to my mom, Belinda Merven, who gave me permission to write about her, and for the grounding in my own brain strengths which allows me to explore the world in such a unique way. <\/span><\/i>You can follow her on LinkedIn Here<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n These reflections are from attending a live course called Wired Differently – Creating a Team Culture Where All Minds Can Thrive, hosted by Lana Jelenjev and The Hum. You can find future iterations here: <\/span>https:\/\/www.thehum.org\/courses-and-events\/wired-differently%3A-creating-a-team-culture-where-all-minds-can-thrive<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n You can also find further free resources for neurodiverse education at the Neurodiversity Education Academy <\/span>https:\/\/www.neurodiversityeducationacademy.org\/digital-downloads<\/span> [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_2,1_2″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/perma.earth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/IMG-20201122-WA0034.jpg” title_text=”IMG-20201122-WA0034″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Siobhan Vida Ashmole<\/span><\/a> is a neurodiverse permaculturist and entrepreneur based in rural South Africa. Her focus is on creating resilient organisations capable of rising to the challenges of the transition to a regenerative future. Vida has worked in ecosocial entrepreneur education, regenerative agriculture and conscious business coaching and development.<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Note: This article veers off wildly from my learnt writing style of trying to create a cohesive narrative with limiting sentence structure and instead explores the plotlines & images my mind was drawn to over the course of this work, without trying to overexplain my thoughts. In celebration and experimentation of finding my own neurodiverse […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[264],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","trp-custom-language-flag":"","et-pb-post-main-image":"","et-pb-post-main-image-fullwidth":"","et-pb-portfolio-image":"","et-pb-portfolio-module-image":"","et-pb-portfolio-image-single":"","et-pb-gallery-module-image-portrait":"","et-pb-post-main-image-fullwidth-large":"","et-pb-image--responsive--desktop":"","et-pb-image--responsive--tablet":"","et-pb-image--responsive--phone":"","mailpoet_newsletter_max":"","woocommerce_thumbnail":"","woocommerce_single":"","woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":""},"post_excerpt_stackable":" Note: This article veers off wildly from my learnt writing style of trying to create a cohesive narrative with limiting sentence structure and instead explores the plotlines & images my mind was drawn to over the course of this work, without trying to overexplain my thoughts. In celebration and experimentation of finding my own neurodiverse voice I have made no attempt to \u2018correct\u2019 these to \u2018pass\u2019 as neurotypical\u00a0 – this work is much more how my brain experiences different threads – a single word prompting a jump to a different stream. For a more cohesive (and longer) read- see my\u2026<\/p>\n","category_list":"CoLab Blog<\/a>","author_info":{"name":"charliewilson","url":"https:\/\/perma.earth\/fr\/author\/charliewilson\/"},"comments_num":"0 commentaire","featured_image_urls_v2":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","trp-custom-language-flag":"","et-pb-post-main-image":"","et-pb-post-main-image-fullwidth":"","et-pb-portfolio-image":"","et-pb-portfolio-module-image":"","et-pb-portfolio-image-single":"","et-pb-gallery-module-image-portrait":"","et-pb-post-main-image-fullwidth-large":"","et-pb-image--responsive--desktop":"","et-pb-image--responsive--tablet":"","et-pb-image--responsive--phone":"","mailpoet_newsletter_max":"","woocommerce_thumbnail":"","woocommerce_single":"","woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":""},"post_excerpt_stackable_v2":" Note: This article veers off wildly from my learnt writing style of trying to create a cohesive narrative with limiting sentence structure and instead explores the plotlines & images my mind was drawn to over the course of this work, without trying to overexplain my thoughts. In celebration and experimentation of finding my own neurodiverse voice I have made no attempt to \u2018correct\u2019 these to \u2018pass\u2019 as neurotypical\u00a0 – this work is much more how my brain experiences different threads – a single word prompting a jump to a different stream. For a more cohesive (and longer) read- see my\u2026<\/p>\n","category_list_v2":"CoLab Blog<\/a>","author_info_v2":{"name":"charliewilson","url":"https:\/\/perma.earth\/fr\/author\/charliewilson\/"},"comments_num_v2":"0 commentaire","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/perma.earth\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/perma.earth\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/perma.earth\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perma.earth\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/60"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perma.earth\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7520"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/perma.earth\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7527,"href":"https:\/\/perma.earth\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7520\/revisions\/7527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/perma.earth\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perma.earth\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perma.earth\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/span>Looking back, my Mom and I both had formative experiences around this time- for me she enabled a deep and lifelong curiosity and love of learning; and a learning experience centred on how my brain and body worked. For my mom, she discovered a love of teaching through teaching my brother and I, which she later pursued as her vocation.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/span> My mom never had any training in neurodiversity-inclusive ways of teaching, although through conversation we now suspect we both might be more neurodiverse than anyone had realised. She never had any training in permaculture either, but through instinct, creativity, a deep connection to the earth, and a mind which could see logical patterns in nature and business and education she created flexible, thriving, interconnected, organic spaces on our farm and in her classrooms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/span>
<\/span>Are we creating spaces for all these voices to be heard? Or are we limiting their genius through a restrictive environment and demanding intelligence only shows up in the clothes we are used to?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n