We are all neurodiverse

good evening everyone it’s such a

pleasure to be here tonight

and advocate for what i believe to be a

very necessary and important change in

our educational system

so i will start by offering a quick

definition on the term

neurodiversity so that we’re all on the

same page on what it means

and it includes people who

think feel and function in unique ways

and sometimes there are people who have

a specific diagnosis

like adhd autism or dyslexia

but it also includes people who struggle

fitting in in the traditional

educational system on the traditional

work environment

and often they don’t even know why

so you may be wondering what is a

professor of engineering doing here

talking to you about neurodiversity and

that’s certainly a legitimate

question so part of the answer is that

i’m the director of a program at uconn

that is funded by the national science

foundation and that aims at transforming

engineering education

and encouraging all types of learners

and thinkers

to engage in engineering innovation

but a more important part of the answer

is

that like many of you i know somebody

who is neurodignity

and i have seen what being part of a

rigid educational system does

uh to a person like that so my brother

is dyslexic and 35 years ago when he

entered first grade

he didn’t have a diagnosis or

access to a support system and for the

next 12 years

i watched him struggle and my parents

spend countless hours with

homeworks and exams you know and and

have

a great difficulty until you know he

graduated high school

and during those times i also uh

watched and saw that my parents didn’t

speak to anyone

about this such was a stigma associated

you know with a learning difference

and

sorry um so

this was at the time you know people

where

you were either smart and good in school

or

dumb and bad in school you know there

were no others

there were no other uh reasons you know

that that people

uh had like different different

performance

and since then

30 years later we have made some

progress

um and and students who have who

struggle in school

receive different supports they have

special a teachers

accommodations and so on but they also

still

receive labels such as usually

starting with d dysfunction disability

disorder

so we tell these kids early on in life

that

the way that they think and they feel is

does not meet the standards and requires

remediation

and that you know really forms someone’s

psyche you know from from very early on

recently i had a conversation with a

former student of mine who is autistic

and i asked them in the if they perceive

autism to be a disability

and they said the way that society

currently functions

it is a disability and that is a very

profound distinction

like if disability is not

a property of the individual it is a

condition of a society

that puts a person at a disadvantage

because of a particular trait that they

possess

and so if we really understand that

distinction then our mandate is clear

we need to change the system so that

differences

do not become disabilities

so let’s do a little thought experiment

so

um who has seen who here has seen the

the movie forrest gump

okay most of you good so take a minute

and think of the thinking bang of the

movie come up with a short description

of forrest gump based on the things that

he wasn’t good at the things that he

couldn’t really do

okay so now clear that from your mind

and think back to the movie and come up

with another description

based on the things that forrest gump

was great at

you know the the things that he excelled

in and the successes that he had in his

life

and so thinking you know imagine that

he was your child and what kind of

school

would you send your child based on the

first description that you came up with

and what kind of school would you send

him based on the second description

so we want school to be a place

where every child teenager and young

adult

feels like the person in the second

description

we want the school to be a place where

students

find their unique strengths and figure

out a way to make the most out of those

strengths

and be the best version of themselves

so the way to do this is to

start by looking for strengths

um in in children and and students not

for weaknesses

and for us as educators we want to be

that teacher

who helped someone and

change their lives you know by helping

them discover their unique strengths

and and cultivating their gift

we also want to provide our students

with multiple opportunities to explore

the material in our in our classrooms

to engage in different kinds of

assessment different kinds of learning

materials

and to be creative not just do what

we tell them to do and i know that takes

a lot of work

and most of us you know teachers and

educators

are already strapped there so i’m not

pretending to have

all the answers on how to do this but i

do know

that you see this every day in the

classroom

you see the students who struggle with

exams

struggle with papers but they do

wonders when they create they can create

something with their hands

when they can write code when they can

recite something for memory whatever

it is you know that their own particular

strength is

so you know hopefully uh

one day there will be a way when we can

bring this

you know into the classroom what if we

could do this

for biology for history for physics in

different ways

what if if our students didn’t have to

take standardized tests anymore

what if we didn’t need paperwork to be

able to to provide support

to the students that need it

so i know that this is not going to

happen overnight and

you know for you um students

at the school it’s things are probably

not going to change

as long as you’re in high school and

probably not even college the structures

and the attitudes are probably going to

be similar

but gradually things will change

and for those of you who struggle today

for those of you who feel ashamed of

your differences in the way that you

think

my message to you today is it is not you

who is broken

you have unique gifts that are waiting

to be discovered

and the world right now needs you

because

we are dealing with very complex

problems and these complex problems

need different kinds of minds and

different kinds of ideas

to come together and find solutions

and companies like apple google and many

others

have seen this and right now they have

already started creating

neurodiversity hiring initiatives and

bring

different kinds of talents together so i

know

that eventually the whole world is going

to catch up with them

but until then our impact illuminated

can be in our everyday lives we can

create opportunities for everyone to

shine

and embrace and and and

love differences we can do this with our

children at home

we can do this with our students in the

classroom we can do this with our

colleagues at work

and we can speak up every chance that we

get

thank you

[Applause]

thanks