This week, we share Rachel’s interview with Breea Rosas! Breea is a school psychologist who works with educators on how they can implement neurodiversity affirming practices and neurodiversity affirming psychoeducation! Breea shares about the neurodiversity affirming approach and three key areas she works with educators and practitioners to address: 1) What assessments are we choosing; 2) How are we writing assessments; and 3) What are we communicating to the families in meetings?

Before the interview, Chris shares his discomfort with using descriptions that label people as “typical” when the concept of “average” does not really capture the nuances that make up a person and could even be reductive.

Key Ideas this Week:

🔑 Breea always writes reports as if the child will read it in 10 years, and she asks herself “How would it make them feel?”

🔑 We should be thoughtful about the assessments we are choosing. If you know, “Kids with ADHD, they are always bombing assessment X,” then consider giving a different assessment! You don’t always need to get the same tests to every student.

🔑 Parents have a lot of voice in IEP meetings - if as a parent, you hear a goal that doesn’t align with your philosophy, you can say, “This doesn’t align with our goals as a family. We don’t agree with this, we want something more creative.” As a parent. if something feels wrong, you should say something!

Links from This Week’s Episode

“The Myth of Average” Tedx Talk: https://youtu.be/4eBmyttcfU4?si=XcuHQrYCTEznV0iR

Neurodiversity Affirming School-Based & Consulting Practitioners Facebook Group

Autism Level Up: https://www.autismlevelup.com