Defining Differences

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Executive functioning
Concentration
Restlessness

Hyperfocus
Attention to Detail
Pattern Recognition

Common Challenges

Common strengths

Prevalence: 8% of population

A behavioural condition, with characteristics including a persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity that interferes with day-to-day functioning and/or development.

ADHD

Socialising and communicating
Overly-literal thinking
Coping with change

Logical reasoning
Analytical thinking
Detail orientation

Common Challenges

Common strengths

Prevalence: 1.5% of population

A lifelong developmental difference which affects how people communicate and interact with the world around them.
It is a spectrum condition, and affects individuals in many different ways.

Autism/Autism Spectrum Disorder

Maths and numeracy
Memory associated with numbers (dates, etc)
Time management

Problem solving
Visual-spatial reasoning
Strategic thinking

Common Challenges

Common strengths

Prevalence: 6% of population

A specific and persistent difficulty in understanding numbers which can lead to a diverse range of difficulties with mathematics. It occurs across all ages and abilities.

Dyscalculia

Executive functioning
Reading and writing
Anxieties

Common Challenges

Common strengths

Prevalence: 10% of population

A specific learning difficulty which primarily affects reading and writing skills, marked by differences in information processing.
Though it effects certain abilities used for learning, dyslexia has no impact intelligence.

Dyslexia

Out-of-the-box thinking
Entrepreneurialism
Innovation

Motor co-ordination
Clumsiness
Processing speed and working memory

Multi tasking
Inferential reasoning
Innovation

Common Challenges

Common strengths

Prevalence: 6% of population

A common disorder that affects movement and physical co-ordination, but one that does not affect intelligence.

Dyspraxia/Developmental Co-ordination Disorder (DCD)

Obsessions
Compulsions
Related anxieties

Attention to detail
Organisational skills
Creative thinking

Common Challenges

Common strengths

Prevalence: 1.2% of population

A common, chronic, and long-lasting mental health condition in which a person has uncontrollable, reoccurring thoughts (obsessions) and/or behaviours (compulsions) that they feel the urge to repeat over and over.

OCD

Social skills
Organisation
Self esteem

Enhanced cognitive control
Information Processing
Creativity

Common Challenges

Common strengths

Prevalence: ≤ 1% Tourettes

A complex condition the key features of which are tics, involuntary and uncontrollable sounds and movements.
Often misunderstood as a condition which makes people swear or say inappropriate things – ‘coprolalia’, the clinical term for this symptom affects only 10% of those with TS.

Tourette’s Syndrome (TS)

'Neurodivergence' as an umbrella term is broad, and the conditions that fall under it vary depending on interpretation.

Additional neurodevelopmental conditions such as Intellectual Disabilities; mental health disorders such as depression and psychoses; and acquired differences from brain trauma are all considered by many advocates of neurodivergence to fall under its definition; each representing human variations in development, behaviour, thinking, and communicating; each difference contributing to our diverse and beautiful world.

The overlap of two or more conditions in one individual – many people experience multiple neurodivergences.

Though we do not yet know whether common comorbidities mean that conditions are related to each other, we do know that it occurs at a very high rate – not just with other neurodevelopmental conditions, but also health and mental health differences.

Comorbidity

Noun [ koh-mawr-bid-i-tee ]