Neurodiversity Celebration Week

Neurodiversity Celebration Week started in 2018 by Siena Castellon when she was 16 years old. As an autistic student, who also has dyslexia, dyspraxia and ADHD, she experienced significant challenges. She also got bullied all throughout her education.

Her negative educational experiences motivated her to launch Neurodiversity Celebration Week. It’s designed to provide an opportunity for us to understand more about autism. And not only about autism but also other learning abilities.

Why did Siena Castellon decide to start Neurodiversity Celebration Week?

‘The idea behind Neurodiversity Celebration Week is that I want to flip the narrative so that schools also recognise and celebrate our strengths and talents. Neurodivergent individuals have many talents, for example, they may be creative, innovative, outside the box thinkers, problem solvers and skilled at pattern recognition. Although these skills are rarely valued in the classroom, they are a huge advantage in the workplace.

What is Neurodiversity?

Neurodiversity is the concept that all humans vary with their neurocognitive ability. Everyone has talents and also things that we struggle with.

Neurodiversity includes a wide range of neurological differences. When we say a person is neurodiverse she or he can have a combination of different conditions such as:

ADHD
Autism
Dyslexia
Dyscalculia
Dyspraxia
Dysgraphia
Tourette’s Syndrome

Neurodiverse individuals tend to get bullied most of the time because of the lack of knowledge about Neurodiversity. And it’s about time that we step up and help them to prevent getting bullied. We need to fully understand that each and everyone is different. Neurodiverse individuals tend to find some things very easy and other things hard. That is why it is very important that we understand and know how to interact with them.

My Buddy Gard celebrates Neurodiversity Celebration Week and hopes that no one will ever get bullied again just because they are different. ” Be a buddy, not a bully “