One of the themes that I’ve sought to emphasize in my work in the field of neurodiversity is the idea that whether a person will be labeled as disordered or gifted may have more to do with when and where they were born rather than anything intrinsic to them as an individual.  I’ve found it...Read More

Once upon a time a king asked several blind educators in his village to examine a new beast that had come into his possession and to tell him all about it.  The first educator went up to touch the Literacy Lion, and then ran back to the king shouting ”This beast is made up of...Read More

Think of an assessment in school and very likely you’ll think of a teacher handing out some papers with questions on them, and students providing the answers.  In fact, this scenario represents by far the bulk of assessments that teachers give to students.  But, this type of assessment barely scratches the surface of what is...Read More

When children are diagnosed with special needs (e.g. dyslexia, ADHD, autism etc.), the initial efforts to support them almost always revolve around helping them to fit in with the environment around them.  This of course is very important, but it leaves out a much-needed corollary to these efforts and that is:  changing the environment to...Read More

I’ve often claimed that every child is a genius.  This is sometimes misunderstood to mean that I think every child could be an Einstein or a Picasso.  I mean nothing of the kind.  I’m using the word ”genius” in its original meaning, which means ”to give birth” (it’s related etymologically to the word ”genesis”) and...Read More