Picture this. Kids are on the playground when Peter  begins to make blunt, matter of fact comments about May: “Your mom is big”. ‘Your sister cries so much”. “Your voice is so loud”.

Everyone at the playground observes. Parents slowly pull their kids away and tell them to stay away from Peter. Other kids exclude him. Peter is singled out. Next day in the park, nobody is playing with Peter. He is no longer invited to birthday parties. He is blamed and maybe scolded for being mean. He is just  not a nice kid.

As Peter grows, and without proper help, his bluntness intensifies. He is labeled the ‘disruptive’ kid in class. The ‘offensive’ kid. The ‘problem’ kid.

Consider this: Peter’s brain is ADHD, impulsive type. His frontal lobe is underdeveloped, impacting his restraint. He is verbally impulsive, meaning he says things as he sees them, without much attention to social clues. At the same time, he is bright, loving & highly sensitive, and he doesn’t fully understand why he comes across the way he does, or how he can stop his words before they come out.

Unfortunately, so often our world relies on labels to categorize everything and every person. Often, these labels focus on the “normal” which by default leaves anything outside of this narrow definition as “abnormal”. This creates a false binary that leaves neurodivergent people feeling inadequate in one, and more likely, several ways throughout their lives.

Labeled and misunderstood, neurodivergent children are led to think that something is wrong with them. As time goes by, anxiety, depression and shame related to feelings of inadequacy creep in, impacting not only the child but her/his family members. The labeled child becomes the problem teen and many times, the broken adult.

We are here to help stop the cycle. Join us.