Parenting and Neurodiversity: A Conversation about Parenting Neurodivergent Children

In this episode, we invite you to join Bainbridge Island parent, Christy Remedios, and co-founders of Neurodiverse Connections; Marcee Ben-Menachem, licenced therapist who specializes in neurodivergent populations and Meg Wolf, chairperson of Neurodiverse Connections, for an informative conversation about parenting neurodivergent youth and understanding the world of neurodiversity.

Additional Resources:

From Meg:

If you want to reference any other resources, I recommend:

Tilt Parenting Podcast -focuses on parenting ND kiddos.

The Neurodiversity Podcast- hosted by a LMHC and tends to focus more on 2e (gifted plus other ND identity).

And the book I quoted was Barry Prizant’s Uniquely Human— he’s the one who says “There’s no such thing as ‘autistic behavior’ only human behavior.”

And I referenced Amanda Diekman in saying that we need to be “the parent our child needs us to be,”. Her website is at: https://www.amandadiekman.net/

From Marcee: "I wrote this program note because I felt it important to share my personal experience while recording this podcast. I had a panic attack. It started about 5 minutes before we began recording and lasted until about 5 minutes into the session. When you listen to this podcast, you may notice that at 2:48 minutes into our discussion, there’s a skip in the conversation. That’s when I recognized it as a panic attack and asked the team for a break. So why am I telling you this? Panic attacks are a type of neurodivergent overwhelm that your child, student, neighbor, or loved one may experience daily. My superpowers are Dyslexia and ADHD, but I also grapple with anxiety stemming from my experiences growing up masking and navigating a neurotypical world. While I get overwhelmed occasionally, I haven’t had a panic attack since my early 20’s. In 23+ years of public speaking, classroom lessons and zoom trainings, I’d never had a panic attack — which is why it took me so long to recognize what was happening in the podcast. Neurodivergent overwhelm often causes a stress response. In the simplest terms, a panic attack is an “extreme” stress state. In my case, I was triggered by the tiny recording room, the seating orientation, and the recording equipment. These factors added an extra layer of complexity for my nervous system to process and interfered with my ability to engage naturally. My heart started to race, I felt uncomfortably warm, and my palms started to sweat. I was fidgeting more than usual and had extreme difficulty organizing my thoughts. I was trying to process everything in the room while also being painfully aware that I wasn’t processing anything. This experience lasted just 15 minutes for me, but many of my autistic clients feel this way ALL THE TIME. At 47 years old, I prioritized taking care of myself so I could re-engage with the program — something my 20-year-old self was never encouraged to do by society. I encourage you to ask yourself if this could be the case for your child, student, friend. What can you do to create a greater sense of safety for your loved one, neighbor or friend? How can we as community members make the world feel safer for our neurodivergent community members? In my case, I was surrounded by people who “got it”. What would it feel like to live in a world where our children can ask for what they need and not feel shame in that? I’m grateful that I had this uncomfortable experience and pushed through it because it reminded of how many kids struggle in this way everyday. I hope you enjoy the program and feel seen by us."