The Importance of Teasing Apart

When educators say, or parents say to a student, just do your best. What we usually are meaning is, don't worry about the outcome, just make an attempt. Some neurodivergent people are more likely to take it literally and hear it as if you stop working on this, and you still have time and energy and attention and working memory space available before the deadline then you haven't done your best. You've got to keep going, put more in. It actually has the opposite impact a lot of times when students get feedback that they're not doing enough.