Setting the Stage for Neurodiversity-Affirming Communication

In this episode of Creating Neurodiversity-Affirming Schools, Emily Kircher-Morris and Amanda Morin explore what it means to communicate in ways that support and empower neurodivergent students. They reflect on their own experiences and highlight how language, tone, and intention shape our relationships with learners.

Emily is joined by Meg Wolf, a twice-exceptional educator and founder of Neurodiverse Connections. Meg brings both professional insight and lived experience to the conversation, sharing how we can shift from correction and compliance to curiosity and collaboration.

Key topics include:

• How educators can shift from “Why haven’t you…” to “What do you need?”

• The importance of neutral, nonjudgmental language in classroom communication

• Understanding fluctuating capacity and honoring student bandwidth

• Teaching and modeling self-advocacy through “co-advocacy”

• Strategies to scaffold communication and reduce power struggles

• Why presuming competence and reducing hierarchy matters

• How direct communication may be interpreted differently depending on power dynamics and neurotype

• Encouraging students to ask for clarification and use alternative phrasing

• Building rapport to support behavior interpretation and engagement

Resources mentioned:

• Neurodiversity-Affirming Schools: Transforming Practices So All Students Feel Accepted and Supported by Emily Kircher-Morris and Amanda Morin – Order here

• Neurodiversity-Affirming Schools PD Courses

• Neurodiverse Connections –Learn more