We Need to Stop Looking at Neurodivergence in Separate Boxes

There is an important conversation happening about autism support in England.

The House of Lords report, Time to deliver: The Autism Act 2009 and the new autism strategy, has highlighted many of the issues autistic people and their families continue to face.

These include:

• Understanding and acceptance

• Identification and assessment

• Community support

• Health inequalities

• Education

• Transitions into adulthood

• Employment

• Criminal justice

These are all extremely important.

But we also need to ask an uncomfortable question:

Are these only autism issues?

The answer is no.

The same issues affect people with ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, developmental language disorder, Tourette’s and many other neurodivergent profiles.

They also affect the many people who are not just one thing, but a mixture of several.

A child may be:

• Autistic and ADHD

• Dyslexic and dyspraxic

• Autistic, ADHD and demand avoidant

• Struggling with sensory processing and anxiety

• Living with communication, motor planning or learning differences

Yet our systems often look at one label at a time.

This is where people get missed.

We assess for autism, but miss ADHD.

We talk about behaviour, but miss executive functioning.

We focus on academic ability, but miss sensory overload.

We see anxiety, but miss the constant effort it takes to process the world.

We see school refusal, but miss the child who cannot cope with:

• Noise

• Transitions

• Demands

• Unpredictability

• Social pressure

• Sensory overload

• Emotional overwhelm

• The pace of the school day

We see young people in:

• School exclusion data

• NEET data

• Homelessness data

• Addiction services

• Mental health services

• The criminal justice system

But we do not always join the dots.

The dots are often sensory processing and executive functioning.

These are not small issues. They are central to daily life.

Executive functioning affects the ability to:

• Plan

• Organise

• Start tasks

• Remember information

• Manage time

• Control impulses

• Shift attention

• Regulate emotions

• Cope with change

• Prioritise

• Problem-solve

Sensory processing affects how a person experiences:

• Noise

• Light

• Touch

• Smell

• Taste

• Movement

• Pain

• Hunger

• Temperature

• Busy environments

• The world around them

When these areas are not understood, children and adults are often misread.

A person can look defiant when they are overwhelmed.

• They can look lazy when they cannot initiate a task.

• They can look rude when they are trying to escape sensory overload.

• They can look aggressive when they are in fight-or-flight.

• They can look like they “do not care” when actually their brain is overloaded, exhausted or unable to access the skills being demanded in that moment.

• This is why we need to move beyond single-label thinking.

Autism matters.

ADHD matters.

Dyslexia, dyspraxia, DLD and Tourette’s matter.

But people do not live their lives in diagnostic boxes.

Families do not experience needs one label at a time.

Schools do not see children in neat categories.

And services should not be built as if they do.

We need a wider neurodiversity approach that looks at the whole person.

That means:

• Understanding sensory needs

• Understanding executive functioning

• Recognising co-occurring conditions

• Training professionals to look beneath behaviour

• Supporting families before crisis point

• Creating services that follow the person, not just the diagnosis

• Joining up education, health, social care, mental health and justice systems

A National Autism Strategy is important.

But it should not be the end of the conversation.

We also need a National Neurodiversity Strategy, one that recognises how neurodivergent people actually experience the world, and how often their needs overlap.

Because until we understand the whole picture, we will keep supporting one part of the person while missing the rest.