Resources
Below are some resources that are related to neurodivergence. I’m only listing things that I have read, purchased, attended myself and feel they are positive resources to refer to.
Most of the books are freely available from the Gold Coast City Library in either hardcopy or eBook format.
What is…?
- Neurodiversity and why do we care? (a quick read) or watch this video
- some basic definitions
- What is autism? and a Tedx video by the wonderful Jac den Houting
- could I have ADHD? (NOT!! Diagnostic. Article talks about women, but this applies to all internalised presentations)
- ADHD in adults
Autobiographies by Australian Autistic authors
- For older adolescents & young adults: Chloé Hayden’s Different, Not Less
- Clem Bastow’s Late Bloomer: How an autism diagnosis changed my life
- Hannah Gadsby’s Ten Steps to Nanette definately targetted to adults
Parenting focussed readings
- Brain Body Parenting by Mona Delahooke (much easier to read than Beyond Behaviours)
- Raising Human Beings by Ross Greene and Collaborative Proactive Solutions approach to parenting
- Raising a Secure Child by Kent Hoffman
Other great books
- Unmasking Autism: The power of embracing our hidden neurodiversity by Devon Price
- Spectrum Women: Walking to the beat of Autism eds. Barb Cook & Michelle Garnett
Online groups to check out
- Yellow Ladybugs (mostly online meetups)
- The B Team facebook parent group and Lives in the Balance
- Distractd at Miami Marketta , first Wednesdays of the month
Awesome Australian ND businesses
- Patrick Saunders A non-speaking Autistic Speller – it’s a Blog, but also Patrick’s source of income, check it out!!
- Kaiko Fidgets . Based in Melbourne. Co-founded by Kai, now in his teens, who is both autistic & dyslexic and his OT Mum, Jo. Lots of great products suitable for adults and kids of all and any genders.
Listen to (more awesome Australian content)
- The Neurodivergent Woman Podcast hosted by clinical psychologist Monique Mitchelson and clinical neuropsychologist Dr Michelle Livock
- Princess and the Pea Podcast with Autism advocate Annie Crowe
Other great neuroaffirming neurodivergent resources
- Onwards and Upwards: Sandhya’s books for children, great list of resources, and parenting courses on demand
- Hormonal impacts on women and AFAB AuADHDers
- What’s it like to be an Autistic ADHDer
- Avoiding Autistic Burnout and Am I in Burnout?
- hEDS hypermobility diagnostic criteria
- St Vincent’s Hospital Darlinghurst, Sydney Genomic Testing for difficult to diagnose challenges often faced by neurodivergent individuals
- Talking to your child about their autism diagnosis – the earlier the better
- Autism and Adults – what next?
- Mental Health and autism including co-occuring difficulties with eating and online training
- Stimming explained video
- Meltdowns and Shutdowns explained, and the autistic experience of overwhelm, and what can carers do?
- ARFID restrictive eating disorder and NEDC guidelines
- Your 8 senses
- Interoception explained by OT Kelly Mahler
School and Workplace adjustments
- Reasonable Adjustments explained: Autism
- No diagnosis necessary: Imputed Disability and the NCCD
- Disability Discrimination Act – it applies to everyone! Your rights.
- In Qld – AARA accessing arrangements and reasonable adjustments
Follow Me
- @NeurodiverseNutrition
- Sonny Jane Wise (Australia) @LivedExperienceEducator
- Lou Chandler (UK) @neurodivergent_lou
- Chloé Hayden on youtube and insta @chloeshayden
Self-Help / Mental Health Resources (mostly free, some paid)
- request a freebie https://www.theautistic.life/shop?Collection=eBooks
- Russ Harris’ ACT resources totally free
- Sonny Jane Wise DBT skills handbook (you can go to their website and pay for this, which I recommend, it’s only AUD$10)
- Getting Fed, a quick guide for AuDHDers freebie
Parenting Resources
- Circle of security https://www.circleofsecurityinternational.com/
- Collaborative Proactive Solutions http://www.livesinthebalance.org/ and related online parenting support group https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheBTeamLITB/
- Practical tips from https://drdansiegel.com/book/the-whole-brain-child/ and https://www.thepathway2success.com/
Fact Checking
You may have heard the “statistic” that ADHDers receive up to 10,000 criticisms or negative comments more than their neurotypical peers by the age of 10 years. Here is a link to the original opinion piece from 2010 (that’s a long time ago!!) as to how this number came into pop-culture. While there is a likely truth to it, this is not a researched number! Jellinek’s original article
“It’s not too much of a stretch to assume that such a child might receive a negative or corrective comment from the teacher, say, three times an hour […] In school alone, a child with ADHD could receive 20,000 corrective or negative comments by the time he or she is age 10.”
This page was last updated Septemnber 2023, so links may have broken since then. But I will try to check this out at least annually 🙂
