Neurodiversity & Organisation

What is neurodiversity and how do I find out more about it?

Neurodiversity describes the differences in the way people think. Neurodiverse conditions include:

  • Autistic Spectrum Conditions
  • ADHD
  • Dyslexia
  • Dysgraphia
  • Dyspraxia
  • Dyscalculia
  • Tic conditions including Tourettes Syndrome

Some people include the cognitive impacts of anxiety and depression and other traumatic events.

This group of conditions are identifiable, neurological differences in the way that people process information and communicate with the world.

Often described as learning differences and mental health problems, each condition brings strengths as well as challenges and I work from a strength-based point of view, being realistic about how difficult the challenges can be.

These conditions are not stand alone. They are linked, even though we do not yet fully understand the nature of the links between them. Families with one neurodiverse condition will often find members have more than one; ADHD often goes with autism, dyslexia often goes with dyspraxia, so there are no concrete bunkers in neurodiversity.

Why does it affect organisation skills?

While every neurodiverse condition has its own characteristics, what they all have in common is an impact on executive functions otherwise known as organisation skills.

Executive functions fall into 12 generally agreed categories (that you can read about individually here) and they include things like:

  • Time management
  • Planning and prioritising
  • Goal focus
  • Being able to see the bigger picture
  • General organisation

For a long time, it’s been known that people with ADHD see a big impact on their ability to organise on a day to day basis, but it also applies to many of the other neurodiverse conditions including dyspraxia, which I’m lucky enough to have myself.

 

Whether or not you have a neurodiverse condition, if you want to find out where your strengths and weaknesses in your executive functions are, take our questionnaire over on the Fibble website which I run with my colleague Jo Cavalot.

I also highly recommend Ed Hallowell’s book – ADHD 2.0 – for a really good explanation of this. Although it has ADHD in the title, if you think you have any neurodiverse traits, I recommend you read it anyway because you may well recognise a lot of what it says about executive functions and ability to organise and stay on track.