Spotlight on Neurodivergence
Spotlight on Neurodivergence
Spotlight on Neurodivergence
Neurodiversity recognizes brain differences as natural human variation. Many people who have disability diagnoses such as autism, ADHD and dyslexia, among others, also identify as neurodivergent. Through a neurodiversity lens, we take on a strengths-based perspective and the recognition that a diversity of brains and minds is valuable.
The LRC-South offers a collection of resources related to neurodiversity. These resources are meant to support educators, students, and families. Explore the tabs below for additional information and resources.
Neurodiversity Resources
What is Neurodiversity?
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This video focuses on the Disability Rights Movement, models of disability, definitions of neurodiversity and identifying as neurodivergent. For links to supporting documents for this video and/or to view the other videos in this series, click here.
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Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism | A Neurodiversity Facts and Myths Primer - Autism News and Resources From Autistic People, Professionals, and Parents
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The Power of Neurodiversity: Unleashing the Advantages of your Differently Wired Brain - Thomas Armstrong
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Rowan University's Center for Neurodiversity was established as a result of a taskforce comprised of neurodiverse faculty, staff, students and community partners. Neurodiversity, simply put, is recognizing mind differences as natural human variation and as valuable.
For more information on programming, research and resources, please visit go.rowan.edu/neurodiversity |
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The History of Autism and Disability
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Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity - Steve Silberman
Available to borrow through the LRC-South library! Access additional online resources and information through our Alexandria Researcher. |
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Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Activist - Judith Heumann
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This timeline features the remarkable diversity, creativity and leadership that has shaped the disability community from the founding of the United States through today...Read More |
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A Disability History of the United States - Kim E. Nielsen
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Autism and Neurodiversity in the Classroom
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LRC-S PL Shorts: Writing Strength-Based IEPs Video Series with Dr. Brent Elder
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One of the most popular, practical, and trusted books on inclusive education for autistic students, this bestselling guide is now in a fully updated third edition-perfect for K-12 educators...Read On |
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Autism - What Schools Are Missing: Voices For A New Path - Linda Barboa
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Neurodiversity-Affirming Pedagogy
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LRC-S PL Shorts: Building an Inclusive Classroom: Fostering Students' Expertise
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In this strikingly honest collection, developed from a pioneering new research project, autistic teachers and other autistic school professionals share their stories...View Details |
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Neurodiversity And Education - Paul Ellis
Available to borrow through the LRC-South library! Access additional online resources and information through the Alexandria Researcher.
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Disability and Language
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The work of queer scholar Nick Walker has played a key role in the evolving discourse on human neurodiversity. Read On |
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Welcome To The Autistic Community - Paul Ellis
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Experiences of Autistic and Disabled People
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Neurodiversity Informational Series: Learning from Autistic Self-Advocates with Dr. Amy Accardo
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A groundbreaking collection of first-person writing on the joys and challenges of the modern disability experience...Learn More |
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Barriers and Belonging Personal Narratives - Michelle Jarman
Available to borrow through the LRC-South library! Access additional online resources and information through the Alexandria Researcher.
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Autism, Disability and Parenting
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LRC-S PL Shorts: Bridging School & Home Through Shared Tools
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Uniquely Human: A Different Way of Seeing Autism - Thomas Armstrong
Autism is usually portrayed as a checklist of deficits, including difficulties interacting socially, problems in communicating, sensory challenges, and repetitive behavior patterns. View Details
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Start Here: A Guide For Parents Of Autistic Kids
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I Love You Rituals - Rebecca Ann
Log into MackinVIA with your LRC-S membership number and password. View Instructions
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Neurodiversity and Literature
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Sammy is having a very bad day at school and at home until his autistic brother, Benji, finds a way to make him feel better.
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After a tornado, Axel, who loves birds, finds an injured eaglet, and helps to rescue it--and also helps to resolve the problems in his broken family and draw his father back home.
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Autistic and nearly nonverbal, twelve-year-old Nova is happy in her new foster home and school, but eagerly anticipates the 1986 Challenger launch, for which her sister, Bridget, promised to return.
Log into MackinVIA with your LRC-S membership number and password. View Instructions |
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Teaches children aged 7-9 all about the awesome abilities that neurodiverse individuals have, introduces them to advocates who are challenging neurodiversity stereotypes, and most importantly gives them a safe space to feel accepted.
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Young children will learn what life can look like for an autistic child who uses nonverbal communication by following a mother and child on a day where they use a tablet to communicate with others.
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Neurodivergent Maudie is ready to spend an amazing summer with her dad. While dealing with the trauma of her new stepdad's anger and her mom's instructions to keep it a secret, a wildfire forces them to move to a beach town. There, Maudie learns to surf, makes new friends, and finds a new sense of self, but must find the courage to tell her dad the truth before summer ends.
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Tilly Twomley, an 18-year-old with ADHD. is burnt out from school and her parents' high expectations. She takes a summer internship in Europe with her older sister's startup, where she meets Oliver, an autistic intern with a passion for color theory. The two neurodivergent teens bond over their shared experiences as they travel across Europe, which evolves into a supportive romance.
is desperate for change.
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A neurodivergent girl campaigns for a memorial when she learns that her small Scottish town used to burn witches simply because they were different.
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From sixteen-year-old Dara McAnulty, a globally renowned figure in the youth climate activist movement, comes a memoir about loving the natural world and fighting to save it.
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Anthologies of Disabled and Neurodivergent Stories
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Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century A groundbreaking collection of first-person writing on the joys and challenges of the modern disability experience: Disability Visibility brings together the voices of activists, authors, lawyers, politicians, artists, and everyday people whose daily lives are, in the words of playwright Neil Marcus, "an art...an ingenious way to live." |
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Disability Visibility: 17 First-person Stories for Today: Adapted for young adults According to the last census, one in five people in the United States lives with a disability. Some are visible, some are hidden-- but all are underrepresented in media and popular culture. Wong brings together an urgent, galvanizing collection of personal essays by contemporary disabled writers and adapted for young adults. |
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Unbroken: 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens An anthology of stories in various genres, each featuring disabled characters and written by disabled creators. The collection includes stories of interstellar war, a journey to Persia, a dating debacle. |
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Leaders Around Me: Autobiographies of Autistics Who Type, Point, and Spell to Communicate A compilation of 45 autobiographies of extraordinary individuals who use keyboards, letter boards, and communication devices. The authors demonstrate that people who experience communication differences have the potential to achieve major accomplishments under accessible, inclusive, and supportive circumstances. |
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Thirty-seven personal narratives that explore what it means to be disabled and why the field of disability studies matters. The editors frame the volume by introducing foundational themes of disability studies and how institutions--including the family, schools, government, and disability peer organizations--shape and transform ideas about disability. They explore how disability informs personal identity, interpersonal and community relationships, and political commitments.
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A raw, honest and enlightening collection of experiences across the black and dyslexic community, giving an intersectional perspective on topics including the education system, the workplace, daily life, and entrepreneurship. These stories highlight the challenges, progress, and successes. It charts journeys from early childhood through to adulthood and, despite the lack of representation within the public arena, shows how black dyslexic people of all ages are changing the world. |
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Rebel Girls Celebrate Neurodiversity: 25 tales of creative thinkers Features 25 inspiring tales of neurodivergent artists, athletes, innovators, and more. Read about how these women and girls thought creatively, achieved their dreams, and advocated for the rights of neurodivergent people everywhere. |
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Neurodiversity and Executive Functioning
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Assistive Technology to Support Executive Functioning Skills
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Neurodiversity Informational Series: Executive Functioning and Neurodiversity with Dr. Amy Accardo |
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College Success for Students on the Autism Spectrum: A Neurodiversity Perspective Practical guidance needed to help neurodivergent students succeed, with chapters that address a variety of key issues from the transition to college to career readiness after graduation. |
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What are the keys to bringing emotional stability to your classroom through balanced regulation and co-regulation? This book is rooted in the principle that relationships come first - it only takes one safe, committed adult to help a child heal and build resilience through co-regulation. |
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Neurodiversity and the Sensory Friendly Classroom
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Neurodiversity Affirming Schools: Transforming practices so all students feel accepted & supported Provides a guide for schools to implement practices that support neurodiverse students and ensure they feel accepted and seen, and examines how to create a neurodiversity-affirming school environment. |
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Beyond Behaviors: Using brain science and compassion to solve children's behavioral challenges Internationally known pediatric psychologist, Dr. Mona Delahooke describes behaviors as the tip of the iceberg, important signals that we should address by seeking to understand a child’s individual differences in the context of relational safety. |
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Sometimes everything is too much! Too loud, too bright, and all too overwhelming. Writing from her own experience with sensory processing disorder, Jolene Gutierrez's compassionate picture book explores the struggles of a sensorily sensitive child and how they settle themselves. |
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My Brain is Magic: A sensory-seeking celebration A sensory-seeking child describes her sensational life. Whether your brain buzzes around the room like a bee or tells you to be loud and roar like a lion, celebrate the many things that it can be! This sensory-seeking celebration shines a light on sensory processing and neurodiversity in a fun and action-packed way for all children to enjoy. |
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The story guide to finding the calm in everyday adventures. This new children's book, illustrated as a whimsical treasure hunt, gives step-by-step ideas for self-soothing when its readers find themselves nervous, excited, or just in a MOOD. |
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Neurodiversity and Communication Supports
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Empower your classroom with the essential tools to unlock the potential of nonspeaking autistic students. This groundbreaking guide, based on the acclaimed online course by Communication for Education, offers evidence-based strategies and actionable resources to create inclusive learning environments where all students can thrive. |
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May Tomorrow Be Awake: On poetry, autism, and our neurodiverse future An author and educator's pioneering approach to helping autistic students find their voices through poetry--a powerful and uplifting story that shows us how to better communicate with people on the spectrum and explores how we use language to express our seemingly limitless interior lives. |
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I wave, I smile, I point... I talk! And I have so many things to say! Explore how a young AAC user communicates and connects with the people in her life. She talks to them in so many different ways. Children who use AAC may communicate differently, but like everyone else, they have stories and ideas to share with the world. |
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Young children will learn what life can look like for an autistic child who uses nonverbal communication by following a mother and child on a day when they use a tablet to communicate with others.
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The Reason I Jump: The inner voice of a thirteen-year-old boy with autism Written by Naoki Higashida, a very smart, very self-aware, and very charming thirteen-year-old boy with autism, it is a one-of-a-kind memoir that demonstrates how an autistic mind thinks, feels, perceives, and responds in ways few of us can imagine. |
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The premier resource for anyone planning to work with individuals who rely on AAC. Written for pre-service and in-service SLPs, OTs, PTs, assistive technicians, and other direct service providers, this book is a comprehensive guide to the characteristics of people with complex communication needs, the variety of AAC systems available, and current assessment and intervention practices in AAC. |
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What is it like to be autistic and non-speaking in a world that has already made up its mind about you? This Is Not About Me tells the story of Jordyn Zimmerman. Jordyn dreamt of becoming a teacher. She started out eager to learn at school, but she was soon separated from the other children. Unable to communicate, teachers thought she was also unable to understand or learn. Year after year, her behavior worsened. Jordyn found herself caught in a system that unintentionally turned her life into a living nightmare. Finally, at the age of 18, with the help of educators who see her differently, she manages to turn her fate and flourish. Watch the story of one autistic woman who fought hard to be recognized and trusted. Share the trailer to bring awareness and change the lives of countless others fighting that same system today.
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Teaching about Disability as Diversity
| What is Ableism? Zosia Zaks with Amy Accardo; Rowan U Center for Neurodiversity | |
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Undoing ableism: Teaching about disability in K-12 classrooms A sourcebook for teaching about disability and anti-ableism in K-12 classrooms. Conceptually grounded in disability studies, critical pedagogy, and social justice education, this book provides both a rationale as well as strategies for broad-based inquiries that allow students to examine social and cultural foundations of oppression, learn to disrupt ableism, and position themselves as agents of social change. |
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CRIP CAMP: A DISABILITY REVOLUTION On the heels of Woodstock, a group of teen campers are inspired to join the fight for disability civil rights. This spirited look at grassroots activism. |
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Visual Thinking: The hidden gifts of people who think in pictures, patterns and abstractions Temple Grandin transforms our understanding of the different ways our brains are wired. Visual thinkers constitute a far greater proportion of the population than previously understood, she reveals, and a more varied one, from the purest 'object visualizers' like Grandin herself, with their intuitive knack for engineering and problem-solving, to 'visual spatials' - the abstract, mathematical thinkers who excel in pattern recognition and systemic thinking. |
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Beginning with Disability: A Primer The first introductory primer for disability studies aimed at first- and second-year students in two- and four-year colleges. This volume of essays across disciplines - including education, sociology, communications, psychology, social sciences, and humanities - features accessible, readable, relatively short chapters that do not require specialized knowledge. |
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Some Brains: A book celebrating neurodiversity It starts from the premise that neurodiversity (conditions like Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia and the like) is a normal, essential part of human biodiversity - without it we don't get Picasso, Einstein or Greta Thunberg! Yes, neurodiverse kids sometimes require a bit of extra help and patience, but they should never be viewed as disordered. Some Brains encourages us all look for our strengths and to understand that brains are like fingerprints - uniquely, wonderfully ours.
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Neurodiversity and Wellbeing
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Unmasking for Life: The Autistic Person's Guide to Connecting, Loving, and Living Authentically Most masked Autistics have spent a lifetime being told how to perform neurotypically: how to behave, how to carry themselves, what to feel, and how to live. No matter where you are in the unmasking process, there is still work to be done. Unmasking for Life provides the resources to help you advocate for your needs and invent new ways of living, loving, and being that work with your disability rather than against it. |
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Learning from neurodivergent leaders : how to start, survive and thrive in leadership A book on how to develop leadership skills for neurodivergent leaders and aspiring young neurodivergent people, to encourage them into leadership. |
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Divergent Mind: Thriving in a world that wasn't designed for you A paradigm-shifting study of neurodivergent women-those with ADHD, autism, and other sensory processing differences-exploring why these traits are overlooked in women and how society benefits from allowing their unique strengths to flourish. |
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Autistic and Neurodivergent Pride
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Neurodiversity Informational Series: Learning from Autistic Self Advocates |
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Neurodiversity Celebration Week is a worldwide initiative that challenges stereotypes and misconceptions about neurological differences. |
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Unmasking for Life: The Autistic Person's Guide to Connecting, Loving, and Living Authentically Most masked Autistics have spent a lifetime being told how to perform neurotypically: how to behave, how to carry themselves, what to feel, and how to live. No matter where you are in the unmasking process, there is still work to be done. Unmasking for Life provides the resources to help you advocate for your needs and invent new ways of living, loving, and being that work with your disability rather than against it. |
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Autistic Community and the Neurodiversity Movement: Stories from the Frontline The first book to bring together a large collection of neurodiverse contributors to talk about events that shaped the movement, and which they themselves were involved with.
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Just Right for You: A Story about Autism Just Right for You offers a warm, optimistic way of introducing Autism to your child and embracing their differences. |
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Neurodiversity in Literature Video Series
The goal of this video series, designed for upper elementary, middle and high school teachers, is to share research and ideas to consider when teaching books that include disability representation, particularly books that feature neurodivergent characters.
LRC-South Lending Library
Explore our library resources online with the Alexandria Researcher to search by title, subject, author or content area. Access additional online resources and information through our Explore Bar.
