Your journey is not a straight line. And that is okay.
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Neurodivergence and Communication

Different ways of speaking, reading, processing, understanding and being understood.

START HERE

What is communication?

Communication is more than speaking. It is how we try to share a need, thought, feeling, instruction, question or idea with another person.

We communicate through speech, writing, pictures, symbols, gestures, facial expressions, body language, sign language, AAC, behaviour, sounds and technology. Different people may use different routes at different times.

See or hear→Receive→Process→Understand→Respond

Communication can break down at any point in that journey. Sending a message does not guarantee that the other person can access the meaning we intended.

Why does this matter?

Someone can hear every word and still not understand what was meant. They might read a sentence accurately but miss an idiom, implied meaning or sarcasm. They may need more processing time, a visual explanation, clearer wording or another way to respond.

Communication and neurodivergence

There is no single neurodivergent way to communicate. Autism, ADHD, dyslexia, learning differences, language differences, sensory load and individual experience can affect communication in different ways. The useful question is not “Why aren't they listening?” but “Was my communication accessible?”

The journey

We are going to travel from cave marks to pictures, writing, words, hidden meanings, sarcasm, digital messages and modern visual communication to see where meaning can be gained, changed or lost.