COSTAATT Pushes For Greater Neurodiversity Awareness And Support #TTTLiveOnline

Embracing these differences is at the heart of a continuous initiative by COSTAATT. Under the theme “Awareness to Action”, the college is hosting a forum next Tuesday, designed to move beyond simple definitions and toward real-world support for neurodivergent individuals.

Neurodiversity recognises that differences in thinking, learning, attention, communication, and behaviour are natural variations of the human brain, not flaws that need to be fixed. Simply put, neurodiversity values brain differences the same way we value differences in culture, personality, or ability.

According to COSTAATT Chair of Education Shinelle Smith, the institution will raise awareness of the issue through a discussion forum focused on education under the theme “Awareness to Action.”

“So when we spoke about the notion of action, we wanted to focus on this forum providing a space of transition from that idea and that conceptualisation and thinking about neurodiversity in a way where we understand that people are living with this condition, but their lived experiences need a space where they can find tangible outputs to support them.”

Chair of the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Nneka St Rose, explained that the discussions are structured around breakout sessions where participants get to interact with different experts, for example on autism, ADHD, or dyslexia.

“So a person who’s interested in early assessment in children, there’s a room that you can enter and speak with experts from the Ministry of Education to find out what is being done or what can be done. A person who may be interested in neurodiversity in the workplace can enter a room, and there will be experts from Equal Opportunities that’s going to speak to those type of issues. The way in which our small committee envisioned it, which is to not make it a session where presenters are simply just telling persons information, but we want it to be really dialogue-centred.”

By covering a range of topics on neurodiversity, Ms. Smith hopes attendees leave with the knowledge and motivation to take meaningful action.

“We are speaking about the employer dynamic and the way that employees should be treated within that context. We are speaking about it from higher education perspectives as well. So all of that being said, we are likely to attract a very diverse audience. So what we want, people who are coming there, they take away what is in their best interest. So the way the sessions will be structured, persons will have the option of sitting in, in terms of whichever panel discussion resonates best with them.”

By providing dedicated spaces for dialogue, Ms. Rose said COSTAATT aims to ensure these important conversations continue.

“Spaces like this is critical to sort of bring together those siloed operations that’s happening so that we have some sort of a comprehensive type of understanding of what is going on and persons don’t feel so alone in the different spaces that they are operating in.”