Some people with neurodevelopmental differences can find using (expressive) or understanding (receptive) language challenging.

This could be because of difficulties learning language, creating the sounds needed for spoken language, putting together sentences using grammar rules, or using words in the right context to get your meaning across.

Some people with neurodevelopmental differences find visuals, pictures, and symbols helpful either to support their communication, or as a way to communicate in itself.

Some people with neurodevelopmental differences can find using (expressive) or understanding (receptive) language challenging. This could be because of difficulties learning language, creating the sounds needed for spoken language, putting together sentences using grammar rules, or using words in the right context to get your meaning across. Some people with neurodevelopmental differences find visuals, pictures, and symbols helpful either to support their communication, or as a way to communicate in itself.

Some people with neurodevelopmental differences experience the world in a different way because the way their senses work is a bit different. Sometimes a sense is ‘hypersensitive’, meaning small things can be overwhelming. Other times, it can be ‘hyposensitive’, meaning a person might seek out stimulation. These senses include your five external senses taste, touch, smell, sight and hearing, but can also include internal senses like pain, hunger, temperature, bowls and bladder.

Some people with neurodevelopmental differences can have difficulties with fine or gross motor co-ordination. Fine motor coordination refers to small, precise movements we make, such as tying shoelaces, doing buttons, writing, using a knife and fork, or holding a glass with enough pressure to keep it in your hand but not so hard you break it. Gross motor coordination refers to large whole-body movements that need to happen together at the right time. This is important for things like walking and running, avoiding obstacles, catching and throwing a ball, and riding a bike.

• Some people with neurodevelopmental differences can have difficulties with learning. This might be just one aspect, such as reading or mathematics. Other times, it can be broader, such as learning through visual information, or learning through language. Sometimes, the problems a person experiences are not specifically to do with learning, but that learning is harder because of the environment they are learning in (e.g. sound, lighting, etc).
• Some people with neurodevelopmental differences have difficulties with executive functions. These are the skills we need to plan, implement and evaluate ways to solve problems. For example, you use your executive functions to work out what you will need to buy at the shops this week, the best route around the store, possible substitutions when the shop is out of something you need, and to make sure you have everything you need before you leave.
• Lastly, some people find all aspects of learning extremely challenging across environments, such as those with an intellectual disability. This often means that learning both academic learning at school and life-skills learning at home is more challenging.

Some people with neurodevelopmental differences can have difficulties with attention. This can be difficulties maintaining focus on one thing for a long time, difficulty ignoring distractions, or difficulty working out what to focus on. It can lead some people to, for example, do only the first part of a task then forget what they had to do next, get side-tracked on projects, or have difficulty focusing in school or work. Some people with neurodevelopmental differences also describe having ‘hyperfocus’ where they focus on one thing for an extended time, and forget about anything else, including eating and drinking.

Some people with neurodevelopmental differences are far more active than their peers. This restlessness is often accompanied by difficulties managing impulses. While we all have impulses (to say something we shouldn’t, take something we shouldn’t, take a risk we should maybe think about a bit more), we have a few moments of thinking time to evaluate before we decide what to do. Some individuals with difficulties with impulsivity have very little time between thinking and doing, making it harder to stop an action before it starts.