This course is designed to help teachers and school leaders understand neurodiversity and common neurodivergences present in the classroom. It will explore what educators need to know and understand about neurodiversity as well as explore strategies and approaches at the school, classroom, and individual student level that effectively support neurodivergent students at primary school (ages 5 to 12).

Knowledge building sections throughout the course will also support educators to build their understanding of specific conditions, including co-occurrence. Throughout the course, participants will be encouraged to reflect on their current practice, evaluating the inclusivity and accessibility of their classrooms and settings, and plan how they might modify their practice to support all students’ learning.

The aims of the course:

• To build knowledge and understanding of many of the most common forms of neurodivergence (including co-occurrence)

• To learn about general and specific strategies for supporting primary school aged neurodivergent students in a range of contexts

Time commitment: Allow 10-14 weeks, 60 minutes per week, plus putting your learning into practice in your own work context.

Flexible engagement: With course content available 24-7 and no cut-off date, you can choose when to engage with the learning materials.

Multimodal learning: A rich mix of interviews, readings, video case-studies, reflections, and practical activities

What you will learn:

The course is structured into fourteen parts, with each part designed to take about a week to work through, although participants are free to work at their own pace.

PART 1

Understanding neurodiversity introduces the concept of neurodiversity and what neurodiversity can mean in the classroom. There will also be a deep dive into autism and ADHD.

PART 2

Implications of the neurodiversity framework for educational settings explores key ideas and principles in designing support based on understandings of neurodiversity, and evidence-based and life experience-based approaches to neurodiversity. There will also be a deep dive into sensory processing differences.

PART 3

Working in partnership focuses on how to build an effective school-wide approach to neurodiversity, including strategies for effectively engaging with students and whānau. There will also be a deep dive into dyslexia.

PART 4

General strategies explores evidence-based strategies for supporting neurodivergent students across different aspects of practice, including Universal Design for Learning (UDL), supporting executive functioning and emotional regulation. There will also be a deep dive into neurodiversity and mental health.

PART 5

Planning for environments and routines examines the types of environments, including sensory considerations and the role of consistent routines can play in supporting neurodivergent students at school. There will also be a deep dive into developmental coordination disorder (DCD).

PART 6

Teaching and learning explores how teachers can make adjustments to their programmes and assessments to enable neurodivergent students to succeed as well as providing guidance on the importance of explicit teaching and what this can look like across the curriculum. There will also be a deep dive into developmental langauge disorder and other speech and communication challenges.

PART 7

Students with high and complex needs examines how teachers and schools can plan for and effectively respond to challenging scenarios in the classroom and how to effectively work in partnership with specialists including teacher aides, medical practitioners, and other specialist services.

PART 8

Summary will give participants the opportunity to bring together the different strands of learning covered during the course and to take action to make changes in their own context of practice.

PART 9-14

Knowledge building develops understanding about the most common forms of neurodivergence, how they can impact students, and strategies and approaches that can support students. The forms of neurodivergence covered will include: autism; sensory processing differences; ADHD and executive functioning; speech and language differences including developmental language delay; developmental coordination disorder (DCD); dyslexia; dyspraxia; dyscalculia; co-occurance and mental health challenges.

Pricing:

Enrolling as a group offers you great savings, and enables teachers to share their learning journeys and centres to collectively make changes in their practice based on their learning. Each teacher receives their own log in, linked to their email address, and can complete the course in their own time, on their own computer or tablet.

1 teacher: NZ$110.00

2-10 teachers: SAVE 15% (NZ$93.50pp)

11-25 teachers: SAVE 20% (NZ$88.00pp)

26+ teachers: SAVE 25% (NZ$82.50pp)

Please note: Prices are subject to 15% GST (local sales tax). Discounts only apply to group enrolments made in one transaction, and cannot be applied retrospectively if your group size increases.