ADCET Webinar: Serving as a reminder you are not alone - Building Community and Supporting Neurodivergent Students through Study Skill Workshops at the University of Adelaide
Neurodivergent students have often cited feelings of isolation and loneliness when attending university. The Neurodiversity Project at the University of Adelaide has recently begun facilitating Neurodivergent Study Skill Workshops for neurodivergent students. These workshops are part of the larger aims of the Neurodiversity Project, which includes establishing a peer mentoring program. This webinar discussed how the workshops are taught with a neuro-affirming approach. The workshops facilitator, Tiana Blazevic, is neurodivergent herself and these workshops ask students to reflect on their lived experiences as a neurodivergent learner.
Students are given critical reflection worksheets that ask them to reflect on their academic practices and in what ways they could lean into their neurodivergent selves. The workshops often discuss some of the ways that neurodivergent conditions are situated in a cultural context and each topic shows students some practical strategies to incorporate into their studies. Students are given several alternative options to participate in the workshops so that each student can still participate without increasing social anxiety levels.
Since these workshops began in Semester 2 of 2024, neurodivergent students have expressed how they feel a sense of community, a decrease in isolation, and at the same time, are learning practical study skills and strategies.
This webinar presented some of the feedback given by the students and explained ways to create a more neuro-affirming workshop space and discussed why the creation of these workshops are an important step in recognising the diverse needs of neurodivergent students.
Presenter
Tiana Blazevic is the Disability Support Project Officer for Disability Support at the University of Adelaide, coordinating the Neurodiversity Project. Tiana is also an Academic Learning Advisor at the Writing Centre in the Student Academic Skills Support Unit and was formerly the South Australian State Representative for the Association for Academic Languages and Learning. Tiana is a neurodivergent educator who has been working directly with neurodivergent students since 2020.
Recommended Tools
- Goblin tools
A collection of small, simple, single-task tools, mostly designed to help neurodivergent people with tasks they find overwhelming or difficult - Zotero
Zotero is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organise, annotate, cite, and share research - Obsidian
Obsidian is a private and flexible writing app that adapts to the way you think - Mindgrasp
Mindgrasp transforms class lectures and readings into study tools with AI powered summaries, detailed notes, flashcards, quizzes, and an interactive AI-tutor trained on your course material - Audemic
Access any academic research via audio - Notebook LM
A personalised AI research assistant - Lifeat.io
Create a beautiful, distraction-free workspace wherever you are - NapkinAI
Napkin turns your text into visuals so sharing your ideas is quick and effective
Answers to Questions from the Webinar
Question 1: What fonts should be used?
"Fonts do matter, experts at the British Dyslexia Association explain, but only because they matter for all readers: “Adopting best practice for dyslexic readers has the advantage of making all written communication easier on the eye for everyone.” They recommend fonts designed for general legibility, like Arial, Verdana, and Tahoma. For better reading outcomes, font size should be between 12 and 14 points, and section headings should be used to create a consistent structure within your documents, easing navigation and supporting better sense-making."
Citations below:
- “Do Dyslexia Fonts Actually Work?” n.d. Edutopia. Accessed October 1, 2024. https://www.edutopia.org/article/do-dyslexia-fonts-actually-work/.
- Kuster, Sanne M., Marjolijn van Weerdenburg, Marjolein Gompel, and Anna M. T. Bosman. 2018. “Dyslexie Font Does Not Benefit Reading in Children with or without Dyslexia.” Annals of Dyslexia 68 (1): 25–42. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-017-0154-6.
Question 2: This year we started an ADHD support group here at Flinders Uni - facilitated by two neuro-typicals ....would love your thoughts on what we need to keep in mind especially when facilitating .... LOVE the presentation!
I found the link on the Student Health and Wellbeing website. I think it is great that Flinders are creating this support group and any additional support that can be created for neurodivergent students is welcome regardless of whether or not you are neurodivergent or neurotypical. In saying that, you have to be careful with the type of coaching, advice, or support that is being given as well as the sensitivity aspect. I would highly recommend to chat with Kevan Jones from University of Queensland who is a Learning Advisors and facilitator of ADHD group coaching as he has been doing it for a while and has a great system and has also had to deal with some challenging aspects of this type of support program. I am happy to e-introduce you to him. I think the key here is to always let the students lead the discussion and step in where reasonable especially when conversations start to turn to medical advice and suggestions. I also think it would be a good idea to have everyone sign a agreement form for their participation (if you have not already) to make sure that both staff and students have clear guidelines on what is being discussed.
Question 3: How effective would similar workshops be if run by staff who aren't themselves neurodivergent?
I think this is always going to be tricky in this area and my advice to anyone wanting to replicate the workshops are neurotypical is to undertake a lot of self-reflection prior and really question any assumptions or notions they have about learning and study. I believe that neurodiversity should be valued and that sharp divides between neurotypical and neurodivergent can sometimes be problematic when we consider the spectrum of neurodiversity. Lived experience is very crucial so I would recommend to amplify the voices of neurodivergent scholars and writers in those sessions. I would read more general reading first (such as Ellie Middelton's Unmasked) to grasp some of the consistent challenges and stereotypes that neurodivergent students face and to really think outside of the box in terms of the type of content you want to create and advice you want to give. For example, many neurodivergent students actually love to research and the research part of the assessment is not where they experience paralysis. However, I find that they are consistently going down the rabbit hole (this is in my experience as a Learning Advisor) and the paralysis is to do with the writing and structuring of the work. This is especially the case when neurodivergent students are interested and passionate about the area they are researching and often because of their ability to form large connections and narratives this is what prevents them from structuring or writing their work because there is now simply too much information to process. In my session on research what we discussed was structured rabbit hole time which is where students give themselves a dedicated hour to dive down the rabbit hole but for at least one or two of the articles that they have found they need to write down why they are reading it and where that research is applicable to their assessment. I created a template for them to use for their rabbit hole time. Essentially, in the session we also discussed that a large part of our need to find research and our curiosity which leads to a dive down the rabbit hole can also be linked to evolutionary theory because those with ADHD are naturally (according to theorist) resource seekers and this can be a great thing as a student but then it is about managing the cognitive overload that comes with living in a environment that is information rich. To conclude, it is about re-framing and re-evaluating our cultural and social ideas of what it means to be neurodivergent and to question what we know and I think those who are neurotypical can help by learning more about this area and raising awareness.
- Le Cunff, Anne-Laure. 2024. “Distractibility and Impulsivity in ADHD as an Evolutionary Mismatch of High Trait Curiosity.” Evolutionary Psychological Science, August. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40806-024-00400-8
(October 2024)
ADCET is hosted by the University of Tasmania
Attachments
- Presentation: Serving as a reminder you are not alone - Building Community and Supporting Neurodivergent Students through Study Skill Workshops at the University of Adelaide (ppt 2MB)
- Serving as a reminder you are not alone - Building Community and Supporting Neurodivergent Students through Study Skill Workshops at the University of Adelaide Transcript (doc)
- Serving as a reminder you are not alone - References, Readings and Tools (doc)