Advocacy
Advocacy at Neurodiversity Ireland is about amplifying neurodivergent voices and working towards systems that are more understanding, accessible, and humane.
Our advocacy is informed by lived experience, community collaboration, and a commitment to neuroaffirming practice. We focus on challenging harmful narratives, influencing policy and practice, and supporting change across education, health, and wider society.
Through campaigns, partnerships, events, and shared resources, we aim to ensure that neurodivergent people and their families are not only included in conversations — but listened to, respected, and centred in decisions that affect their lives.
School Supports
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This document provides a clinical analysis of the Roscommon School Refusal Resource Pack (March 2018) and the revised version (July 2020). The analysis is written from a neuroaffirming, trauma-informed, PDA-informed and sensory-informed occupational therapy perspective, with specific consideration of neurodivergent burnout and nervous system safety.
Link to July 2020 Version
Author: Sorcha Rice, Senior Occupational Therapist, Clinical Manager at Neurodiversity Ireland and AuDHD PDA’er.
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This submission is offered in response to the Tusla Education Support Service Five Year Plan for School Attendance 2023 to 2028. It is informed by neurodiversity affirming practice, developmental neuroscience, trauma informed education and lived experience. The purpose of this submission is to critically examine the conceptual framework underpinning current attendance policy and to highlight areas where the plan risks causing harm to neurodivergent children and other students whose nervous systems are not adequately supported within existing school environments.
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This resource supports autism class teachers to move toward a regulation-first, child-led, neuroaffirmative approach to teaching and learning. Grounded in lived experience, classroom practice, and the NCSE RELATE framework, it reframes behaviour as communication and stress response rather than non-compliance, emphasising that learning is only possible when the nervous system feels safe.
The handout outlines why traditional behaviour-based systems, reward charts, and workstations can increase pressure, masking, and dysregulation, and instead highlights the importance of co-regulation, autonomy, and relational safety. It demonstrates how child-led play, interests, and sensory-aware environments provide meaningful access to the curriculum while supporting regulation and engagement.
Overall, the document encourages teachers to prioritise safety, relationships, and understanding each child’s regulation needs, showing that when stress is reduced and trust is built, communication, curiosity, and learning naturally follow.
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NCSE Relate is a regulation-first, neuroaffirmative framework developed by the National Council for Special Education to support student engagement, participation, and wellbeing in schools. It reframes behaviour as communication and stress response, rather than something to be managed or corrected, and places relationships, nervous system regulation, and environmental supports at the centre of practice.
The framework emphasises co-regulation, unconditional positive regard, student voice, and universal design for learning, recognising that barriers to participation often sit within the environment rather than the child. NCSE Relate supports schools to move away from compliance-based approaches and towards inclusive, relational, and solution-focused practices that benefit all students, particularly neurodivergent learners.
PDA Supports
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This handout was developed by Neurodiversity Ireland to support safe, effective, neuroaffirming GP care for neurodivergent children, adults, and their families, particularly those with a Persistent Drive for Autonomy (PDA). It is deeply informed by lived experiences shared by parents, neurodivergent people, and families navigating healthcare systems.
The guide highlights that for many families, difficulties accessing healthcare are not due to lack of need, but to experiences of dismissal, misunderstanding, and distress. It emphasises that belief, listening, predictability, and flexibility are not optional extras, but core therapeutic factors that determine whether families are able to engage with care.
Key messages include:
PDA is a nervous system survival response, not a behavioural choice. Medical environments can be experienced as highly threatening due to sensory input, time pressure, uncertainty, and expectations of compliance.
Non-speaking does not mean non-thinking or non-hearing. Speaking respectfully to the child, assuming competence, and avoiding talking about them without consent is essential for safety and trust.
Belief and listening change outcomes. When GPs trust parental insight and take concerns seriously, engagement improves; when concerns are minimised, families often disengage entirely.
Declarative language and predictability reduce distress. Narrating actions, avoiding demands, and allowing time and choice support regulation and participation.
Supporting regulation is essential, not a distraction or reward. Movement, deep pressure, oral sensory input, and flexibility around examination can make care possible.
Flexibility prevents trauma. Insisting on examination when someone is not regulated can be harmful; where clinically appropriate, building trust over time leads to better long-term outcomes.
Language matters. Minimising concerns, moralising behaviour, infantilising tone, or rejecting diagnoses based on appearance increases distress and delays support.
The guide exists to help more families experience healthcare that is grounded in belief, predictability, regulation, and respect, so that neurodivergent people can access medical care without fear, trauma, or exclusion.
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This neuroaffirmative handout supports parents and educators to understand toileting through a nervous system and capacity-based lens, rather than behaviour or compliance. It explains how fluctuating capacity, interoception differences, sensory processing, and regulation directly impact a child’s ability to toilet, and why difficulties are not refusal or laziness.
The resource offers practical, low-pressure strategies to support toileting through safety, predictability, sensory regulation, and autonomy, while clearly outlining why reward-based approaches can increase stress and disconnection. Grounded in evidence and lived experience, it helps adults respond with compassion and confidence when supporting neurodivergent children’s toileting needs.
Download Here
Neurodiversity
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At Neurodiversity Ireland, we are dedicated to advocating for systemic reform within disability services to better support neurodivergent children.
Our vision is for an inclusive educational system where schools are empowered and equipped to be as inclusive as possible, both in mindset and practice.
We foster trust among parents, reassuring them that they are fully capable of supporting their neurodivergent children, by providing access to gold standard advice and information.
We understand the unique challenges our children face and are committed to providing responsive, engaging supports that allow them to participate in the same joyful and playful activities as their peers, as well as targeted supports tailored to their specific needs as they arise.
Download Here
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The Neurodiversity Ireland Language & Values Guide is designed to support inclusive, respectful communication about neurodiversity. It emphasises that language shapes how we understand and relate to one another, and that using neuro-affirming terms can help foster greater respect, dignity, and inclusion for neurodivergent people.
The guide encourages a shift away from deficit-based descriptions toward language that recognises the value of neurodiversity and the strengths of different ways of thinking. It highlights the importance of honouring individual preferences for self-identification, acknowledging that terminology may vary across communities and evolve over time.
Key themes include celebrating diversity, respecting lived experience, and avoiding pathologising language that frames differences as abnormalities. The guide also emphasises that affirming language is part of broader systemic change — helping create environments and systems that truly value and include all neurologies.
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Chiropractic marketing increasingly claims that “nervous system misalignment” causes a wide range of physical, emotional, and ‘developmental challenges..including autism and ADHD.’
In this evidence-informed deep dive, I unpack what these claims actually mean, examine the science behind “subluxation” theory and explore why framing neurodivergence as a structural blockage is both unsupported and potentially harmful.
If you’re a parent, educator, or clinician seeking clarity and a neurodiversity-affirming perspective grounded in physiology rather than metaphor download this guide. This guide will help you critically evaluate nervous system alignment claims and refocus on what truly supports regulation: safety, autonomy and systems change.
