Anna Kaminski
Ms Anna Kaminski, MA Psych., is an international certified Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) coach, neurodiversity presenter and educator, an advocate for inclusive employment and a children’s book author.
She is a Founder and CEO of NeuroKinds – a social-value-driven enterprise supporting neurodivergent people and working with businesses and educational institutions to create a neurodiversity-affirming work environments and communities.
As a neurodivergent person herself, Anna has great passion for raising awareness of strengths and challenges associated with neurodivergence and working towards a perspective-shift towards a positive, rather than a pathology-centered one.
She is a keen advocate for school and university students with ADHD and other expressions of neurodiversity. She is committed to reducing misunderstanding and stigma about neurological differences, by providing science-based guidance to families and organisations across the world.
Having lived in Europe and Africa, for the last 18 years Anna has enjoyed the hospitality of the Middle East. As a keen learner, she is very appreciative of the experiences she has had working and living with diverse communities in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Shifting attitudes: creating neurodiversity-affirming spaces and communities.
This presentation aims to:
Provide context and relevance: Neurodiversity is not just a recently-popularised concept but a reality – about one in five of us have brains different from the majority. Many of us struggle because of these differences, many utilize their neurodivergent traits to create success for themselves - most of us neurodivergent people do both on the daily basis.
Pathologised or unrecognized and unsupported neurodivergence often has a negative impact on the individual’s socio-emotional, educational and vocational functioning across the lifespan. The reduce the great cost on the individual and community level, collaborative, multi-level effort to shift attitudes and practices are urgently needed.
Raise awareness of neurodiversity: to inform about the common expressions of neurodiversity like autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and dyslexia. It will provide an overview of challenges and strengths frequently associated with them in the context of the workplace, as well as the ways of bypassing the former, and maximizing the latter. Working with one’s brain, and not against it, is encouraged as a path to productivity, mental health and fulfilment.
Suggest Direction of Change: Let us work towards creating communities, families, educational institutions and workplaces that are more neurodiversity-affirming.
This means: 1) aware of what neurodiversity means, 2) seeing differences as natural rather than abnormal 3) seeing value in them, 4) recognizing that there are many positive aspects to human diversity 5) embracing it is beneficial to us all -regardless of neurotype.
Creating those communities will involve supporting leaders, educators and mental health professionals to be able to work with this population more effectively.
General aim: to inspire thinking about changes we could witness, if we were to take a positive view of neurodiversity instead of pathologizing it in the workplace, schools and relationships.
References:
Amador, S. (2024). Breaking barriers and fostering neurodiversity awareness in elementary education through inclusive children's literature. Texas Education Review, 12
Cook, A. (2024). Conceptualisations of neurodiversity and barriers to inclusive pedagogy in schools: A perspective article. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 24(3), 627-636. https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-3802.12656
Dawson, C. (2022). Neurodiversity is Human Diversity, an Equity Imperative for Education. International Journal for Talent Development and Creativity, 10(1), 217-229.
Hirota, T., Cheon, K.-A., & Lai, M.-C. (2024). Neurodiversity paradigms and their development across cultures: Some reflections in East Asian contexts. Autism, 28(1), 2685-2689. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613241285678