Neuroinclusion

24/11/2025

Neurodiversity-Affirming Support in the Perinatal Period matters more than ever 🤰🏼

🌏 We’re in the middle of a global urgent mental health crisis and neurodivergent parents and parents-to-be are carrying a disproportionate load.

🧠 This isn’t just a personal issue; it’s a systemic one that desperately needs more research, funding, services, resources and education.

💔 Too often, when a pregnant person is neurodivergent, their experiences are dismissed or incorrectly attributed to their diagnosis. Sensory overload? Anxiety? Fatigue? Communication differences? These are valid pregnancy-related concerns that deserve to be recognised, addressed and supported. These should not pathologised through a neurotypical lens.

🌈 Neurodivergent people also diverge from heterosexual and neuronormative cultural expectations. That means they need individualised, affirming, accessible perinatal supports to genuinely optimise their health and wellbeing.

⭐️ And we must name this clearly:
Because of their neurodivergent diagnosis, health professionals too often make harmful assumptions about a person’s capacity to have a physiological birth. These assumptions are not evidence-based and they are bias.

🧠 Every pregnant person deserves care that centres their needs, their body, and their neurotype.

It’s time for perinatal systems to catch up.

🎉 Neurodivergent parents deserve safety, dignity and choice especially in the perinatal period.

Grateful to learn from .learninghub .psych

20/11/2025

✨ 35 Reading & Writing Supports to Trial ✨

Every brain learns differently and reading/writing should meet each person where they’re at. 🧠

Whether you’re supporting a child, teen, or adult, small adjustments can make a huge difference in comfort, confidence and participation.✅

Here are some of the strategies we love exploring with our clients:
✏️ Modify the writing tool – pencil grips, weighted pens, slant boards, larger/smaller tools, digital options
📚 Change the text – audiobooks, text-to-speech, coloured overlays, font adjustments, simplified layouts
🌿 Modify the environment – lighting, noise, movement options, flexible seating, reduced visual load
🌀 Change the sensations – fidgets, grounding tools, sensory breaks, hand-warmers/coolers
💡 Other supports – timers, scaffolds, co-writing, mind-mapping, speech-to-text, chunking and more

💡There’s no one “right” way to read or write. It’s just what feels accessible, sustainable and affirming for that individual.

16/11/2025

New research review on sensory-based interventions (SBIs) has been published and here’s what it tells us 👇

A 2015–2024 systematic review pulled together 21 studies looking at how sensory-based interventions support children and young people (ages 1–21) with sensory processing and integration “challenges”, including Autistic and ADHD kids, those with developmental delays, and those with sensory-processing differences.

✨ What they found:
• Strong evidence for deep pressure input and caregiver-training approaches to improve daily functioning and participation.
• Moderate evidence that multi-sensory interventions (using more than one sensory system) are more effective than single-system strategies.
• Limited research on environmental changes (like lighting or noise adjustments), even though these are widely used in practice.
• Some popular strategies, like alternative seating for attention, didn’t show meaningful impact.

⚠️ What’s still unclear:
Small sample sizes, inconsistent intervention methods, varied outcome measures, and a lack of children’s own perspectives mean more high-quality research is needed. Many studies didn’t describe who delivered the intervention or whether it followed sensory-integration principles, making results harder to interpret.

🌈 Why it matters:
This review helps clarify what’s currently supported by evidence — and highlights the gaps. It reinforces that sensory support should be individualised, meaningful, and grounded in participation, not just behaviour change.

13/11/2025

Disability advocacy is complex, challenging, and deeply human. 🌈🧠

✨ It’s deeply personal — rooted in lived experience, care, and connection.
⚖️ It’s always political — because access, rights, and inclusion are shaped by systems and power.
🌱 It’s always changing and evolving — as language, understanding, and priorities grow over time.
💔 It can be traumatising — reliving harm, facing burnout, and navigating dismissal takes a toll.
⚠️ It’s risky — speaking up can expose vulnerability and provoke backlash.
🌿 It’s new and unfamiliar — reimagining systems, culture, and language is ongoing work.
🚧 It isn’t accessible to all — systemic, social, and economic barriers prevent many from participating.
🤝 It requires others — community, support, and allies make advocacy sustainable and powerful.

Advocacy isn’t easy but together, it’s transformative. 💪

12/11/2025

🌍✨ We’re incredibly honoured to share that Neuroinclusion has been awarded Bronze in the 2025 Stevie Awards for Women in Business – Diversity & Inclusion! 🥉💛

This recognition isn’t just about us. It’s a celebration of our team, community, and every person who continues to challenge systems, share lived experience, and reimagine what truly inclusive care looks like.

We’re humbled and proud to see our neurodiversity-affirming approach acknowledged internationally. This fosters hope that one day our services are not the exception, but as the standard of care that every person deserves. 💫

Thank you for believing in what’s possible when inclusion isn’t just a value, but a way of being. 🧠🌈

08/11/2025

🌿 One of my teenage clients had the most beautiful moment of interoceptive awareness this week.

🗣️ She said:

“I’m so exhausted! I feel emotionally tired, but I don’t know why cos I didn’t have a bad day. In fact, I had a really good day. Oh wait! I feel exhausted from experiencing nonstop joy today! I don’t think I’ve ever felt enough joy in one day to feel tired from it!” 💛

📚 This is a perfect example of interoception. This is our ability to notice, understand, and interpret internal body signals like hunger, temperature, heart rate, and emotional sensations.

🧠 For many neurodivergent people, interoceptive awareness can be under- or over-responsive. This means it can be hard to identify emotions, understand what our body needs, or tell the difference between feeling anxious, tired, or excited.

✨ Through gentle support, reflective language, and sensory regulation, we can help build a stronger connection between body sensations and emotional understanding.

In this case, my client recognised a completely new emotional experience. This was realising that joy itself can be physically and emotionally tiring! 🌞

That’s the magic of interoception. It’s learning to trust your internal cues, name what you feel, and care for yourself with deeper awareness and compassion. 💫

07/11/2025

We created our sensory gym with one clear goal: for every neurotype to feel:
✨ Safe
✨ Included
✨ Calm
✨ Authentic
✨ Regulated

Every corner of this space has been thoughtfully designed by our neurodiverse team. From the lighting options and textures, to the equipment and layout, to support nervous system safety, self-expression, and genuine connection.

🌈 Because regulation looks different for everyone, and every body deserves to feel seen, supported, and at ease

06/11/2025

🌿 Meet Kate, our incredible Senior Occupational Therapist here at Neuroinclusion!

She’s a proud boy mama, coffee drinker, and animal lover who also volunteers her time helping wildlife 🦘

🏆 When she’s not supporting clients or rescuing animals, you’ll find her swimming, cheering on her favourite AFL and ice hockey teams, or championing our staff wellbeing initiatives 💫

We’re so lucky to have Kate’s compassion, calm energy, and leadership on our team! ☕💙

04/11/2025

✨Tasks To Try To Increase Dopamine✨

Dopamine is our brain’s “feel-good” chemical that helps with motivation, focus, and joy. Here are some simple ways to give it a natural boost ⬇️

🍳 Cook & eat your favourite food and drinks
🎲 Play your favourite card or board games
🎬 Watch your favourite movie or TV show
📸 Reminisce about your favourite memories
🌿 Visit your favourite place or environment
🎨 Engage in hobbies & creative tasks you love
🎶 Listen, sing, or dance to your favourite music
🗣 Socialise with a trusted friend about favourite topics
🏃‍♀️ Move your body in a way that feels pleasurable

Sometimes the little things make the biggest difference 💛

01/11/2025

✨ Sneak peek of our mood board for our brand new Osborne Park clinic! ✨

This space has been thoughtfully co-designed and co-created by our neurodiverse team. Every texture, tone and detail has been chosen with purpose. 🌈

Accessibility, practicality and inclusion are the foundations of everything we do, and our new clinic will truly reflect that. A place where everyone feels safe, seen and supported for both our clients and our team. 🧠

We can’t wait to bring this vision to life and welcome our community into this affirming space soon! 💫

What things would help make this space welcoming for you? ✅

31/10/2025

✨ Occupational Therapy Week 2025 ✨

Whilst it may look like we play all day, our work as Occupational Therapists goes far beyond the therapy room 💛

Behind every sensory bin, goal sheet, and smile is hours of:
📚 Continuous learning & training
🔍 Reading, analysing & applying research
🤝 Meetings with families, funding agencies & professionals
💻 Invoicing, documenting & writing reports
📚 Creating, cleaning & tracking therapy resources
🗣️ Advocating for our clients
💬 Collaborating with our admin & leadership teams
🧠 Scoring & interpreting assessments
🎯 Goal setting & evaluating progress
🛠️ Trialling new equipment
🗓️ Planning sessions that are meaningful and fun

At Neuroinclusion, we’re proud to do it all with curiosity, compassion, and creativity 🌈🏆

Tag your favourite OTs in the comments 🏷️

29/10/2025