BrainPower Neurodevelopmental Center

04/03/2026

Tiny Buddha and ❤️

04/03/2026

Auditory Processing Disorder (APD), or Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD), is a condition where the brain struggles to interpret auditory information despite normal hearing. Symptoms include difficulty understanding speech in noisy environments, following verbal instructions, and distinguishing similar sounds. I

Symptoms: People with APD often ask for repetition, have trouble with multi-step directions, are easily distracted by background noise, and may have reading/spelling difficulties.

Causes and Risk Factors: The exact cause is often unknown, but it can be linked to developmental issues (e.g., low birth weight, premature birth), chronic ear infections, or neurological conditions like ADHD or autism. In adults, it may follow a head trauma or stroke.

Types/Subtypes: APD can affect different areas, including:
Auditory Discrimination: Distinguishing similar sounds/words.
Auditory Figure-Ground: Focusing on sound amid background noise.
Auditory Memory: Recalling instructions or lists.
Auditory Sequencing: Understanding the order of sounds/words.

04/02/2026

Awareness, acceptance, and support for all our wonderful clients and families!!!

As always, thank you to Joy of Autism ❤️

04/01/2026

03/31/2026

Joy of Autism ❤️

03/30/2026

Don't forget! World Autism Day is approaching. Help spread awareness, acceptance, and love!

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03/28/2026

Excellent list! Thank you, Joy of Autism! ❤️

03/27/2026

Pathological demand avoidance (PDA) is a pattern of behavior in which kids go to extremes to ignore or avoid anything they perceive as a demand. It is seen most often in people diagnosed with autism.

Because of that, parents sometimes call it “PDA autism.” Identifying PDA can be a helpful way to understand some kinds of difficult behavior, but it is not a subtype of autism or a separatediagnosis.

People with PDA tend to have an adverse reaction to being told how to behave or what to do, even when it’s something that’s an ordinary part of their daily life — and even when it would benefit them. It’s called pathological when the avoidance is extreme and interferes with functioning at home or at school.

Some autism advocates feel that calling a child’s avoidance of demands on them “pathological” could violate their autonomy. But, Dr. Martin notes, a big focus in working with kids with PDA behaviors is on building what are called “adaptive skills” — skills that will improve their quality of life and ability to live independently.

“We’ve known for decades that individuals with autism have a big discrepancy between their IQ and adaptive skills,” explains Dr. Martin. “These kids aren’t performing ordinary daily tasks, even though they have shown that they know how to do them. This leads to being dependent on parents and other caretakers despite their capacity to do things themselves.” Often parents perform tasks for kids on the spectrum long after other kids are doing things independently, she adds, thinking they’ll grow out of their dependence. But they may not, if they have been successful avoiding demands for a long time.

Establishing clear consequences when kids don’t comply with demands is important. But, she notes that changing what leads up to the avoidance — harnessing motivation for the child to comply and encouraging flexibility — is more effective as a tool to increase compliance in kids who fit the PDA profile. “We also may need to taper our expectations for what ‘compliance’ will look like because a neurodiverse child with autism may do things differently, so we cannot confuse those differences as being non-compliant.” (Child Mind Institute ❤️)

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03/27/2026

Happy 8 year anniversary to our amazing practice coordinator, Crystal!

03/26/2026

ADHD in women does not typically align with the hyperactive childhood stereotypes. Instead, it often presents through internalised symptoms that are easily masked or misattributed to anxiety, mood disorders, or simply “being overwhelmed.”

Common neurological features include:
*Difficulty managing everyday tasks despite being highly competent professionally — a mismatch caused by variable dopamine release affecting motivation and task initiation.
*A constant feeling of mental “noise” — reflecting a brain with reduced activity in the default mode and executive control networks.
*Strong emotional responses or sensitivity to criticism — linked to impaired regulation in the limbic system.
*Reliance on last-minute pressure — because the ADHD brain often uses urgency as a chemical trigger to stimulate dopamine production.
*Coping strategies that begin to fail during hormonal shifts — as estrogen, a key modulator of dopamine, declines in perimenopause and menopause.

These are not character flaws. They are measurable neurological traits supported by neuroimaging and cognitive research.

The Role of Hormones and Dopamine

Estrogen enhances dopamine activity in the prefrontal cortex — the area of the brain responsible for planning, organisation, working memory, and impulse control. As estrogen declines in perimenopause, dopamine levels drop, amplifying ADHD symptoms that were previously manageable or hidden.

Increased Cognitive Load

Around midlife, many women experience a peak in responsibilities: career advancement, teenage or adult children leaving home, caregiving for aging parents, and societal expectations of emotional labour. This exposes underlying deficits in executive function—revealing patterns that have been present for decades but masked by structure, adrenaline, or external support.
Research now shows that up to 75% of women with ADHD are not diagnosed until adulthood, and often not until their 40s or 50s. ( Health Group ❤️)

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03/25/2026

Thanks to Mrs Speechie P ❤️

03/24/2026

Autistic women are frequently misdiagnosed with conditions like anxiety, depression, and borderline personality disorder (BPD) due to male-centric diagnostic criteria and high rates of social masking or camouflaging. This often leads to delayed diagnosis or receiving inappropriate treatment.

Women with autism are more likely to be misdiagnosed with a mental health condition than their male counterparts. The most common misdiagnoses include:

*Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD): This is one of the most frequent misdiagnoses, as some features may overlap.
*Anxiety and Mood Disorders (like Depression): Autistic women often internalize their stress, which manifests as anxiety or depression, leading healthcare providers to treat these symptoms rather than the underlying autism.
*Eating Disorders: There is a notable link between autism in women and eating disorders, which can also be an initial misdiagnosis.
*Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
*Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
*Complex PTSD (CPTSD)

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