Message from School Nurse 

ADHD Conference 2024.

Hi, my name is Megan, and I am the new School nurse working at Mount Ridley College.

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Annual ADHD Conference for 2024, held at The Convention Centre Melbourne with my beautiful daughter (who works as an ES for another local Primary school). To our surprise we bumped into this amazing group of people from MRC who also gave up their day off to attend the conference. Collectively, we were all in search of finding the answer to the never-ending question – “How do we help the neurodivergent student”?

Over the day, 6 speakers presented to a sold-out crowd of 1,000 people. Those people included teachers, educational support workers, clinicians, parents, and newly diagnosed adults – all very keen to seek insight into the neurodivergent world that is ADHD.

Like any conference, there were outstanding presenters who brought with them a wealth of information and those… well … those less outstanding who didn’t share relevant material for why we were there. There was an abundance of information but for this article I will just highlight the standout points for me. If you would like to hear about or discuss the conference in more detail, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me.

Christina Keeble – Co-Founder of National PEKE Centre. She has a Masters in Special Education, a Graduate Diploma in Primary Education and a BA with Honors in Psychology. She also proudly refers to herself as ADHDer. 

Christine’s standout points:

“Not all disabilities are visible – being neurodivergent means you experience and process the world differently”.

Christina stunned the audience by alerting us to the fact that our brains are NOT fully developed until 22-27years of age. So, our student cohort have some ways to go!

She highlighted the need to observe our students, even during a period of anxiety or a meltdown. This is the best opportunity for us to learn about the student and their needs. Importantly Christina acknowledged that if we force a child to conform or to comply to what we see as “good” behaviour then they lose the connection with their inner needs voice. We as educators or support of educators need to remind ourselves that these neurodivergent individuals are just as capable of learning and succeeding as neurotypical students. It is just more of a challenge for us to find the best method for achieving this. 

Finally, Christina touched on tools we can use; she stressed the importance of building a strong, positive relationship rather than trying to enforce authority over them.

“Kids do well if they can

• And when they can’t we need to adjust expectations and build their skills”

Dr Green.

Sandhya Menon – an ADHDer, neurodivergent, Developmental Psychologist, Author of Children’s books The Brain Forest and the Rainbow Brain.

Sandhya brought to us the presentation of “Beyond the DSM-5 for ADHD”.

She again brought home the message that we as educators and support to ADHD individuals the need to understand them, to re-focus our attention onto their strengths and not their weaknesses. Once we best understand them then we are best equipped to help and support their educational journey.                                                                                                                                                

Sandhya reiterated that ADHD impacts the way in which students are able to learn. Too many details result in loss of interest.

Neuro diverse students have differences in their time perception, creativity, and information overload.

Dr Connie Buckingham – a Psychologist, Director of The Allied Health Studio Collective. Social Stencil is Connie’s brain child, supporting ND & NT individuals.

The Social Stencil is for EVERYONE! It is a program for all students in all classrooms, it “teaches practical social concepts and strategies in fun and curious ways”. It’s main 4 concepts focus on

1.Listening for learning

2. 4 friendship styles

3. The drama triangle – her adaption of an earlier model by Dr Steven Karpman

4. The science of anger

“Moving or standing doesn’t mean they are not listening. People listen in different ways to each other”

Dr Sharon Saline – a Licenced Clinical Psychologist, an award-winning author, a top expert in ADHD lecturer from MA USA.

Dr Sharon presented on how to help anxious, neurodivergent children and teens gain confidence. Dr Sharon also came equipped with statistics:

ADHD 6 -10% in AU

Learning disabilities 10% of all students, 41% of ADHD students

Anxiety 30-59%

Depression 16-30%

Her presentation focused on anxiety and how we can support our student’s suffering anxiety. 

Her take home message to all was:

“Focus on what we can change. See mistakes as learning opportunities”.