"Falling Through the Cracks"

The Canberra Times

The Canberra Times' series on neurodivergence in the ACT, and the struggles families, children and adults have in being diagnosed and getting support.

Transcript

00:00 It's been a bit of a struggle through my younger years to learn how to read and write sort

00:06 of a thing, but I'd get quite a lot of trouble because I was out of my seat, I was getting

00:10 in trouble because I was not doing my work and because I was like running around and

00:16 my teachers would have no idea why.

00:18 The sooner our children are identified as being neurodivergent, the sooner we know how

00:21 their brains work and we know that we have to do things differently.

00:25 So when we don't know that, when that's not yet identified, we have children who are struggling

00:29 to fit in.

00:31 We have children who are, they're being traumatised because they don't fit into the world around

00:37 them.

00:38 The world doesn't know how to include, doesn't know how to include them.

00:43 So for some children, by the time they're diagnosed, they've already had all these traumatic

00:47 experiences and they carry that trauma with them.

00:50 My whole life I've wanted to please people and I think that a lot of girls can relate

00:55 to the pleasing factor.

00:56 So we want to please people and we want to do well, so we mask.

01:00 And it's like we go to school wearing this mask and the teachers have no idea how much

01:05 we're struggling on the inside.

01:07 [Gunshot]

01:08 (soft music)

01:10 (gentle music)

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Transcript

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