Engagement and neurodiversity

Is engagement different when it comes to neurodiversity?

My take (and it’s only my take):

1. Engagement is different for everyone

It’s better to realise that everyone engages a bit differently. We are all idiosyncratic. There are common patterns and similarities, but no one fits a single persona.

This is also true for neurodiversity — as neurodiversity can be different from person to person even among those with similar diagnoses. And it’s true for cultures: some people engage more like their “national culture”, some less, some very little at all.

2. But engagement is also the same for everyone

The same fundamental psychological and physiological processes apply. We all receive signals using the same parts of the brain. There are common rules that apply to everyone, because of our psychophysiology.

3. Use the egg model

Every egg has a yolk — the yellow centre — that is pretty much always the same size. This is the common core of engagement that we ALL follow. Start with this.

Then, adapt the egg white to the person or context. The inner core remains consistent, but the outside adapts.

4. Where I learned this

I learned this as a church minister. There was a fairly consistent core message, but I appreciated that everyone connected to that core in a different way — based upon their needs, their background, their context.

You could talk about love, or light, or bread, or redemption, or new life — but the core was always the same.