Handle With Care

about what my life was—I knew that I
had to change something.”
healthy social interactions, neurodivergent
students may also face obstacles
in traditional learning environments.
Mark Rhode ’23*, who is enrolled in
both general and special education
disrupts his focus.
“Whenever I can’t complete my
worksheet, I feel frustrated,” Rhode
said. “Sometimes when I work with
teachers that are strict, I show unexpected
behavior: jumping, yelling,
table. Learning something new confuses
me, and I make lots of mistakes.”
To support him through these experiences,
Rhode’s paraprofessional, a
credentialed special education worker,
provides academic guidance in tandem
ing
strategies when Rhode feels upset
or anxious. Psychologist Katherine
cult
for students to connect with peers
because of barriers in interpreting body
language or non-literal phrases.
“Communicating with peers as high
schoolers is already a little fraught to
begin with,” Casey said. “If you layer
on any social communication needs or
and establishing communication much
With this in mind, Casey urges all
students to understand how autism
cues, emphasizing that awareness of
cues can create a more accepting envi-
and treating them with respect is paramount
to building a comfortable environment
for neurodivergent students
like Rhode.
“Recently, by the library, when I was
walking in the hallway, two people were
laughing and making fun of me,” Rhode
said. “My paraprofessional tried to tell
know why they did that; I don’t think it
was related to my autism—some people
are just mean.”
Similarly, Partin sometimes feels isolated
at school due to a lack of knowledge
of her condition among other
students. In what she believes to be a
shared experience among many neurodivergent
individuals, Partin says
she has even received insensitive comments
from her neurotypical friends.
“Friends in the past have said, ‘Why
can’t you just be a normal person?’”
Partin said. “I get that people might
be annoyed by [my] disability, but that
doesn’t keep us from being normal.”
Partin believes that neurodivergence
should be accepted as a natural
part of being human—the same sentiment
stressed by activists during the
neurodiversity movement of the 1990s.
Historically, up until then, neurodivergent
conditions had mostly been regarded
as disorders that needed to be
corrected.
In light of mistreatment, the movement
coined the term “neurodiversity”
to clarify that neurodivergence is merely
a variation in the way people think,
As the US became more aware of disparities
neurodivergent students face,
Congress passed a series of acts to expand
access to a fair education.
One such piece of legislation,
the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act of 1975, introduced the
Individualized Education Plan (IEP), a
modations
personalized to
Intellectual
disabilities
Autism
Social
anxiety
Dyslexia
Tourette
syndrome
each student’s academic and functional
needs. With the introduction of IEPs,
the proportion of students in the US
who received special education support
increased from 4.5 percent to 14.5 percent
between 1977 and 2021. According
to Illinois Report Card, roughly 400
current Stevenson students are included
in this proportion.
Anika Lamba ’23, whose ADHD interrupts
her focus in a traditional classroom
setting, receives accommodations
during exams in accordance with her
IEP, allowing her extended time and a
separate testing center with tests read
aloud. As a visual learner, Lamba says
math can be more of a challenge for her
than other courses.
“Let’s say there’s a math problem in
front of me—I can’t do it cognitively
because I need a workspace to do it on,”
Lamba said. “I’m allowed to use a calculator
and my summary sheet on all my
tests, so that helps me.”
While some students like Lamba are
mostly enrolled in general education
classes, others may take supplemental
special education courses as part of their
IEPs. For example, in addition to his
core classes, Rhode has a full schedule
of piano lessons, cooking, recreational
therapy and working at the ILC built
into his school day. Some students like
Jane George ’23 take speech therapy, a
weekly program that helps students
achieve their communication goals.
Mental health
conditions
ADHD
Prader-Willi
syndrome
Sensory
processing
disorders
Williams
syndrome
Source:
Cleveland Clinic
*Not all types of
conditions included
*