Neurodiversity Celebration Week Kickoff Event

Please  join us for a Q&A with Siena Castellon, founder of Neurodiversity  Celebration Week, and Stanford student. Learn about her experiences at  school, why she founded this special week, and her books (The Spectrum  Girl's Survival Guide and The Spectrum Girls Survival Toolkit).

"My name is Siena Castellon. I am a multi-award-winning neurodiversity  advocate, author, Young Leader for the SDGs, and the founder of  Neurodiversity Celebration Week. I am also a teenager who is autistic  and has ADHD, dyslexia, and dyspraxia. As a student with several  learning differences, I know that there is still a stigma associated  with having special educational needs and that there are still many  misconceptions about what it means to have learning or thinking  differences. I want to change this."

You Can Make a Difference With One Small Step

Ask your school to take the Neurodiversity Celebration Week pledgeSend this template email to your school's leader: Dear School Leader,  Did you know that 1 in 5 children has a learning difference, and these  neurodiverse students often have negative school experiences that focus  on their challenges. It doesn't have to be this way. Together, we can  change the narrative. Instead of focusing only on the drawbacks of being  neurodivergent, we can acknowledge the many strengths and talents that  come from thinking and perceiving the world differently. By celebrating  the strengths of neurodivergent students, we can begin the seismic shift  in the way neurodiverse students are perceived and treated, including  how they feel about themselves. Please sign our school up for Neurodiversity Celebration Week and bring one of their suggested activities to our school.

Celebrate With Us

• Share our list of books featuring neurodiverse themes with your school library or visit our local partner bookstores (Kepler's, Books Inc, Reading Bug, Linden Tree) to pick up a book for your classroom or home
• Visit Palo Alto's Mitchell Park or Rinconada Libraries for their neurodiversity book displays and virtual story times or ask your local library to create a display
• Forward our blog post: Using Picture Books To Teach About Neurodiversity: Better Understanding Ourselves and Each Other