Clarity Compass Blog

There’s a quiet pressure that follows a lot of neurodivergent kids and adults: try harder, be more normal, blend in. It sounds helpful. It isn’t. I stopped treating my child like a problem to solve, and started treating them like a person to understand. The message hiding underneath “Try harder” A lot of neurodivergent kids grow up hearing the same message in a thousand different ways: try harder, act normal, be quiet, don’t stand out. Sometimes it’s said with love. Sometimes

TLDR: If an autistic student is moving into a mainstream school or classroom, the biggest mistake adults make is assuming they “should be fine” because their grades or test scores look okay. Real success depends on what happens in real classrooms: starting tasks, handling noise and pace, managing materials, coping with group work, and navigating all the unspoken rules. Start with this: assess, don’t assume. Build a current learner snapshot based on real school tasks, not just

It took my child to show me who I really am.

Self-determination and self-advocacy are so connected; you can’t advocate for yourself well unless you first know yourself.

If I had to generalize how to foster independent skills in autistic individuals, I would start by looking at generic societal definitions of independence. For example, I would create a list of skills one needs to navigate life on your own, with no or little help. These could include, simple finances, washing your clothes, cooking, cleaning, transportation, to more specific executive skills like remembering when the garbage needs taking out, brushing your teeth or showering. I

Autistic students are exposed to multiple levels of social interaction with peers and adults, in a general education setting. In most cases it is expected the student follows the “unspoken rules” of social interaction and classroom etiquette, which can be very challenging and confusing for most autistic students. When working with others they will also be (indirectly) exposed to many executive functioning skills, such as planning and organizing in project work, task initiatio

Risk Doesn’t Diminish Dignity — It Builds It. People with disabilities have the right to make their own choices.

Neurodivergence is an important term that refers to various neurological differences, including Autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and learning differences like Dyslexia. These differences are not defects ; they represent unique ways of experiencing and interacting with the world. As someone who identifies with neurodivergence, I have learned to appreciate both the strengths and challenges that accompany it. In this post, I will explore at a very high le

The ache of a lifetime of being seen wrong I thought the moment I realized I was neurodivergent would feel like relief. Like this big exhale I’d been holding in my whole life. Instead I sat on the edge of my bed and cried in a way that surprised me, not loud, not dramatic, just quiet and stunned, like someone had reached into my chest and gently undone something I’d spent years stitching and holding together. It wasn’t the word that broke me. It was the memories lining up beh