The Qrkiez Blog
Discover diverse voices of the neurodivergent community.
If you’re interested in sharing your stories as a neurodiverse person, a parent or family member, a professional or mentor, an ally, or anyone else, please contact us.
A Curious Incident of Watching a Play about Autism with my Autistic Kid
Last week, my youngest suggested we see a high school play, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, because a friend of hers was in it. I had read the 2003 book when it came out, and I had forgotten most of the story. I remember it started with a bit of a...
Can Educational Therapy Help Autistic People?
Ever heard the phrase “It takes a village”? This quote could not be any truer, especially when considering autism. Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder, a diverse manifestation of human experience, an identity, a strength, and often a challenge. When these...
New Research on Autistic Children and Social Cues
Parents of children on the autism spectrum hear a lot about what their children “should” be doing socially. But according to Michigan State University’s Barbara Thompson, autistic children are not simply failing to process social information; they may be processing it...
From Bullying to the Stars: The Remarkable Story of Adhara Pérez Sánchez
Adhara Pérez Sánchez. Photo © 2024 Nuestro Stories..She was told she'd never fit in. Now she's aiming for Mars. The Latin phrase "ad astra per aspera" means "to the stars through struggle." It means that building resilience and overcoming challenges are necessary for...
Don’t Believe Everything You Scroll: Neurodivergence and Misinformation
If you've ever fallen down a rabbit hole of TikTok videos about ADHD, stumbled across an autism "awareness" post on Instagram, or asked an AI chatbot whether you might be dyslexic, you're not alone. Millions of people turn to the Internet every day looking for answers...
Autism at 190 Miles Per Hour
Armani Williams. Photo © Team Reaume..Armani Williams is proof that autism doesn't have to slow you down. Moving at speeds of nearly 200 miles per hour, there is no room for a wandering mind. For Williams, the first openly autistic driver in NASCAR, this high-stakes...
What is Floortime?
When most people think about helping someone learn, they picture teaching—explaining, guiding, correcting. But what if learning doesn’t start with teaching at all? Research shows that we learn through play, especially in early childhood. We also need to feel safe and...
Seen…but Not Heard? Depictions of Autism in the Movies & TV
Stories teach us how to see each other. When we watch a character struggle, laugh, love, or succeed, we carry something of that character with us into the real world. For the roughly 1 in 36 children in the United States diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, and...
Why Corporate America Should Hire More Autistic Workers
If you have an autistic teenager or young adult, you may have seen them struggle to find employment, even if they are college graduates. You would think these problems were a thing of the past, especially given DEI initiatives and the many tech company billionaires...
Sports and ADHD – Converging on Hyperfocus
Much Much Spectrum published an interesting post this week on LinkedIn about athletes at the Winter Olympics who have ADHD. It made us wonder how much the hyper-focused nature of sports intersects in any way with neurodivergence. For many professional athletes, ADHD...
