A little background: I come from a long line of ADHD and autism.
On my mother’s side (including my mother): clearly ADHD. Everybody is either in jail or an entrepreneur.
On my father’s side: clear signs of autism. Socially a bit awkward, but also geniuses. My grandfather could draw a ship on a minimal scale straight from his head. A lot of very technically savvy people.
I have both diagnoses. I don’t take psychiatry very seriously, but maybe it helps if somebody lays out how the inside of my body and brain work.
A brain works with relative importance
This means, in practice, that somebody with ADHD starts a task as if it’s the most important thing in the world, and then three minutes later something else is the most important thing in the world, and three minutes later something else again. Somebody with ADHD or ADD adjusts the weight meters of importance very fast. This is an excellent learning strategy, but unimaginable for other people.
For somebody with autism, every input is valued as having the same amount of importance. This means that a small sound in the background can feel just as important as somebody saying that you’re losing your job. People with autism are unbelievable at spotting details that others qualify as unimportant. And the best thing about autism, in my opinion, is that the feeling of the wind on my skin is just as beautiful as hearing somebody’s voice telling me I’m getting fired. In that sense, you pluck more fruits from day-to-day life.
A little background
I come from a long line of ADHD and autism.
On my mother’s side—including my mother—it’s clearly ADHD. People tend to end up either in jail or as entrepreneurs.
On my father’s side there are clear signs of autism. Socially a bit awkward, but also brilliant. My grandfather could draw a ship to scale straight from his head. There are many technically gifted people in that line.
I have both diagnoses. I don’t take psychiatry very seriously, but it can help when someone explains how the inside of my body and brain actually work.
A brain works with relative importance
In practice, this means that someone with ADHD starts a task as if it’s the most important thing in the world. Three minutes later, something else becomes the most important thing in the world. Three minutes after that, something else again. People with ADHD or ADD adjust the weight of importance extremely fast. This is an excellent learning strategy—but almost impossible for others to imagine.
With autism, it works differently. Every input is given roughly the same level of importance. A small sound in the background can feel just as significant as someone telling you that you’re about to lose your job. That’s why people with autism are so good at noticing details others dismiss as unimportant.
And the best part of autism, in my opinion, is this: the feeling of the wind on my skin can be just as beautiful as hearing someone tell me I’m getting fired. Even difficult information doesn’t automatically outweigh sensory experience. In that sense, you harvest more from daily life—more texture, more presence, more reality.
*ChatGPT sharpened
People with ADHD and ADD are much better at short tasks.
You can arrange your work into short tasks.
Otherwise, without any time or subject limitation, you don’t know where to start. It becomes overwhelming. In my work, I can start every task, visit every internet page, or get coffee. If you narrow it down—for example by using a timer—it becomes easier.
The problem is not children having ADD or ADHD; the problem is that our learning is one-dimensional.
Learning exists in every dimension. Basically, you learn with your whole body. Therefore, you always learn a lot by doing and by experiencing things—you need your whole body for that.
A lot of learning in class is the opposite.
Listening to somebody explaining something to you and reciting things should make up only a small percentage of learning. At the average school, it’s close to a hundred percent reciting and “learning.”
The pacing is also off. Pacing works like this: you get new information, and you need time to reflect on it. You do something, then you reflect. For me, that reflection should be at least 5% of the total time. Five percent should be spent only reflecting on what I have thought about (for instance, through moments of silence). If you don’t do this, things stack up, and you either get knocked out during the weekend or build too much tension in your body.
Another problem with learning is that it becomes a new rule, and another new rule, and another new rule (I am also doing that above). People need a lot of time where they are not actually doing anything, because that’s when you can merge everything you have experienced into new ideas.
So children who get diagnosed with ADD actually have a very good antenna for what is appropriate within a classroom and for the amount of focus that is being requested.