"Falling Through the Cracks"
The Canberra Times' series on neurodivergence in the ACT, and the struggles families, children and adults have in being diagnosed and getting support.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 It's been a bit of a struggle through my younger years to learn how to read and write sort
00:06 of a thing, but I'd get quite a lot of trouble because I was out of my seat, I was getting
00:10 in trouble because I was not doing my work and because I was like running around and
00:16 my teachers would have no idea why.
00:18 The sooner our children are identified as being neurodivergent, the sooner we know how
00:21 their brains work and we know that we have to do things differently.
00:25 So when we don't know that, when that's not yet identified, we have children who are struggling
00:29 to fit in.
00:31 We have children who are, they're being traumatised because they don't fit into the world around
00:37 them.
00:38 The world doesn't know how to include, doesn't know how to include them.
00:43 So for some children, by the time they're diagnosed, they've already had all these traumatic
00:47 experiences and they carry that trauma with them.
00:50 My whole life I've wanted to please people and I think that a lot of girls can relate
00:55 to the pleasing factor.
00:56 So we want to please people and we want to do well, so we mask.
01:00 And it's like we go to school wearing this mask and the teachers have no idea how much
01:05 we're struggling on the inside.
01:07 [Gunshot]
01:08 (soft music)
01:10 (gentle music)