Five Takeaways on Centering the Well-Being of Neurodivergent Students

How do we center well-being for neurodivergent students and everyone who teaches and learns alongside them, especially during times of overwhelm and change?

At our April community meeting we were joined by Katie Curran, MAPP, the chief wellbeing officer at Proof Positive, Theresa Hill, a school social worker for Illinois Public Schools, and Sherry Lacson, the program coordinator at Mission Valley Academy of The Institute for Effective Education for a conversation about inclusive well-being not as an added task, but as a shared foundation for thriving.

Together, we explored how the science of positive psychology can help educators shift from deficit-based approaches toward practices that uplift strengths, foster relationships, and support flourishing for all students—highlighting that small, intentional moments of joy and care can transform learning environments.

Here are five key takeaways.

1. Centering well-being for neurodivergent students benefits everyone.

You can’t co-regulate or support students if you’re dysregulated yourself. Small practices like breathing, routines, and quick resets aren’t extras—they’re foundational.

You have to be able to regulate yourself first before you’re able to co-regulate anyone around you. So in order to be available, in order for kids to be available to learn, they have to be socially and emotionally safe and well. You know, just like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, your basic needs need to be met before you’re able to take in new information.

Whatever age you’re working with—a stressed out, overwhelmed, exhausted teacher is not always one that can serve students. So I think of the oxygen mask on the airplane. How, in order to help other people put their masks on, you have to put yours on first. And that looks like building things into your day in order to help others access the same skills of well-being.

2. Happiness is an essential skill.

Happiness should be viewed as something learnable, practical, and contagious.

The good news is that the skills of happiness are not anything but universal. We are all more alike than we are different. So what does that mean? That means that when we center well-being for neurodivergent students, we’re also centering it for neurotypical students, educators, school communities. We all can access happiness, and the skills don’t change that much. We know at Proof Positive, that this work starts with you, that it starts with educators. We have been rolling up our sleeves sitting at tables with teachers, school administrators, paraprofessionals, service providers around the country asking, “What do you need to prioritize happiness in your work? What do you need to reach the neurodivergent kids sitting in your classrooms, in your offices, walking into your clinics?” And we’ve learned a lot along the way.

Three things we know to be true: Everyone deserves happiness. That is our driving fundamental belief at Proof Positive. Everyone deserves happiness. Happiness can and should be taught and learned by all. And happiness is contagious.

3. Focus on strengths not deficits.

Education systems often center what’s “wrong” with students. When educators intentionally spot and name strengths, students’ confidence, engagement, and growth improve.

I told their parents and their providers and their teachers that we were going to hold off on reviewing their behavior plans and we were going to take a pause before I listened to everything that had gone wrong. We were just going to center the conversation around what is right with them. Who are they at their best, and how do we get more of it?

If we know that our students with neurodiversity are typically seen for their deficits, we are going to train our brains to spot what is right in them. Character strengths are something we could spend the next three hours together talking about. Thirty years of research tells us that when people are seen and valued and able to use their strengths, they experience higher levels of joy, better relationships, access meaning and purpose with ease.

4. Infuse well-being into what already exists.

Well-being doesn’t have to be another curriculum. The most effective changes are small integrated shifts.

How can I embed a skill within something that I’m already teaching? So for example, I want to teach a specific social skill. Can I teach that during math? And yes, there are definitely ways that you can teach that. Or if I want to teach a student how to be friendly to another peer, I can definitely do that in the middle of a reading class, you know, teaching them to encourage a student by saying something kind to them.

There are a lot of ways that you can embed skills throughout the day to teach students, versus having to try to add on another class or add on to a specific curriculum that you already have.

5. What you pay attention to shapes the classroom.

Educators are often tracking negative behaviors by default. You get more of what you notice—so start noticing the good.

Attention shapes experience. We are hardwired for the negative. We are hardwired to spot, think about, and remember the negative. The negativity bias kept our ancestors alive. Today, it’s leading to high levels of stress and anxiety. So we have to practice training our brain to balance out the negativity bias. We have to teach our brain to spot the good every day.

If you are not yet keeping a gratitude journal, let today be the day you start. If you do not yet close out each classroom, close out each session by asking students what went well, let today be the day you start. This provides a clear, structured way to end sessions on a positive note—not ignoring the challenges, not ignoring what you might be working on, but making sure that what’s going well is also seen and remembered. It’s important for all of us, not just our neurodivergent students.