Victorian ADHD Conference

Plenary

Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre

Saturday 2nd April 2022

10am – 4pm

Doors open from 9am

Lou Kuchel

Lou Kuchel

 Parenting and Neurodivergence – Know better, do better 

 

Lou is a parent advocate in her own right, liaising with politicians, journalists, academics and doing all of that via a podcasting platform.  The podcast is Square Peg Round Whole and the advocacy is determined and energetic, driven by a passion to embrace difference and include neurodivergence at home, at school and in the workplace!
Lou’s journey of discovery started when her youngest son was diagnosed with ADHD in 2016.  Lou came to realise that there’s a whole community of young neurodivergent people that she didn’t even realise existed. She became aware that she was entering a different world that she didn’t understand.
Traditional parenting approaches that she knew from her own childhood, such as discipline and rules, reward charts and time outs just didn’t seem to work.  Lou just assumed that people like her son needed to be fixed and changed to fit into their environment.  She spent most of her time worrying and lamenting about the burden, desperately trying to fit her square peg son into a round hole.
She was wrong.  
Through parent advocacy, learning from and being with other neurodivergent people, listening to experts and those with lived experience, Lou came to realise that the poor outcomes experienced by the neurodivergent community needed to be addressed with respect and a focus on strengths.  

Join Lou and her husband Ash as they discuss:

 – Explanation of their family, diagnoses and experiences for their children over the years with school and friendships.

 – Initial reactions when their sons were born and discussion about their differences.
 – description of the moments when they realised that they needed to change their course on the journey.
 – Key factors as experienced from a father’s perspective.
 – Their experience with behaviourism and what has changed since they moved away from that approach.
 – Lou’s experience and achievements with advocacy and how that progressed to advocacy with a podcast.
 – Developing self advocacy through the teenage years.
 – What’s new and developing in education and employment for neurodivergent people.
 – Advocacy and speaking up for neurodivergent youth.