Neurodiversity: The Importance of Positive Early Experiences of Sport
by Caragh McMurtry OLY
From my many conversations with neurodivergent people – whether athletes/sports people or not- I find three key neurodivergent experiences regarding sport and exercise.
One is the elite athlete. They often have to stretch (much) further than their peers to fit the (very) narrow standards of thought and behaviour expected of them. These standards are not a prerequisite for performance; they are a social construct, and for many neurodivergent athletes, spending energy conforming diverts precious energy from the most critical tasks – training and performance. They spend many of their careers making mistakes to learn and carve their paths. The advice they receive from peers, coaches, and support staff is only partly relevant, and they don’t have role models to follow.
The neurodivergent athletes who have succeeded before them have had to do so in private. The reason for this is widespread stigma and discrimination. For neurodivergent athletes of the present, there are no visible footsteps to follow. Because of this, they tend to have very short careers or very long and particularly exhausting ones.
But as much as their journey is a struggle, they are the lucky ones in many respects. Many events had to have fallen in their favour for them to be where they are because, as sad as it is, elite sport is not just about hard work and talent.
The second neurodivergent experience in sport is that of participatory sportspeople who are again lucky enough to stumble into a neuroinclusive environment. Certain sports seem more inclusive than others, just as specific teams and clubs do. The pattern appears to be niche sports or an inclusive and progressive culture initiated by one or a few ‘non-conforming’ individuals. I say non-conforming because conforming in sport is often conforming to tradition and pre-existing culture – both are unfortunately exclusionary in many respects.
That leads me to the third neurodivergent experience in sport, which is, unfortunately, the most widely represented – those who would love to participate and compete in sport but were diverted from that path at a crucial point in their lives. The number of negative school sports experiences that have been relayed to me by the individuals, parents, and teachers is highly concerning. Although negative school sports experiences are not exclusive to neurodivergent children, they become a far more significant issue and even a barrier when combined with social and academic difficulties that neurodivergent children often experience in tandem.
For example, contrary to common understanding, an individual with dyspraxia can improve their coordination and proprioception by participating in sports! However, the teaching and learning need to be slow, piecemeal, and, most importantly, specific. For many children, their first school sports experience is playing a ball sport – football, netball, hockey… A Dyspraxic child has next to no hope of developing the skills they need to participate to an ‘acceptable’ standard (in the eyes of their peers) before being thrown into the deep end of a game or match. Their struggle will inevitably lead to them, for example, being picked last for the team or being ridiculed for their ‘clumsiness’.
As a child, these negative experiences can be incredibly off-putting, yet they are so easily avoidable. It simply requires understanding and accommodation from those around them. I’m not advocating for separating Dyspraxic children in sports – far from it. I’m supporting pre-team sports or booster lessons so that when they’re ready, they can integrate into and experience the social benefits of being part of the mainstream team. In this scenario, they aren’t socially excluded or ridiculed, and they aren’t put off of sport for life.
Again, contrary to common understanding, Dyslexia is not just a ‘reading and writing issue’ – it extends to language processing in all respects. It might take a dyslexic individual a little longer to process the words they are hearing. If a child is being instructed by their coach and doesn’t respond fast enough or in the expected way, they might receive criticism. When they’re already battling for understanding and support in the classroom, misunderstanding in the sports arena might prove a difficulty too far.
Where Autism is concerned, it’s often seen as a barrier to sport and physical activity in and of itself, yet similarly to Dyspraxia, the barrier is most often not the condition but is instead the environment, and if inclusion was achieved, the social benefits of participation could be immeasurable.
Many Autistic adults I’ve spoken to have expressed the same negative emotions regarding school and especially school sports, with one theme commonly repeated – difficulties surrounding changing and kit. Not only can the sensory environment of the changing rooms be overwhelming, but so can the process of changing in a very short amount of time. Many Autistic individuals experience executive functioning difficulties, and getting dressed takes a little longer. Combined with sensory difficulties, it’s easy to imagine the crowding, the rush, the noise, the steam of the school changing rooms being completely overwhelming and, in some cases, intolerable for a child.
Some easy solutions could be staggered timings or allowing some individuals an extra five minutes to shower and change. Such simple changes could drastically improve many children’s experiences of school; it could enable them to continue engaging with sport and exercise as children and into adulthood.
My final example is that of ADHD, which can be self-managed by participation in sports – it’s one of the greatest self-management tools available for many people with ADHD, but again, early experiences are crucial to this realisation occurring and progressing. A young child isn’t likely to have developed many if any, self-management tools or techniques by the time they first participate in school sports. Their behaviour may not be as productive as they or others would like. They may show an aptitude for sport, but they may have difficulty focusing their attention. Unfortunately, being singled out for misbehaving is a very common occurrence for children with ADHD, and more often than not, they are genuinely trying their best.
The tools and techniques that other children are taught don’t work for those with ADHD. They have to find their path, and when it doesn’t happen straight away, and they’re chastised for it, such treatment can and often does have the opposite intended effect.
Whatever the barrier, if it’s faced at too young an age when an individual doesn’t understand their condition in context, doesn’t have the self- awareness, self-management tools or simply the self-confidence to advocate, a negative experience can deter them from sport and exercise for good. It’s up to parents, teachers, and coaches to use their intuition, to be observant, and to support and encourage in just the right way, at just the correct times, to enable neurodivergent children and young people to overcome those hurdles. Because if they can be overcome early on, they become smaller and more manageable into adulthood. If not, the opposite is true.
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