What’s the one book you absolutely had to read this year? Well for me, its Wonderfully Wired Brains, I knew I needed to get my hands on a copy. A book written by a neurodivergent and empathetic author, centred around neurodiverse readers in terms of font and layout, that gives the children who read it, a better understanding of how their brains work and explains how neurodiversity is in fact pretty normal. This book succeeds in all those requirements and more. 

As a teacher and tutor, I’ve met so many children and each one is unique. Comparing achieves very little. This book celebrates our differences. We all have a brain, but we have a brain that is a one off, a special creation that belongs just to us to make us individuals. Split into four sections covering the workings of the brain, the diversity of brains, the history of studies of the brain and the life stories of neurodiverse people, this is a reassuring and empowering read. Louise Gooding carefully explains the terminology that surrounds thinking about the brain and there’s a helpful glossary. Instead of a spectrum, upon which you are placed, the author, helpfully reframes neurodiversity as being assembled from the structures of a variety of building blocks. This is a great way of thinking about how we are made. Here the inclusive illustrations by Ruth Burrows aid the reader in visualising neurodiversity in all its forms. Louise also supports readers with the language to use around neurodiversity, choosing positive words which allow people to feel accepted and included. There are features on autism, ADHD, dyspraxia, dyslexia, synesthesia, processing, bipolar and sleep disorders, anxiety and depression, OCD, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, masking and tics alongside the awesome abilities that are present alongside these diagnoses. There is also an impactful statement that really does strike a chord, ‘If you have met one person with ADHD, you have really met one person with ADHD.’ 

I’ve been lucky enough to be able to ask Louise a few questions about her inspiration behind the book. I feel the author’s insights show how Louise has brought together an outstanding non-fiction book that I really hope reaches the hands of children in classrooms and at home. 

Did anything surprise you in the research you undertook for the book?

Lots! I had the idea of creating a neurodiverse timeline but must admit that at first I

wasn’t sure how much I was going to find. I knew that through history people had

tried to study the brain but that information seemed to be all over the place. There

wasn’t a nice neat timetable to hand and I thought it could be a fun rabbit hole to dive

into. Once you start digging about there is a lot of exciting brain and mental health

research that's been done over history and I think the fact that people seem to like the

most is that I’ve dispelled the myth that ADHD is some ‘new thing’ by going back to

1775 when German physician and philosopher Melchior Adam Weikard noted

something he called ‘lack of attention’ disorder in someone he had crossed paths

with. If physicians at this time were noting that certain people struggled to hold their

attention and would get distracted by their own imagination, was it likely to be ADHD?

It could well be the case. Of course, we will never really know if it WAS ADHD they

were referring to but it's definitely something worth considering.

Did your research dispel any myths surrounding the workings of the brain?

I hope so! As I mentioned above, being able to trace back through history to show

neurodiversity did exist already helps destroy the myth that it’s a modern thing.

I think there are still many people who are afraid of the terms ‘neurodiverse’ or

‘neurodivergent’. Getting a diagnosis for yourself or a family member/child is

daunting because there is so much misinformation out there still about what it

actually means.

When you can break down how the brain works and show people that neurodiversity

is completely normal, common and that no one brain is the same, you start being able

to break down some of the anxiety of ‘being different’, because…. we are ALL

different.

There has been a lot of talk, especially in the media, that more and more people seem

to be getting diagnosed as neurodivergent. Their choice in wording does end up

causing a lot of stigma, but what the book does is show that this is all down to the

fact we just have more knowledge and understanding about what neurodiversity is,

and how uniquely wired our brains are. We didn’t have as many diagnoses in the past

because we didn't have the technology or psychological understanding that we have

now, and that can only be a good thing surely.

I love the dyslexia friendly font that’s been used, was this something you asked for from the

design team?

When I first spoke with the team at DK before they took on Wonderfully Wired Brains I

asked if they would consider bearing in mind as many neurodiverse readers as

possible with this book in terms of font and colour. I needn’t have asked, they had

already been thinking of ways they could do this and this was such lovely news.

While dyslexic friendly fonts may not work for all dyslexic persons, we wanted to

make sure that this book was accessible to as many readers as we could.

Creating the perfect book format that suits all readers is sadly not possible (we are all

wired differently after all!) but the design team, Ruth Burrows (the illustrator) and I

have tried to make it engaging and as neurodivergent friendly as possible.

I’m so proud of how thoughtful the team at DK have been in making this book as

accessible as they could, including making it available to download on Kindle which

also offers many different tools which may help in terms of accessibility too.

What advice might you give to children who are neurodivergent?

Keep being true to who you are. It’s incredibly easy for us neurodivergent folk to slip

into the behaviours of others or to mask our own so as to fit it with ‘the crowd’. But

ultimately it is exhausting isn't it? If you can find spaces that you feel safe, accepted

and free to be yourself that is wonderful. I can not tell you where these places are, for

some of you it may be in a local theatre group, some in the library, some online

playing roadblocks, each of us will have our own understanding of where we feel safe

and included and I hope that you have found yours or find yours soon. Being you is

the best thing you can be.

Wonderfully Wired Brains by Louise Gooding is published by DK, £12.99. Out Now. 

@ruthburrowsillustration @OnceUponaLouise @DKbooks