Neurodivergent Adult Resources
This page is actively in progress. Come back soon to see what's new!
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Apps
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I am: Affirmations can help us rewire our brains to change negative thought patterns, focus on the positive, give us a small boost of "happy hormones," and build self-esteem, but remembering to use them is my biggest challenge. This app includes more affirmations than I can count, and it allows you to set them up as phone notifications so you can't help but see them. You can change the font and background, favorite the ones you like most, and best of all, you can add your own personal affirmations, those that are most meaningful to you personally! (iOS Android: Free-three-day trial, then $19.99/year)
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Burnout Recovery
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The Neurodivergent Friendly Workbook of DBT Skills by Sonny Jane Wise: Written by "an autistic ADHDer living with bipolar and in recovery with borderline personality disorder," this amazing self-guided workbook is designed to help the neurodivergent reader acquire skills in mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotional regulation, and sensory needs. It includes affirmations such as, "It's okay if most strategies and tools designed for and by neurotypical people don't work for me." One of the exercises is about creating mindfulness with your pet. There's an entire section on managing sensory needs. Great stuff!
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College Resources
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A Guide to Assessing College Readiness: This free guide from Landmark College assesses five essential foundations that are particularly critical for neurodivergent students to succeed in a traditional higher education setting.
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College Autism Network's Autism-Specific College Support Programs (ASPs): This free database helps you identify programs that may be right for you or someone in your life who belongs to the autism community.​​
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Top College Consultants' list of neurodiversity-friendly colleges.
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Executive Functioning Resources
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The Real-Life Executive Functioning Workbook: A Handbook of Exercises to Help Unique Learners Build Real-World Skills and Success by Chris Hanson, BS and Amy Sippl, MS, BCBA: I spent years while homeschooling my son looking for something practical I could use to explicitly teach executive functioning skills, and every other book I read left me feeling confused. I understood what executive functioning challenges were since I was living with them every day, but I had no idea how to help. This book is so well designed, it can be used effectively by professionals and non-professionals alike. Includes an assessment so you can measure before and after functioning. Use the discount code THRIVE50 at checkout for 50 percent off!
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Goblin Tools is a website and app with a very strange name that belies its transformative usefulness as an executive functioning tool. The app is a collection of simple, tools designed to help neurodivergent people with tasks they tend to find overwhelming or difficult such as breaking down a task into smaller tasks, analyzing and changing the tone of written text, estimating how long a task will take, compiling a brain dump of to-dos into a concrete task list, and more! The accuracy of the AI-driven output can vary, so it's critical to use your own knowledge and experience to judge whether the result you get is valid. The website is free, and the app is only $1 to support its creator. (iOS Android website)
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Gender Resources
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Gender: Your Guide: A Gender-Friendly Primer on What to Know, What to Say, and What to Do in the New Gender Culture by Lee Airton, PhD: If you're looking to educate others on gender issues, this book may help. Written for workplace leaders on how to be more inclusive and unlock their workforce's potential, this book is an accessible primer for everyone about the gender spectrum, pronouns and their usage, identifying and changing harmful gendered language, and being more inclusive.​
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Social Media (Education)
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Autism From the Inside @autismfromtheInside: If you're autistic or think you or someone you love might be on the autism spectrum, Paul Micallef discovered his own autism at age 30 and now creates videos that show what autism looks like in real people and give insight into what's happening from the inside.
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How to ADHD @HowtoADHD: A great evidence-based educational channel on ADHD and strategies for managing it.
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Social Skills Resources
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PEERS®: The only evidence-based manualized social skills training program, PEERS® was developed in 2004 by UCLA's Dr. Elizabeth Laugeson, a licensed clinical psychologist and an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. The program has been taught in over 125 countries and has been translated into 12 languages. If you have a teen or young adult aged 11-26 and cannot find a PEERS® group locally, check out this directory on the UCLA website listing certified providers around the world.
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The Science of Making Friends: Helping Socially Challenged Teens and Young Adults by Elizabeth A. Laugeson, PsyD: If you are struggling with the mechanisms of how to make friends, this is your book. Though the book targets parents of teens and young adults, the concepts are universal whether you are 19 or 99. The culmination of years of research, this evidence-based approach breaks down complex social behaviors into concrete, easy-to-understand rules and steps. Includes a DVD of examples.
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Work: Resources
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How to Create the Perfect Elevator Pitch - Plus Examples: Brevity has never been my strength, and when someone asks what I do, I really struggle to keep it brief. This was a great video with examples on how to craft your elevator pitch.
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Resume and Employment Guide for People With Disabilities by Resume Builder: This is a great comprehensive guide.
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Resume Builder App: Free website app that enables you to build a resume using templates and examples of winning resumes in your industry.​
Work: Job Search Sites
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abilityJOBS: The largest job site for people with disabilities. All employers on this website are looking specifically to hire differently-abled workers. Employers include the Central Intelligence Agency, Deloitte, Amazon, and others.
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DisabledPerson: This job board lists opportunities across many different career categories from companies looking for a diverse workforce.
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Getting Hired: This job board lists opportunities at over 100 Fortune 500 companies and other inclusive employers.
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Inclusively: Connects job hunters with job matches from employers who are committed to disability inclusion and creating diverse teams. You create a free profile, find and connect to jobs, and receive personalized job matches. You can also network on the community portal with other candidates, advocates, and employers.
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Jobs for Humanity: This site was created and is managed by a job search organization that focuses on connecting “historically underrepresented talent to welcoming employers.” Jobs can be searched by level of experience, function and type of employment, and country. You can sign up for job alerts if you want to stay current.
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Neurodiversity Career Connector: Created by the Neurodiversity @ Work Employer Roundtable, a collection of employers committed to neurodiversity-focused hiring initiatives, this job marketplace enables candidates to discover job openings and connect with a variety of employers and position types.
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Neurodiversity in the Workplace: NITW works with both candidates and employers to make the workplace a better environment for neurodiversity. They maintain a candidate list and then try to match candidates with employers who are their “partners.” They don’t post jobs on their job board. You use their “Get in Touch” link to tell them about yourself through a “candidate database form”, and they then put you in their candidate bank. There are no costs to joining their candidate bank.
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Remote.co: Hand-curated part-time and full-time remote jobs in accounting, customer service, design, development, editing, healthcare, HR, IT, legal, marketing, project management, QA, sales, teaching, virtual assisting, writing, and more.
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Spectroomz: Job listings and very affordable training for remote jobs autistic adults will love.
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Work: Freelance Work Search Sites
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FlexJobs (not free)
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Work: Training
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Freelancing School: Basically a recipe for starting a business, this site provides an overview of the full process, followed up with specific instructions for how to complete each step.
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Spectroomz: Very affordable training for remote jobs autistic adults tend to enjoy.