The Brains Behind Divergent Thinking

    Hello and welcome! My name is Nicole, and I am the face of Divergent Thinking. Before I explain why I created this page, I want to give you a background of who I am and why I am so passionate about special education and diverse learners. 

    Much like many of my peers in high school, I did not know what I wanted to do when I was older. But it wasn’t until I did CO-OP in a school for students with moderate to severe disabilities. Before this experience, I took a class that allowed me to interact and do activities with the students from the DD class in my school.  I would have never imagined how much these experiences would change my life like it did. Since I worked primarily with students with moderate to severe disabilities, I saw the death of a few students I had worked with. This gave a true insight into the lived realities of these students and their families. But this did not stop me; I knew that children who were in these circumstances did not have a long life span due to complications related to their disability. So, I tried harder and harder to make my time there memorable for those students, so at least if their time was limited, they could still understand and feel what happiness felt like. 

    This started a domino effect as I tried to discover and uncover as much as possible about students with special needs and how their disability affected them. This led me to pursue various positions through different organizations to build as much knowledge as possible. Some of the most notable places I have worked at were Centennial Infant and Child Centre. Their reverse preschool program allows predominantly children from 18 months to 4 years old with disabilities to co-exist within the same preschool classroom as their siblings and peers with the help of speech, physical and occupational therapists. I also have worked at Holland Bloorview for their Spiral Garden Summer program, which, for those who don’t know, is Canada’s largest children’s rehabilitation hospital. The more and more I worked with children of varying abilities, the more I learned about the incredible strengths of these students and how what was seen as a disability for some was actually a superpower in my eyes. 

    I am an Ontario Certified Teacher with a Master’s in Education. Since becoming a teacher, I have worked for three different school boards in Ontario, two Montessori schools and a private school recognized by the Ministry of Education for families with seriously ill children undergoing treatment. All these places have in common that they all have students who are falling through the cracks of the public school system because of the lack of resources and education about the needs of exceptional and diverse learners. It is deplorable to see the loss in potential of these students from such a young age because we do not have adequate services and resources to support the number of exceptional and diverse learners we have. 

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    This is why I created Divergent Thinking. I wanted to create a space to help others understand their neurodivergent and exceptional needs as well as those of peers, colleagues, or family. Everyone can learn and thrive if we are patient and can take the time to understand how their brain operates. Being labelled as neurodivergent or unique should not be a death sentence. But rather something that can be celebrated and something you can be proud of because you now possess a ‘misunderstood advantage.’