Building a future where neurodiversity is understood - and belongs.
Advocating for neurodiversity literacy in schools, classrooms, and communities.
Inclusion without understanding isn't belonging.
Schools do their best to create access for neurodivergent students. But accommodations alone can't teach peers why another child communicates differently, becomes overwhelmed, needs a break, or receives different support.
That's where neurodiversity literacy begins.
We're advocating for schools where children aren't simply included—they're understood.
Access is Only the Beginning
Schools work hard to create inclusive classrooms for neurodivergent students through accommodations, special education services, individualized supports, and accessible learning environments.
But access alone cannot create belonging.
A child can have every support they need and still sit beside classmates who don’t understand why they learn differently, communicate differently, need sensory supports, take breaks, become overwhelmed, or receive accommodations that other students do not.
True inclusion means creating school communities where neurodivergent children are not only given access—they are understood, respected, and able to participate as themselves.
Belonging Requires Understanding
When children aren’t taught about neurodiversity, they often make their own assumptions about behaviors and differences they don’t understand.
Overwhelm can look like being dramatic.
Executive-function challenges can look like laziness.
Different communication can be labeled weird.
Learning differences can be mistaken for a lack of intelligence.
Neurodiversity literacy gives children age-appropriate language to understand that brains can think, learn, communicate, regulate, participate, and experience the world differently.
By bringing neurodiversity education into schools and classrooms, we can replace assumptions with curiosity, judgment with understanding, and simple inclusion with something deeper:
A genuine sense of belonging.
About the Author
My name is Carolina Andes
Carolina Andes is an author, advocate, and mother working to build greater understanding of neurodiversity in schools and communities.
Inspired by her family’s own experiences, Carolina created More Than What You See to help children understand something that isn’t always easy to explain: there can be so much happening beneath the surface of another child’s behavior.
Her work grew from one book into a larger mission to advance neurodiversity literacy—giving children the language and understanding to recognize different ways of thinking, communicating, learning, participating, and experiencing the world.
Through stories, advocacy, and educational resources, Carolina encourages schools to move beyond access and accommodation toward something deeper: understanding, inclusion, and genuine belonging.
Because when children understand that brains can work differently, differences become less confusing—and there is more room for curiosity, empathy, connection, and compassion.
Different brains. Different experiences. More than what you see.
