NOT BROKEN - NEURODIVERGENCEA different mind is
still a whole mind.
Neurodivergent children experience technology differently — with real strengths, and real vulnerabilities. Understanding that difference is the beginning of supporting it well.
Autistic and ADHD children are not broken versions of neurotypical children. They are whole in their own right, wired differently, and often more deeply affected by the technologies that were never designed with them in mind.
WHY THIS PAGE EXISTSThe conversation about screens and children rarely accounts for neurodivergence, but it should.
Most guidance on children and technology assumes a neurotypical brain. It assumes a child who can shift attention easily, who reads social cues fluently, who finds plenty of offline activities equally rewarding. For many neurodivergent children, none of those assumptions hold.
This does not mean neurodivergent children should be kept away from technology. For a great many, technology is a genuine source of connection, regulation, learning, and joy. It means the approach needs to be more thoughtful, more individualised, and above all, more affirming.
The goal is never to make a neurodivergent child behave like a neurotypical one. It is to help them thrive as who they are, including in a digital world.
TWO TRUTHS AT ONCEThe same wiring that creates real strengths can also create real vulnerability.
Holding both of these together, without flattening either into a single story, is the heart of an affirming approach. Technology is rarely all good or all bad for a neurodivergent child. It is usually both, at once.
Where technology can serve
A space to pursue deep interests without judgment or time pressure
Genuine social connection, often more comfortable than face-to-face
Predictable, rule-based environments that feel safe and masterable
A regulation tool — a way to decompress after a demanding day
Communication and creativity for those who find other channels harder.
Where vulnerability runs deeper
The predictability and reward of games can engage the brain more intensely
Transitions away from screens can be genuinely harder, not defiance
Online spaces may be a primary or only social outlet — raising the stakes
Difficulty reading intent can increase exposure to manipulation or grooming
Intense focus can make moderation and self-monitoring more difficult
Notice that several items appear, in different form, on both sides. The predictability of a game is exactly what makes it soothing and what makes it hard to step away from. This is why blanket rules so often fail neurodivergent children, and why understanding the individual child matters more than applying a formula.
THE AFFIRMING APPROACH
Five principles for supporting a neurodivergent child in a digital world.
◎ Start with the function, not the behaviour
Before changing anything, understand what the technology is doing for your child. Is it regulating anxiety? Providing social connection? Meeting a need for mastery or predictability? You cannot remove something that meets a real need without offering another way to meet it.
∙
◎ Honour the need for predictability
Abrupt change is harder for many neurodivergent children. Visual schedules, clear warnings before transitions, and consistent, predictable boundaries work far better than sudden removal — which can trigger genuine distress, not defiance.
∙
◎ Protect the interest, shape the use
A deep interest — even a screen-based one — is not a problem to be eliminated. It is often a source of identity, joy, and future possibility. The work is rarely to remove it, but to help it sit alongside sleep, connection, movement, and the other things a child needs.
∙
◎ Build safety through trust, not surveillance
A child who reads intent differently may be more exposed online — and a child who feels policed goes underground. Open, regular, non-judgmental conversation is your strongest protection. The goal is a child who comes to you when something feels wrong.
∙
◎ Collaborate, don't impose
Wherever possible, build the plan with your child, not for them. Neurodivergent young people often have strong reasons for what they do, and a strong sense of fairness. A boundary they helped design is one they are far more likely to keep.
FOR PROFESSIONALSFor clinicians, educators, and practitioners
The neurodivergent young people on your caseload are disproportionately represented in conversations about problematic technology use — and disproportionately misunderstood within them. Behaviour that is framed as oppositional is often dysregulation, sensory need, or distress at transition. Gaming framed as addiction is sometimes the child's only accessible source of mastery and social belonging.
The Not Broken framework — behaviour as communication, connection before correction, regulation before conversation — is not a separate model for neurodivergent children. It is the same approach, applied with greater care, more individualisation, and a deeper respect for the function technology serves in a given child's life.
Not Broken offers practitioner-facing resources and training that integrate neurodivergence-affirming practice with the developmental and behavioural evidence base. If this is relevant to your work or your service, we would value the conversation.
Wherever you're starting from, you don't have to work it out alone.
Explore the free parent guide, the wider research base, or get in touch to talk about support for your family or your service.