Indispensable People
Making the Gospel Accessible to people of ALL abilities so that they may know Christ, grow in Him, and serve Him with the gifts He has given them.
Indispensable People
When Impulsivity Meets Structure: The "AuADHD" Challenge
The gap is staggering—25% of Americans have disabilities, yet 80% of them never cross the threshold of our churches. In this thought-provoking exploration of neurodevelopmental conditions, host Tracy Correll unpacks the complex characteristics of ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, and the fascinating paradox that emerges when both conditions occur simultaneously in an individual.
We begin by examining ADHD's hallmark features of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity, diving into how these manifest in social interactions, emotional regulation, and cognitive processing. Then we shift to autism's distinct presentation of social communication challenges and restricted, repetitive behaviors, highlighting the importance of routine and structure for those on the spectrum. But perhaps most illuminating is our discussion of what some call "AuADHD"—the concurrent presence of both conditions that creates seemingly contradictory needs within the same person. How can someone simultaneously require rigid structure while thriving on impulsive flexibility?
Beyond the clinical definitions lies the heart of this episode: the reminder that knowing the individual transcends any diagnostic label. Tracie encourages listeners to engage with neurodivergent individuals through trial and error, emphasizing that imperfect attempts at inclusion demonstrate more care than avoidance out of fear of making mistakes. The goal isn't flawless implementation but persistent love that creates pathways for everyone to experience spiritual growth and community belonging.
Ready to transform how your faith community welcomes those with neurodevelopmental conditions? Discover more resources at indispensable-people.com and through Tracy's books "The Indispensable Kid" and "Gospel, Accessibility and the Indispensable People," available on Amazon.
Hi, my name is Tracy Correll and welcome to Indispensable People. I'm a wife, mom, teacher, pastor and missionary, and I believe that every person should have the opportunity to know Christ, grow in Him and serve Him with the gifts that he has given, no matter their ability. Over 65 million Americans have a disability. That's 25% of the population. However, over 80% of them are not inside the walls of our church. Let's dive into those hard topics biblical foundations, perceptions and welcome to this episode of Indispensable People.
Speaker 1:Today we're talking ADHD, autism and the mix of both. What does it look like? How does it impact what we do, the interactions, what is the person who is impacted by those disabilities going through, and how can we come alongside them, especially as the church, to support and accommodate as we minister? So, first of all, let's dive into definitions. Into definitions, right.
Speaker 1:Adhd is known as it's kind of key symptoms, as inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity, some social skill things that we need to be aware of when it comes to ADHD is that social difficulties can occur, but they're really secondary to attention and executive functioning issues. Also, we want to think about restricted interest as it comes to ADHD. It's less common to have restricted interest in ADHD than it is in autism, and so they might have focused interest, or a word that is often used now is a hyper interest. We want to think about emotional regulation they can have. Individuals with ADHD can have some emotional dysregulation. If you can imagine a brain that's moving super fast trying to process feelings and emotions, things that they're working through. That can have some difficulty. As it comes to the cognitive profile, we want to consider that those with ADHD might struggle with sustained attention, working memory and cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility Some diagnostic criteria for ADHD primarily focuses on inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity, and some subtypes within that are inattention, hyperactive and impulsive combined. So kind of the same things that I just said. Treatment for ADHD often involves medication or behavioral therapy and other educational supports when considering the schools.
Speaker 1:Now let's dive into autism, where we can see key symptoms as social communication deficits, restricted and repetitive behaviors. Restricted and repetitive behaviors when we talk about social skills within the autism spectrum disorder, we want to know that there are core deficits in social reciprocity, understanding social cues and engaging in back and forth interactions. Restricted interest there might be intense, focused interest. Routines are very common. We want to consider that when it's emotional regulation, they may have difficulties with emotional regulation. Again, if you have rigid thinking or structured thinking and something comes outside of that structured thinking, which emotional type things don't typically follow along the lines of, you know a structure, and so that's going to have some difficulties within it, we want to consider when it comes to the cognitive profile that they may exhibit, you know, some exceptional attention to detail, might have some visual spatial skills and pattern recognition, sometimes leading to savant type abilities, or, you know, just a higher intelligence in certain areas. Again, all of these descriptors are not specific to every single person with ADHD or autism. It is varied among those individuals. So the basic diagnostic criteria that is focused on when considering autism is social communication deficits, restricted interest and repetitive behaviors. So the symptoms and the diagnostic criteria match up. So, when it comes to treatment of those with autism, you're going to see those individuals likely to participate in behavioral therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy and, in a school setting, receiving educational supports.
Speaker 1:So here's the next interesting piece, and this is something I've been seeing more of and reading about more of recently, and that is the Audi ADHD I know I'm saying it funny and weird and autism. It's autism and ADHD, um concurrence. And recently I saw a video and it was kind of like a group therapy setup. Of course it was fake and and pretending, um, but it introduced okay, this is the ADHD group, this is the autism group. And now we have a new member and it's the Audi ADHD. You know, um, and basically the, the interactive person, the counselor, the therapist, whatever um says.
Speaker 1:Okay, these are the characters of AD, characteristics of ADHD, these are the characteristics of autism. Which one do you lean more towards? And the crazy hard part is because the one person with ADHD of course, doesn't necessarily thrive on. They're kind of going with their impulses and their actions and thoughts. And then the person with ADHD or autism I person with autism is focused on structure and routine and schedules, and so the person in this video who has both says actually I need both simultaneously, which sounds absolutely impossible, right? So let's go through some characteristics and some things that the person with autism and ADHD both look like.
Speaker 1:So the key characteristics are the individuals with auto ADHD experience a combination of symptoms, both ADHD and autism spectrum disorder Great definition that I just found right. It's just going to just puts it right, lays it all on the line. Absolutely not. But then it indicates that when it considers social interactions. They can have both difficulties with reciprocity and challenges with attention and executive function in social situations. So if you can only imagine, first of all I struggle with having conversation back and forth with you, but then I also struggle with staying attentive and on task while I'm doing it Sounds very, very difficult. So when it comes to interest, they may have intense interest in routines, interest and routines, but also struggle with shifting focus or adapting to change. So when they begin to hyper focus, it's going to be very difficult to move them on to the next thing. Transitions will probably be very difficult within that context. When it comes to restricted interests, those interests, again, it's gonna be the shifting the focus or adapting to change.
Speaker 1:The structured piece is going to have the biggest impact. When it comes to emotional regulation, they can experience significant emotional dysregulation. And if you can only imagine right, a brain that desires structures, routines, things in order, added to a brain that is impulsive and interactive, and then try to sort through your emotions within that, the difficulty is immense. So the emotional regulation becomes just a huge challenge. When it comes to the cognitive profile of an individual with both ADHD and autism, they're going to exhibit a mixed strength, of strengths and challenges related to both ADHD and autism. Again, that's gonna be an instance where you get to interact with the individual person and really see their individuality and what that diagnosis might mean for all of those different things. So it's really a personal getting to know. That is going to give you the true picture into that individual.
Speaker 1:And when it comes to diagnosing these types of things, it's really a huge challenge because one diagnosis makes the other one more difficult and they may require some specialized assessments as they go. And the treatment of those things is they're gonna have a combination of interventions both for the ADHD and autism and they're going to address those within that individual and the needs that they have. Again, it's going to become more individual specific. So, although ADHD and autism are separate neurodevelopmental disorders, they definitely share some symptoms and both conditions can affect attention spans and communication, but there are key differences between them and whenever they are combined it definitely compounds the issues.
Speaker 1:So it is a complex consideration that I would say even therapists, behavior specialists, educators those who are much more readily interactive have been learning about this, have been taught about this are going to struggle to some extent to figure out, simply because it's just not. It's going to be individual, specific and it is really combining some characteristics of each thing that are completely opposite. So we want to consider those things within the individual and, again, I can never tell you enough definitions, enough recommendations that will be more important than getting to know the person. Getting to know the person is going to give you the direction that you need and sometimes it's gonna come with trial and error of how to support that person and some things will work and some things won't work, and I would say that you are better off for trying than to not try at all. We won't get it all right all the time and that's okay. The love and respect that we have for each individual to try, even if we might get it wrong, is going to be more caring and loving and including and purposeful, and all of that wrapped into one, than we'll ever get from a label, a diagnosis, a definition of any site. So we just want to make sure that we are supporting that person in the way that they need. That's going to be the most important thing Individual, caring, loving, open doors, willing to go through the hard stuff not always getting it right to make the gospel accessible so that every person can know, grow and serve him.
Speaker 1:Do I know everything about disability ministry? Do I have all the answers? Have I done everything perfectly? I have absolutely not, but we are going to continue this conversation so that people of all abilities can have the opportunity to know Christ, grow in him and serve him with the gifts that he has given them and serve him with the gifts that he has given them. For deeper dives into these topics and more, check out indispensablepeoplecom and visit Amazon to purchase the books the Indispensable Kid and Gospel, accessibility and the Indispensable People.
