Understanding Neurodiversity in Mathematics

Traditional classrooms are shaped around narrow expectations of how students should learn, such as:

• working quickly,

• following directions easily,

• organizing information independently,

• communicating in expected ways,

• and demonstrating understanding through a limited set of behaviors.

When students struggle to meet these expectations, the difficulty is often interpreted as a lack of ability, motivation, or effort. However, many students are struggling because the classroom itself contains barriers that interfere with access, not because they are incapable of understanding mathematics. 

This section explores how neurodiversity intersects with math education and how classroom norms can shape students’ experiences, participation, confidence, and mathematical identity.

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Neurodiversity is the idea that differences in how people think, learn, process information, communicate, and experience the world are part of natural human variation rather than simply deficits to be corrected.

Neurodivergent students may experience differences related to:

• attention,

• executive functioning,

• language processing,

• sensory processing,

• communication,

• working memory,

• or information processing.

These differences can create barriers within classroom environments that designed around narrow expectations of "normal" learning and success.

At the same time, neurodivergent students may also bring important strengths, perspectives, and ways of thinking into mathematics classrooms.

Also note that neurodiversity is not one single experience. Two students with the same diagnosis may experience mathematics very differently depending on: 

• the environment,

• sensory demands,

• communication expectations,

• instructional design,

• support systems,

• and previous experiences in school. 

Many classrooms (and society in general) unintentionally define mathematical ability through:

• speed,

• neatness,

• memorization,

• organization,

• verbal participation,

• and procedural accuracy.

However, these are not the only ways for students to demonstrate their ability.

A student may deeply understand mathematical ideas while simultaneously struggling with:

• decoding,

• executive functioning,

• working memory,

• sensory regulation,

• or communication expectations. 

When classrooms narrowly define what counts as success, students may begin confusing:

difficulty accessing mathematics

with

inability to do mathematics.

This disconnect means that small classroom experiences can shape a student's identity over time. Students will use those experiences to justify whether they are seen as capable in mathematics. 

Many barriers in mathematics classrooms are invisible because they are so normalized that the often appear unavoidable, yet many of them actually reflect design choices rather than necessities.

Students may be expected to:

• process information quickly,

• interpret ambiguous directions,

• manage multiple cognitive demands simultaneously,

• organize complex tasks independently,

• and participate in specific ways.

For some students, these expectations feel intuitive. For others, they create significant barriers before reasoning can even begin:

• A student may have strong proportional reasoning but struggle to explain their solution to a mixture problem during a whole-class discussion.

• A student may spend so much energy decoding a word problem that little cognitive energy remains for solving it. 

• A student may answer a question differently because they interpreted the wording literally. 

These moments can easily be interpreted as: 

• lack of effort,

• carelessness,

• disengagement,

• or inability.

However, sometimes they reveal a mismatch between the student and the environment rather than laziness, carelessness, or inability. 

Discussions about neurodivergence in education (and medical spaces) often focus heavily on deficits and interventions.

While support is important, students are more than:

• accommodation plans,

• behaviors,

• processing difficulties,

• or diagnostic labels.

Neurodivergent students may demonstrate strengths in:

• pattern recognition,

• systems thinking,

• creativity,

• persistence,

• detail-oriented thinking,

• flexible problem-solving,

• and deep conceptual understanding.

With that being said, students should still receive support for the challenges they face. However, we can also utilize student strengths as an asset to the classroom. We should not let a student be described solely by a list of chalenges. Our goal is to think more critically about how classrooms can better support different ways of thinking and learning while also recognizing the assets neurodivergent students bring into mathematics. 

Many classroom norms are built around invisible assumptions such as: 

• fast processing = understanding,

• participation = speaking up in class,

• independence = capability,

• silence = disengagement,

• struggle = lack of effort. 

These assumptions often privilege students whose brains already naturally align with those traditional values. In rethinking math classrooms, we should not simply lower expectations. 

Instead, we should ask: 

What are we actually measuring?

And:

Who gets to be successful in our classrooms?

Students remember way more than just content. They remember: 

• whether they felt capable,

• whether their thinking was valued,

• whether they felt safe participating,

• and whether they believed they belonged in mathematics.

When classrooms repeatedly position students as "behind," "careless," or "not trying," those messages begin to shape their identity. However, students also remember when someone trusted in their thinking before there was proof. Creating more accessible math classrooms is about improving achievement and expanding who gets to see themselves as capable of doing mathematics.